Joe Ingles has had a long road to his current seat as a starter for the Utah Jazz, recalling his humble beginnings hoping to play for his hometown Adelaide 36ers, but receiving quite the underwhelming and bordering on insulting offer:
“There's a few rumors and stuff out there of what happened,” Ingles said on The Howie Games podcast, via Nine.com. “I went into a meeting with them… I had my agent, my dad. And this was — to the 36ers' credit now — old management, old general manager. They've moved on from that. But I got offered a contract that was below the minimum. Whatever (minimum wage) was, 20 grand or whatever, it was way below the minimum.
“As (my) agent and (my) dad (were) looking over the contract, I was like, ‘That's a bit weird'. My name was spelled wrong on the contract and I was like, ‘Ah … maybe it's not as thought-out as you thought'. We thought they really wanted to have me. (They misspelled) my last name, so it was like I-N-L-G-E-S or something. Which is maybe just a (typo), everyone does it, we've all done it. But if you're trying to recruit someone that's from your hometown…”
What ensued was a whole lot of confusion for Ingles, who was 17 at the time and had the same dream that other kids his age had growing up in Adelaide playing the sport:
“And right before this, Brad Newley, also an Adelaide boy, had just signed in Townsville a couple of years before that. So they'd lost him and it was like, ‘Hopefully they want me to stay'. They've lost Brad, who at the time was our best player coming through,” Ingles recalled. “The funny part was we were sitting around a board room and I guess even when ‘we're done here', you shake hands and you walk out. They just assumed that shaking hands was me committing to the team; which it wasn't that, obviously.
“Then, I can't remember who it was and what his role was, but he was, ‘Oh, we're really excited to try and have you as part of our team. We're really looking for this back-up four (power forward), back-up five (centre) position. And I'm like 6'3″, maybe 6'4″; I wasn't what I am not at 6'8″. I'm like, ‘I've never played the four or the five in my life, ever.”
So let's recap: Offer below minimum (working) wage — check. Misspelled last name — check. Wrong position — check. But wait, there's still more:
“So we walked out and were just like, ‘This is nothing'. My name's wrong, they haven't even offered me what it required of the minimum (wages). Not that it was about money or anything back then,” Ingles continued. “The last thing was, you have like 15 players and 10 travel (to games), whatever the number was back then. But it wasn't even in the 10, it was in the 15 and I had to try to make my spot in the team. Which I believe I could have done, but I also thought I was good enough to make a team (from the start).
“After all that, we kind of walked out and when he said the thing about the wrong positioning, I was like, ‘Let's move on.'”
Ingles is not only a starter quality player in the NBA now, but one paid handsomely for his services, making $52 million over four years. The lefty Aussie went from making $12,500 per year and two season tickets to a hair short of $12 million this upcoming season — a true rags to riches story from down under.
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