Tai Wesley returns home after long international career
While it’s hard to walk away from something you love, Tai Wesley’s retirement has given him the opportunity to reflect on an outstanding career, the people who helped guide him through it and what he learned along the way.
A legend in Logan and on the campus of Utah State University, Wesley has retired from professional basketball after playing nine years internationally. According to Wesley, the current COVID-19 pandemic and his responsibility to take care of his wife and three children were a couple of the factors that led him to the decision to end his professional career.
“I felt like right now is a good time for me to put my family first, put our well being first, and just put some roots in, dig down and call a place home and hang up the old basketball shoes,” Wesley said.
Growing up, Wesley acknowledged his older brother Mikeli as someone who helped him develop an ambition to excel at basketball.
“I wanted to follow in his footsteps,” Wesley said. “He was the Mountain West player of the year and then he played overseas for five or six years. I wanted to be just like him and emulated everything he did.”
Follow in his brother’s footsteps he did, starting when Tai helped lead Provo High School to a state title in 2004, just like his brother had done in 1997. After high school, Tai served a mission with the Church of Jesus Chris of Latter Day Saints in Mexico before coming up to Logan and helping lead the Aggies to arguably their most successful run in program history. In total, Utah State won 111 games, 4 WAC Championships, earning 3 NCAA tournament appearances along the way. And for his efforts, Wesley was named the 2010-11 WAC player of the year.
“That time was unreal, it just felt like we were living in a dream really,” he said. “We would never lose. I lost one game at home in four years of my whole career. I think my record was like 68-1 in the spectrum.”
Wesley credits Former head coach Stew Morrill for helping him have such an illustrious college career.
“Coach Morrill was phenomenal for me. He got me in line, straightened me up, and helped me really focus my energy on basketball,” he said.
His resume overseas speaks volumes; a two-time Australian NBL champion — winning the championships in the 2014-15 season with the New Zealand Breakers and the 2017-18 season with Melbourne United while earning all-league 2nd team. Wesley also won back-to-back finals and finals MVPs in the New Zealand NBL in 2015 and 2016.
But one of Wesley’s proudest professional moments did not come until his final season.
The Australian NBL — one of the most highly respected leagues in the world — has a rule that permits only three “import” or international players on each team every season. But thanks to a rule nicknamed the “Oceana rule,” Wesley was able to achieve local status in the NBL due to being a Guam citizen, where he lived from ages five to 11, and for whom he was able to represent in the FIBA Asia cup.
This exception meant he did not count as an import player, giving him greater job security in the league and more opportunities. But because of this, and despite his impressive resume, he faced criticism from players around the league.
“People would say ‘oh you’re only in this league because you have a passport’ and ‘you’re local,’” Wesley said.
However in 2019, leading up to what would be his final season, the NBL changed the rule, and his Guam citizenship no longer gave him local status. Although he was now considered an import, he was still signed by ANBL club Melbourne Phoenix.
“I always wanted to be considered an import, to be good enough to be one of the import spots,” Wesley said. “Last year I was an import and that was something that I was very proud of. To be brought not because I had a passport, but I was brought in because I was good enough to be an import in that league.”
After all his years of playing basketball, Wesley said that the greatest life-lesson he learned from the game was sacrifice. “Sacrificing the things that don’t matter for what you actually want.” As he transitions into a new phase of life, having a “normal job,” he trusts that if he sticks to this sacrifice, hard-working mentality, he will be fine.
“If you just do what you learn in basketball, which is work hard, outwork the next guy, you will be successful in anything you do,” he said.
The 34-year old Wesley displayed longevity and consistency throughout his career, which he credits to his continual desire to improve, particularly by developing a three point shot. Wesley managed to improve his three point percentage from 18% to 33% over his career, with a high of 39% in 2017-18. But his bread and butter was always his interior play. The six-foot-seven power forward’s post-play became highly regarded in the ANBL, with some calling him “The Grown Man” thanks to his strength in the paint and ability to break his defender down.
“When you get to a high level of basketball you have to be able to do a little bit of everything,” Wesley said. “Throughout my career, I added different tools and different weapons to my game. Never stay the same. Continue to evolve as I progress in my career.”
Another underrated aspect that helped Wesley prolong his career was his ability to cultivate meaningful relationships with teammates.
“One thing that people don’t understand when you go overseas and play professional basketball is that your character speaks volumes, how you interact with teammates. If you get a bad rap over there that follows into your next job,” Wesley explained. “You want to make them feel like you’re integrating yourself with them and their culture.”
His former Melbourne United teammate Josh Boone had this to say about Tai in a post on Instagram:
“Most times in this business, guys that you play with become acquaintances, but not necessarily friends. This guy though is way more than that to me.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCV9Wnzhy8i/
He’s proud of the accolades he’s received, but when it’s said and done that’s not what will stick with him.
“You know raising trophies was always great, celebrating with teammates- but I’m sure those memories will fade, and what’s left is the relationship,” he said. “I had some of the best friends in the world overseas that live in Australia and New Zealand and Holland and Puerto Rico and so those are what last.”
In the summer of 2011, Wesley signed a deal with Dutch team Den Bosch, kicking off the journey that would take him to all corners of the earth to play ball, with stops in the Netherlands, France, Puerto Rico — and the majority of his career, New Zealand and Australia. In the great Pacific is where he played in the Australian National Basketball League fall to spring and the New Zealand National Basketball League from Spring until the end of summer.
“To experience all of the different cultures, the food, to meet and make relationships throughout the world, it’s such a fun life,” he said. “To have my wife by me for eight of the nine years, and our children for the last four years, it’s been so cool.”
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