Prather's new lease on life

Thursday, December 12, 2024

"I was sitting there talking to my wife about how we were thinking about hanging it up."

It was only two years ago when a consistent knee injury had Casey Prather’s playing career hanging in the balance.

“I was sitting there talking to my wife about how we were thinking about hanging it up,” he said on NBL Now.

“She didn’t really want to see me get hurt like that again and I didn’t want to be on the floor like that asking random people for help.”

Fast forward to now and Prather is one of the hottest players in the league. While his Bullets team is coming off their best round of the season, the 33-year-old is averaging over 30 points in his last three games, shooting over 70 per cent from the floor.

“I feel blessed to be honest,” he said.

“It’s been a long, tough season of just trying to get back to playing well and doing my thing to help get some wins.”

On Sunday, Brisbane travelled to John Cain Arena and had arguably their best performance in many years, scoring 122 points and silencing the ladder-leading Melbourne United.

In that game, the Bullets had four players score over 25 points, with Prather, Keandre Cook, Tyrell Harrison and James Batemon all filling it up.

“To be honest, I’ve never been on a team where we did something like that,” Prather said.

“I knew we could do it ... but that stuff never happens. I was in the game playing, but I also felt like a fan, being able to watch everybody go crazy like that.”

As Prather continues to build on his recent form, it’s hard for him not to reflect back on the last few years and everything he has been through. Yet in that time he found a new outlook on life, getting married to his wife Ariana and welcoming his first child.

“Being a dad and a husband, that’s probably the best thing that I could ever have happen to me in my life,” Prather said.

“It makes basketball in my day-to-day life so much easier, when you have a family to come back home to.

“Once I’m playing basketball, that’s the easy part. Because I’m still thinking in my head about when I can get home to my little fella and take care of him and see that smile.”