McIlroy retiring on a high after finding home at Kalamunda

MIDWAY through the 2015 SBL season Travis McIlroy didn’t know where his life was headed. He had left the Mandurah Magic mid-season and was down on his luck but what a difference 12 months can make and now he is retiring from the Kalamunda Eastern Suns feeling on top of the world.

McIlroy initially made the move to Western Australia from New Zealand to play with the Goldfields Giants in 2014 before deciding to give living closer to Perth a chance.

The opportunity to play under New Zealand basketball great Jason Kyle presented and he joined the Magic, but due to personal circumstances his time with Mandurah was less than memorable and led into one of the toughest period of his life.

However, McIlroy was determined to not return to New Zealand with his tail between his legs and his faith has been rewarded on and off the basketball court.

He has never enjoyed a year in basketball more than he has in 2016 with the Kalamunda Eastern Suns and it is now the club he will always call home as he prepares for his final game this Friday night against the Perry Lakes Hawks at Bendat Basketball Centre.

McIlroy's relationship with coach Michael Clarke has become one that he has perhaps been searching for his entire playing career and the 33-year-old is proud to have been a veteran leader on a young team at the Suns that is building with a vision for the future.

Off the court, McIlroy has met his fiancée Pia and he credits her with showing him how much life still had to offer in and outside of basketball.

To top it off McIlroy has done some outstanding work using basketball and his life experiences to help many disadvantaged and troubled youth in and around the Kalamunda and Midland areas, as well as starting up the iCollege Basketball Institute as he discussed in his SBL Player Column earlier in 2016.

Friday night is an occasion for McIlroy to farewell top-level basketball. Given where he was last year, he is excited, proud and humbled to do so in great physical shape, good form and with a club he loves and that he knows appreciates him in return.

"I'm still in great shape and I feel like I still have got some prime years left in my body but to be part of a vision that I put my heart and soul into like I have this year by meeting coach Clarke I feel like the time is right," McIlroy said.

"To achieve your ultimate goals, sacrifices need to be made and I need do what's in the best interests of the club.

"I bleed Suns through and through even though I've been here a short period of time but for someone like coach Clarke and this club to have the belief in me the way that they have, I can't be more thankful. Retiring was a no brainer to make sure I can give everything to other areas of my life."

Playing basketball has been McIlroy's No. 1 priority in life up until this point but what this season has shown him is that there's a lot more to life. That's why he feels the time is right to retire to focus more on his children, fiancée and the tremendous community work he's doing.

"Selfishly I've been chasing the game for as long as I have known. I have children and I've had relationships that I've put the game in front of, and I owe it to my family now to give them some of my best years I have left," he said.

"I want to be able to give that to my family and for my fiancée Pia. When I met her I was quite down and out, and I was in a dark place last year but she has opened my eyes up to a wider world outside the game of basketball. That's allowed me to see that I can help a lot more people with this extra time but also be there with my loved ones a lot more."

Kalamunda won't be the club McIlroy has spent the longest time with having previously played the majority of his career in New Zealand before joining the Giants and Magic of the SBL.

But it will be the one to leave a lasting legacy for him and from coach Clarke down to all his teammates including the also retiring Jarrad Prior, McIlroy thinks the world of the Kalamunda Eastern Suns.

"This club has given me my second/third/fourth chance. I didn’t know that I was going to retire at the start of the season but to be able to go out on my terms and on a high means the world to me. This club has given me that opportunity and accepted me," he said.

"I'm still figuring out why they have because of how full on I can be, as there's not a question I won't ask when it comes to the game and our team, but they also know that there is nothing I wouldn’t do for the them.

"This club has accepted me for how I am and to be around someone like Jarrad Prior for this year who is retiring as well, he is such a professional and I've developed a great relationship with him. But Clarkey is the one I will forever be thankful to.

"When we first met he knew I had some daddy issues and he has been like a father for me in many ways that he might not even realise. I look up to him and respect him like a father figure, that has developed in less than a year.

"He looks at everyone at this club as part of his family and I'm a family person so that's why this club means so much. I've always been searching for home and this club will be home long after this Friday’s game."

Emphasising how much the Eastern Suns mean to McIlroy is the fact that when asked of the highlight of his career, he immediately and without hesitation points to the 15 points of 5-of-7 from three-point range he scored against the Mandurah Magic in a big win a fortnight ago.

"The highlight of my career was that win against Mandurah. I had statistically the best game of my season with five threes against an old club" McIlroy said.

"It was just good to let my emotions out and show my club and our supporters how much I love them and the passion I have for the game that has provided me so many opportunities in life.

"I felt like I was on top of the world in that moment and it was good to do it in front of a home crowd and the juniors we have coming up. It was my career highlight to do that for the club I now call home."

Article by Chris Pike




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