Jacob Wiley’s path to the NBL and beyond was anything but straightforward.
Long before he became a fan favourite in Adelaide and carved out a professional career across the globe, Wiley was forced to grow up quickly through personal tragedy, uncertainty and setbacks that nearly pushed him away from basketball altogether.
The former Adelaide 36ers import appeared on Episode 7 of NBL: Alumni, where former imports share stories from their time in Australia.
Speaking to Fox Sports Australia just hours after a game in Puerto Rico’s BSN league, where he currently plays for Santeros de Aguada, Wiley reflected on the winding journey that shaped both his career and his life.
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Now 31, Wiley spent two stints with the 36ers during the 2018-19 and 2023-24 NBL seasons. But there was a point where a professional basketball career seemed highly unlikely.
LEARNING LIFE AWAY FROM BASKETBALL
After a difficult freshman season with the Montana Grizzlies, capped by an 81-34 loss to Syracuse in the NCAA Tournament on March 21, 2013, Wiley walked away from the game entirely.
“I played in the NCAA tournament as a freshman against Syracuse. We lost. It was the biggest deficit loss in NCAA tournament history. It’s a true story,” he said.
“I was our leading scorer on the team with five points and I quit basketball the next day so I could run track and play football because I said this, ‘this is not for me’. This is not worth it.”
Before eventually joining Lewis-Clark State College, where his basketball career reignited, Wiley spent a year pursuing his passion for American football and track and field, sports that ran deep in his family.
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“I was good at football and I was good at running track. And that’s just how my mind worked at the time. I just wanted to experience everything I could experience as an athlete, you know,” he said.
Wiley especially loved the 400 metres, admitting the brutal event suited his personality.
“I’m the type of idiot that loves to suffer. So I loved running the 400 metres,” he said.
“My dad was a really good 400m runner. My grandpa was a runner. I was just always really good at that race for that reason, because I could just suffer. And anyone who’s ran that race knows it’s literally, in my opinion, the hardest physical event.”
Stepping away from basketball also exposed Wiley to life outside sport.
“I started living real life. After I quit basketball and came back to school, I had to take out loans. I was working a job as a dishwasher. I was washing dishes, I was doing odd jobs just to feed myself. I was running track, trying to do the football thing and just almost living like a normal student and everybody,” he said.
“There’s a lot of criticism and judgment, but for me, I always just live my life on my terms and I never had really guidance, no one ever really told me what to do.
“I did what I felt at the time. I was 17 going into college. I was a kid, you know. My father had just passed a couple of years prior and he was really the guy that was in my ear. After he passed, all the guidance I had was gone as far as sports and that went.”
“But it was a blessing at the same time because I was allowed the freedom to explore these things. So when I came back to basketball, all that was out of my system. I’m like, ‘I don’t want to go back to suffering running the 400 meters’. That gets old after a while.”
After a year away from the game, Wiley returned to basketball at Lewis-Clark State College, where he played from 2014 to 2016. The decision transformed his future.
He averaged 14.8 points and 7.5 rebounds across 62 games, earning All-Conference honours, First-Team All-American recognition and helping the school claim its first ever National Championship.
THE LETTER THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING
Yet the biggest influence on his resurgence came from a handwritten letter left by his late father.
Wiley’s father passed away following a battle with alcoholism, and Wiley was the one who found him. Among his most treasured possessions is a note written by his father predicting he would become a “20 and 10 guy”.
Years later, after transferring to Eastern Washington, Wiley fulfilled that prediction.
“He told me ‘you’re gonna be a 20 and 10 guy’. I actually just sent this to my mum the other day. It’s the last thing he ever wrote to me.”
“I think that’s very important because he planted that seed in my mind that was somebody I could be. And I wanted to almost fulfil that prophecy for him. And I think it was subconscious in a way. I would say that’s where it started.”
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Wiley granted Fox Sports Australia permission to publish the letter, which remains a source of motivation in his life and career.
‘Hi Jake,
Just wanted to say hi, how r u doing? I’m doing really good. I am going to my AA meetings and my therapy with a counsellor.
