A scant three years ago today, back when Australian basketball’s forgotten man Dante Exum — aka Kangaroo Kobe — played basketball instead of just Call of Duty, the Aussie point god was in his rookie year and tearing up the NBA, starting his 12th ever NBA game for his Utah Jazz!
That’s right, the Seabrook Sensation was slowly getting used to the pace of the NBA — instead of the pace of Tarneit’s Thomas Carr College — and showed off all of his multitudinous skills in a big win over the Sacramento Kings in a display tastier than the bottom of a packet of Burger Rings.
Sure, Dante’s Peak only exploded for 5 points, but just like his namesake, Kangaroo Kobe smartly only took 5 shots, content instead to go into facilitator mode, setting up his teammates and dominate in every other aspect of the game.
And, ok, sure, that only amounted to 4 assists, 2 rebounds and 2 steals, but those 4 dimes were so pretty they each got hit-on via instagram by Shane Warne, while the 2 boards were sniped better than Dante on CoD’s Moon Map, and the steals were so expertly executed that he was belatedly added using CGI to ‘Ocean’s 11’.
Not only that, he was stymied by the mongrel refs calling 4 fouls on him! I don’t reckon Kangaroo Kobe has ever actually committed *a* foul, so all of the calls were probably more rubbish than Hot Dogs from Big Brother Australia season 1 never winning the bloody Logie!
Still, Dante’s Peak has got a fair way to go before he surpasses his old man. After all, don’t forget that Cecil Exum pulled ‘em on next to the #GOATMichael Jordan and Big Game James Worthy for the North Carolina Tar Heels 1982 national championship, before going on to dominate the NBL for the Geelong Supercats, Melbourne Tigersand next to D-Mac on the North Melbourne Giants! That’s one helluva tough legacy to live up to!
Anyway, even though he’s a Essendon Football Club supporter, here’s hoping Kangaroo Kobe gets to put down the controller and get back to snapping ankles and playing basketball instead of Back Ops II on Zombie mode, soon.
#ONYA Kangaroo Kobe!
**Subscribe to the DAILY NBA Straya podcast** https://itunes.apple.com/
** And check out the NBA Straya twitter** https://twitter.com/
