NOT YOUR AVERAGE JOE

“WEWANTTOPLAY,NOT ONLY FOR AUSTRALIA, BUT FOR EACH OTHER ”

It’s a crisp, clear morning in Sydney’s East Hills as Joe Ingles takes in the pristine new surface and glass backboards of a revamped suburban basketball court Ingles seems a little stunned at the state-of-the-art facilities – courtesy of Bridgestone’s ‘Chase Your Dream’ initiative – so superior are they to the courts he grew up on

“I remember my local park in Adelaide had a broken wooden backboard with a little hoop screwed in on top,” says Ingles, who’s in town ahead of this month’s FIBA World Cup. Not that the shoddiness of the court would have stopped him playing. “As a kid you’re obviously going to run around and play wherever,”