Just like Jerry Garcia said “I will get by”, “I will survive”. I love you man. We have to talk. I’m coming over and will go fishing.
I am sorry about the last fiasco with me, I can’t be drinking anymore. I black out and don’t remember anything. I don’t remember anything that night.
I need your support and I know you do. I am going to job training as soon as my knee will let me get my s*** going.
But I need to talk to you. I love you very much. You’re all I have as family goes. Please forgive me and support me. Hope your basketball team did good.
You’ll be a 20 and 10 guy this year, love Dad’
The prediction became reality.
During his lone season at Eastern Washington in 2016-17, Wiley averaged 20.4 points and 9.1 rebounds while shooting 64.3 per cent from the field. He was named Big Sky Conference Player of the Year and suddenly found himself on the NBA radar.
“It started with just the belief from the one person who knew me the most. You can’t play like that or have a season like that if you don’t absolutely wholeheartedly believe you can be that player first and foremost, like you have to, you don’t just accidentally become that, and so it started there,” he said.
“By the time I got to Eastern Washington, my last season, it was the combination of really like two years of intense hard work, like believing I could be this person that my Dad always wanted me to be, believe that I could be. I felt like I kind of let everyone down when I walked away from basketball. I said, I got one year, one shot, one opportunity at this.”
AUSTRALIA ENTERS THE PICTURE
Wiley’s first taste of Australia actually came before his breakout season.
Eastern Washington toured Australia in August 2016, facing NBL clubs including the Sydney Kings, Cairns Taipans and Nunawading Spectres. One performance in particular opened eyes.
“Before the season, we go on an international tour and we’re playing NBL teams. And so the first team we play is Sydney Kings. They had Jason Cadee. And he remembers this and I had 20-something against the Sydney Kings. And everyone’s kind of like, ‘who is this guy?’”
The experience also introduced him to lifelong friendships with several Australian teammates, including Melbourne product and former NBL champion Felix Von Hofe.
“We are all really close to this day and that’s what’s so special about that group of guys and my Aussie brothers, man.”
After going undrafted in 2017, Wiley earned a two-way contract with the Brooklyn Nets following Summer League. He made his NBA debut later that year before eventually finding a longer-term opportunity overseas.
That opportunity arrived through Adelaide and legendary coach Joey Wright.
“Joey Wright recruited me at Summer League going into my second season. And for me it was just a no-brainer,” he said.
“I owe him my whole career, man like he believed in me and saw something in me when no one else did.
“No disrespect to any other coach, but it’s just about the timing and who I was as a player when he coached me. I was not a pro at all. And Joey got me. He turned me into a pro.”
“He is a master manipulator in a good way. He manipulated the best basketball out of me and he worked with me and still to this day, you know, we have a great relationship.”
Wiley’s first season in Adelaide proved successful, averaging 12.3 points and 4.9 rebounds before Greek powerhouse Panathinaikos bought out his contract midway through an extension agreement.
“So I actually extended during the season but Panathinaikos bought me right out of that contract. So they paid Adelaide a nice sum so that everybody could be happy.”
“It was a path and I guess was an opportunity I just could not turn down.”
ADELAIDE RETURN AND FRUSTRATIONS DURING THE 2023-2024 SEASON
After stops across Europe and Puerto Rico, Wiley returned to Adelaide for the 2023-24 season under coach CJ Bruton.
While grateful for the opportunity, he admitted concerns emerged before the season even began.
“Everyone can agree on this one. I remember there was a press conference that our coach C.J. Bruton did right before the season where they announced we were going to sign an 18-year-old Next Star to be our starting point guard. I knew that from that day on the season was going to forever be changed,” he said.
Despite expressing respect for Trentyn Flowers, Wiley believed the decision created tension within the group.
“I got a lot of respect for Trent. First of all, coming in as an 18-year-old kid to a professional league like this in an English speaking country.”
“When you go play in Greece or something, you don’t really know or understand everything that’s being said about you, but you come to Australia and you’re going to see and hear your name in English.”
