Mitch Creek: The grind from Horsham to FIBA Asia Cup champion and beyond

VICTORIA (Australia) - Basketball players talk a lot about living "the grind". They detail the hardships one goes through, physically and mentally, in order to be among the best on the hardwood. Mitch Creek might not like to say it, but he is definitely someone who has grinded his way through to becoming one of the best players out there.

Excellence as an Emu

Horsham is a regional city with a population of around 16,000, known for being named Australia’s Tidiest Town in 2001 rather than producing basketball players. Nonetheless, it is where Creek was born, raised, and eventually started making a name for himself.

"I have always said he is one of the best athletes I have ever seen in Horsham," said Owen Hughan, a coach familiar with Creek from Horsham as per Mail-Times.

Creek excelled in U18 state championships and eventually got his first crack at the international competition, playing for the Emus - Australia’s U19 team - at the Albert Schweitzer Tournament in 2010. In his international debut, he was named the tournament MVP.

A year later, Creek was playing for the Emus once again in Latvia at the U19 World Cup. He impressed yet again with a solid performance for the 6^th-placed squad. The rugged forward finished among the top three in scoring (14.4 points per game) and assists (2.6 assists per game) on the team and led them in rebounding (6.9 rebounds per game) as well.

Though he seemed to be on the fast track becoming a big-time star for the Boomers, it did not come immediately. Creek had to put in the time and the elbow grease - lots of it - before he would eventually get to wear the Green and Gold once again.

Breaking Through and Becoming a Boomer

He had to rise through the ranks to become a rising star in the NBL. He battled back from a ruptured Achilles in 2012. He sat through a stress fracture in his right foot in 2016, only shortly after being named the team captain.

Then it all started to come together.

Creek was invited to participate in the Las Vegas Summer League in 2017 for the Utah Jazz. He performed well enough to get plenty of compliments about his effort, how he played, and how he communicated. It didn’t lead to his chance in the NBA right then and there, but it assured him that he was on the right path.

Only a few months later, Creek got another golden opportunity. He was called up to be a featured part of the Boomers at the FIBA Asia Cup 2017 in Lebanon. It was his first time playing at such a big event for the senior national team and he certainly didn’t disappoint.

Creek was easily one of the top players for the Boomers, if not of the entire competition. Over six games, he boasted averages of 14.7 points and 5.2 rebounds on an uber-efficient 68.5 percent shooting from the field. He was the only player to score in double-digits all the way to winning the title.

The Grind Never Stops

"A lot of people said that I was never going to be good enough," Creek told ESPN Australia’s Warren Yiu in 2018. "I couldn't do this. I couldn't do that."

Now that he was starting to show that he was indeed “good enough”, Creek kept on going.

Over the next two years from that FIBA Asia Cup triumph, Creek went back to grinding as hard as ever. It resulted in one of the most successful stretches a basketball player could hope for.

He was named to the All-NBL Second Team for the first time in the 2017-2018 season. Then, he made the leap to play professionally abroad for the first time in Germany. From there, Creek went through the NBA G-League with the Long Island Nets. That allowed his dreams to come true when the Brooklyn Nets called him up for his NBA Debut in 2019.

In between that span playing professionally at the highest level, Creek maintained his spot as a key piece for the Boomers. He played six games for them during the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Qualifiers, averaging 14.0 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 2.7 assists per game.

All of that was enough to eventually convince Australia’s coaching staff to put him in for the ride through the FIBA Basketball  World Cup 2019.

“I look at it as an absolute blessing, I got to play in a World Cup team and contribute. To be called upon in certain situations whether it be for ten seconds or ten minutes or thirty minutes, I was thankful. I was very, very fortunate to be a part of that and it’s something I’ll always remember and cherish forever,” Creek told The Pick and Roll.

Why go through all of it?

The journey has obviously been exhausting for Creek, physically and mentally.

"I had nothing in the tank,” Creek also told The Pick and Roll in 2019 prior to the World  Cup.

His time playing in the G-League was not all glitz and glamour by professional basketball playing standards, but he got through it because, for him, this wasn’t a grind at all.

"I literally say to people, 'This is a grind for you? If we were digging holes and shoveling crap on a farm somewhere and doing 14-hour days, you could complain about the grind'," Creek said, as told by ESPN.

For Creek, all he wants to do is just play the game he loves at the highest level that he can every time he steps on the court. He doesn’t want to have any regrets.

"I just never wanted to be a guy that is 50 years old with a beer on my belly on a dock somewhere near a lake going, 'man, I wish I'd taken that chance. Maybe if I'd done this, maybe if I'd done that.'" Creek said, as per nba.com.

The grind, despite Creek saying it isn’t a grind, is all for the love of the game.

"If I didn’t get paid a cent to play, I’d do it every day," Creek said, as told by The Pick and Roll. "I love it, I don’t know what I’d do or where I’d be without it so I’m very fortunate to be able to play the game of basketball with great people."

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