{"id":28020,"date":"2022-03-03T07:53:53","date_gmt":"2022-03-02T21:53:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/basketball\/?p=28020"},"modified":"2022-03-03T09:01:07","modified_gmt":"2022-03-02T23:01:07","slug":"mundronja-overcomes-setbacks-to-make-the-most-of-opportunities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/basketball\/mundronja-overcomes-setbacks-to-make-the-most-of-opportunities\/","title":{"rendered":"Mudronja overcomes setbacks to make the most of opportunities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

FROM battling through many setbacks to earning a roster spot with the Illawarra Hawks, Alex Mudronja<\/a> is not done yet, and says he is ready for more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mudronja firstly shares how he got involved with basketball, his pathway through to the National Basketball League (NBL), being proud of his journey and overcoming challenges along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNone of my parents played basketball but my older brother decided to just give it a go and I just wanted to be like him when I was a little kid,” Mudronja said. “I followed him into it and we kind of fell in love with it straight away. I always said this is what I wanted to do for a job and from there, that was my first little introduction to the sport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have two brothers and a little sister as well and we all played when we were young. We all pushed each other and we had backyard battles like many kids do, where we all want to win, and I still bring that level of energy and love for the game now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGrowing up, I always wanted to be at the best club and surrounded by the best players and that was Sturt. I played with Isaac White<\/strong>, who is one of my teammates here at Illawarra now. We were both juniors coming up. I wanted to surround myself with people that also love the game so that we could push each other. Now that me and Isaac are in the same team and doing that at Illawarra at practise, it\u2019s honestly a blessing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe whole AIS and St Mary\u2019s College experience was really cool. I got to learn a lot. It wasn\u2019t crazily successful for me but I learned the most about myself and those times where you get pulled away from your family and I went through some tougher times in my basketball journey. I\u2019m really grateful for them because those are the lessons you kind of cherish looking back at it all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I look at it, looking back at my journey, I\u2019m so focused on getting better. I\u2019ve had people trust in me, it\u2019s not an arrogance thing, but I feel like I haven\u2019t really done much in the sport yet and I\u2019m really looking ahead to the future, putting in work every day and to be able to do something with it. I\u2019ve had a lot of setbacks in the last few years and I\u2019m at a place now where when you\u2019re going through it, it\u2019s all confusing and hard and you sometimes lose sight of where you\u2019re going. I\u2019m now at a place where even though I\u2019m not playing yet, I feel I\u2019m still capable of playing in the NBL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I was young, possibly 17, I broke my ankle. That was my first little real reality check by being away from the game and that really should how much I actually loved playing because I went through a tough time. By being away from the game was really tough. In the last four years, I haven\u2019t really been given an opportunity to play consistent minutes. I\u2019m at Illawarra where I\u2019m now a injury replacement. In college I didn\u2019t really play minutes. In Adelaide in my development year as well as last year, in my first year on the roster in Adelaide, I didn\u2019t play minutes either and it\u2019s been an absolute battle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGetting released from Adelaide was probably the biggest setback I\u2019ve ever endured and the same sort of thing from me when I was young, it showed me how much I love the game because it hurts so much, it\u2019s my hometown and I obviously wanted to stay there at the time. It showed me how much I wasn\u2019t to improve and how much I want to get better to not only prove people wrong. I wanted to prove myself right that I do belong and that I can do something with this game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThose setbacks really drive me and that\u2019s why I\u2019m at it now where I look back on that thinking ‘Wow, that really helped show me how much I love the game and how much work I need to do to really get to that next level to be able to earn my minutes. I\u2019m really happy with the journey. It\u2019s been cool, where I and I\u2019m really to make that next step.