“The effect that can have on a mind of someone that young, you know what I’m saying? So to bring in a player who is 18 and say ‘Hey, this is going to be the leader of our franchise and our point guard.’ It caused a lot of tension within our team, with our veteran guards and members of our staff and players.”
“We were trying to be a solid team early on. How much time do we have to develop and how much patience? It was tough. And so from day one, it just seemed like the chemistry, the trust and our locker room was already kind of divided.”
Wiley also questioned the reduced roles given to veterans such as Mitch McCarron and Jason Cadee.
“We had really good players, man. We had someone like Mitch McCarron, guys like Jason Cadee. We had solid guys who could have really helped us, but they were kind of put on the back burner.”
“At one point in the season, they were told they couldn’t play at all. Which was crazy. So yeah, you got to think if the veterans and the leaders of your team are already being compromised from day one, it’s going to be hard to have a successful season.”
Despite the frustrations, Wiley spoke glowingly of teammates including Nick Marshall, who has since joined the Tasmania JackJumpers.
“That’s my dog. That’s my brother, man.”
“He’s an excellent player, an excellent person, an extremely hard worker. I wish people could understand how hard this guy works. I mean, I’m a psycho and I look at him like, ‘yo, you got to chill out, bro.’”
“His success this last season is not any surprise to me at all.”
THE FLIGHT THAT LEFT HIM FEARING FOR HIS LIFE
The most difficult moment of Wiley’s second Adelaide stint, however, came during a flight home from Perth after suffering a severe bout of gastro.
He alleges the medical emergency left him fearing for his life.
“I thought I was going to die on the plane. A doctor stopped the plane from taking off and was screaming and they had to wheel me, they had to bring an ambulance.”
“They stopped the plane right before it was going take off. The last thing I remember was the doctor screaming, ‘he’s gonna die, get him off this flight.’”
“But the problem was there was no response from any of our team who was on the flight and the only person that responded was Jared ‘Jazzy’ Campbell, the team manager, longtime manager, 20 plus years of Adelaide.”
“Shout out to my man Jazzy. He got off that plane with me and into that ambulance and stayed at the hospital with me overnight.”
Wiley later vented his frustrations publicly after not receiving what he felt was adequate communication from the club following the season.
“I signed a two-year deal with a mutual option. After the season, I went to play in Spain and I didn’t hear anything from anyone.”
“All of a sudden I’m getting all these calls saying, ‘man, thank you’, ‘sorry’ that made it seem like I was the one who decided to part ways.”
“I got pissed, man. I got emotional. I said, ‘you know what? people don’t even know how hard this season was, what we went through, what I personally went through.’ The least I could get was a phone call.”
At the time, Adelaide chief executive Nic Barbato told CODE Sports the club acted quickly once the seriousness of the situation became apparent.
“As soon as we knew how serious the situation (with Wiley) was, club officials raised the alarm and we got him off the plane and took him straight to the hospital,” Barbato said.
“The team manager stayed with him in Perth at the hospital.”
NO GRUDGES AND AN NBL RETURN ON THE HORIZON
Despite everything, Wiley insists there is no bitterness towards Adelaide.
“I’m not the type of person to hold grudges. I know why I love Adelaide. I know what Adelaide means to me.”
“And it doesn’t have nothing to do with the front office or any of them. It’s the people like Jazzy who got off that plane with me and showed me nothing but love and understanding. And it’s people like my teammates that I still keep up with to this day, family members. We had children born there. I started my career there. People like mentors like Joey Wright. It’s way bigger than just some management difficulties.”
And while his career has taken him around the world, Wiley hasn’t ruled out another chapter in Australia.
In fact, he hopes one is just around the corner.
“I’m definitely open to a return. Been battling a lot of NBL guys over here in Puerto Rico, so that’s been great. And the seasons line up perfectly. So yeah, I feel like if there’s an NBL club out there or anybody seeing this, man, I’m definitely keen and definitely aware of what’s going on in the league.”
“Obviously it would have to be the right situation and jive for everybody. But man, for me, I would love, love, love, love the return.”