Young King taking the road less travelled

The new wave of emerging basketball talent in the NBL goes far beyond the Next Stars program, and the batch of NBA-calibre talent at the Sydney Kings extends beyond draft hopeful Alex Toohey.

Jaylin Galloway has earned recent praise for his performances since coming back from injury, and NBL analyst Liam Santamaria has even floated the potential for the emerging star to earn a 10-day contract should he continue his form.

Even beyond that pair of stars, the Kings have a third high-level prospect in development player Klairus Amir, who has taken the road less travelled to kickstart his professional career.

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The 18-year-old became the youngest player to sign a multi-year deal in the history of the Kings’ organisation when he signed on in pre-season. The 6’7” wing will remain a development player next season before elevating to a full roster spot in NBL26.

When you hear the Sydney-born starlet speak though, you wouldn’t expect he is Australian born and raised, and that’s because Amir elected to complete his high-schooling in the United States.

“I made the move around 2019, 2018. Growing up I played all my junior years here in Sydney but went there for about four or five years and I did all my high school over there. The Sydney Kings came over and offered and I had to say yes,” Amir told SEN.

“I was in Atlanta and they don’t see many Australians out there, so me coming in fresh off the plane took a little bit. They had never seen Australians play so it was a little bit of time where it was like ‘can he run with us, is he good enough?’ it took a little bit and I had to prove myself – which I did.

“America, as much as I love it, they have big egos over there ‘we’re USA, we’re number one’. They’d seen Australia had done a few things but they still didn’t think Australia was there.

“I was over there a few months ago and the respect for Australian basketball has gone up so much. A lot of guys of my friends – Trentyn Flowers, I played with him for a while, Bobi Klintman, I know him – those guys have seen how good the development is and how good the basketball in Australia is, so there’s a lot more respect now.”

When Amir made the move to America he, like hundreds of others, wanted to transition out of high school into high level collegiate hoops, but the emergence of the NBL as a genuine NBA pathway turned his head and allowed him to come home.

Amir was ranked as a four-star recruit by ESPN when he signed for the Kings, and he had a wave of high-profile colleges chasing his commitment.

While playing high school basketball he rose as high as 16^th on ESPN’s rankings for the 2024 draft class.

“When I first got there my dream was to play D1 college ball, that was the main focus over there. The NBL was in mind a little bit but it was ‘college, college’,” he continued.

“I had University of Arkansas, Geroge Mason, San Diego, Providence, those are some of the schools I was talking to the most. Having to choose here over there, at first I was a little ‘err’ on it, but seeing guys like LaMelo Ball and RJ Hampton coming out of this league made me think it wasn’t such a bad idea to play against grown men.

“I felt like over in the NBL you have guys like Shaun Bruce, Jaylen Adams, Denzel (Valentine), having guys like them who’ve been in that NBA - that’s obviously the goal.

“Having guys like that around helps my mindset and my work ethic. Coming here and being around those guys was the best decision.”

The Kings will play New Zealand tonight at 5:30pm AEDT, live on ESPN via Kayo and Sky Sport in NZ.