By Lance Jenkinson
Entering the NBA at age 18, one of the biggest challenges for former Keilor Thunder junior Dante Exum will be developing from a boy into a man.
His selection last week by the Utah Jazz with pick five at the 2014 NBA Draft created a national stir.
The supremely talented combo guard will aim to form a lethal backcourt combination with Trey Burke, who the Jazz drafted in the top 10 last season.
Utah is a young up-and-coming team, viewed as a solid landing spot for a raw Exum to grow into a man’s body.
The athletic 18-year-old from Seabrook already stands at six-foot-six and is viewed as an elite playmaker with great defensive reach.
Exum was dubbed the ‘‘international man of mystery’’ by the US press after opting not to go through the college basketball system,
trailing a different path to fellow Australians in the big league, including former No.1 pick Andrew Bogut, NBA champion Patty Mills and the rising Aron Baynes and Matthew Dellavedova.
After stints in the junior ranks with the Werribee Devils and Keilor Thunder, Exum went on to do an apprenticeship at the Australian Institute of Sport and is now keen to shed the mystery tag.
“I’m just a kid from Melbourne, Australia, and I always represent my country,” Exum told ESPN after hearing his name read out by NBA commissioner Adam Silver.
“I guess now I just got drafted I’m not a mystery any more.”
Exum is the son of former NBL star
Cecil Exum.
Cecil was part of a Michael Jordan-led North Carolina team that went on to win the 1982 college national championship.
Two years later Cecil was drafted by the Denver Nuggets but would eventually find his way Down Under and have a noteworthy career in the NBL with the North Melbourne Giants, Melbourne Tigers and Geelong Supercats.
While Cecil launched his career in college, he instructed his son take a different route.
“He [Dante] said he always wanted to be one year [in college basketball] and then done, and I said maybe you should strike while the iron is hot,” Cecil told the host draft broadcaster.
“We just wanted to make sure he focused and worked hard towards his goal.”
That iron was scorching hot after Exum represented Australia at last year’s FIBA U19 world championships.
Exum averaged 18.2 points per game and stood out against the best players in the world in his age group to be named in the All-World First Team.
An outstanding showing against Spain – including 33 points, three three-pointers and 12-from-13 from the free-throw line – confirmed in the minds of many scouts that Exum has a special future in the game.
He’s thrilled to have landed at the Jazz and will relish the chance to play alongside Burke in one of the NBA’s most young but exciting backcourt tandems. He says it reminds him of the set-up within the Australian Boomers squad, which he will be a part of at future Olympic Games. “You look at our Australian team and we’ve got Patty Mills and Matthew Dellavedova and I’m looking forward to playing with another guard,” Exum said.
The due diligence undertaken by NBA scouts suggests Exum exudes maturity beyond his young years and will have no problem keeping his feet on the ground.
But even Exum acknowledges he has a lot to learn and is willing to do whatever it takes to get up to speed.
“It will be a good experience for me
and I’m looking to go into the system
and learn.”