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GETTING THE ILLAWARRA CALL-UP, AND MENTORS ALONG THE WAY<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mudronja shares his reactions getting the call up to be a fully-contracted player for the Hawks, his experiences being a development player as an Adelaide 36er, and his thoughts on being coached by the legendary Brian Goorjian<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I got released, it was hard for me. I immediately after got in the gym and I stayed there and it was a crazy offseason,” Mudronja said. “I had an immense drive which now I feel like it\u2019s what brought be here. I was planning on going somewhere and doing more of a training year with some teams but Brian Goorjian basically called and offered me a three-year deal, which was amazing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m really happy to be able to be in that company and learn from a man who is obviously one of the greatest coaches in the game. To also have the teammates I have here who are extremely high calibre players. I wasn\u2019t expecting it, it came out of nowhere and it was super awesome. Now that I\u2019m at Illawarra, I want to take that next step.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn my development year, it was incredible for me because I came back from college and to be honesty, I lost some of that love for the game and I was bit confused, not confident in my abilities. I expected things to go differently and it was my first real major setback. Coming back to Adelaide, in my development year, it was great. I got to go home, touch base and was able to put in the work and realise why I love the game again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe main guy that really drove that was Joey Wright<\/em><\/strong>, that was our coach. He obviously he had to go a different direction and so did I. During that year, he spent a lot of time with me. Before and after practise, he has a love for the game that I possess too and enjoys helping people get where they want to be and enjoys developing players that want to be developed. He was a huge mentor for me and I had some mentors who utilised belief in me, which I hadn\u2019t felt for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJack McVeigh<\/strong> and Anthony Drmic<\/strong> were huge for me, on a friend basis and they really gave me that confidence to be myself and just play the game that I love to play. It\u2019s amazing to learn off guys like Daniel Johnson<\/strong> who is an incredible professional. Sometimes I under-appreciated the way he approaches his daily habits and same with McVeigh. It\u2019s incredible to be able to be in that realm and learn off guys like that. Now I\u2019ve got Tyler Harvey<\/strong>, Justinian Jessup<\/strong> but I could name a lot of the guys here. I enjoy learning and I\u2019m just trying to feed myself as much information as can as a player and try to be a good teammate. Some of those guys are cool to be in their presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBeing around the Illawarra Hawks team, It\u2019s great. I few guys have spoken on our cohesiveness as a team and the way we enjoy being around each other in the locker room, at practise and hang out off the floor. We go to the movies, go to the beach and it\u2019s a young core that gets along, but it\u2019s the whole crew and team. I haven\u2019t been around a team with the imports being friends, genuinely friends with the young guys and everything kind of clicks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LINKING WITH THE BOOMERS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently representing the Australian Boomers in the FIBA Asian Qualifiers, Mudronja shares his insight and reaction getting the call-up the represent Australia and excitement of the squad coming together and his thoughts of staying prepared before playing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAny time you can put on the green and gold in whatever capacity, it\u2019s incredible,” Mudronja said. “I feel super humbled and blessed to be a part of the opportunity and to just play some basketball. I\u2019m in my fourth year where I\u2019ve been working and really going for it. I haven\u2019t quite seen on the court it hasn\u2019t quite happened for me yet, so I\u2019m just really excited. I feel super confident and excited about the opportunity and to go out there and to be able to play. It\u2019s going to be fun and with some great people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA few of the guys I\u2019ve played with in the past and got to know a little bit. I\u2019ve played with Rob Beveridge<\/strong> before and a couple of assistants as well. It\u2019s been good to catch up with the other guys on the squad and have a chat and see everyone\u2019s on different journeys and that is the cool thing about all of us coming together. There are guys that I might have played with when I was 16 or 17. Now that we\u2019re all in different places and about to link up for this team, it\u2019s really cool with about the game of basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LIFE OUTSIDE OF BASKETBALL, MOTIVATION AND RITUALS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mudronja shares what he does away from basketball, his pre-game rituals, favourite ways to spend a day off, and what drives him everyday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m pretty busy as it is,” Mudronja said. “I did study in college and when I came back I picked up a couple of classes in uni. I\u2019m pretty interested in physiotherapy and the movement of the body and physiology. I\u2019ve picked up a couple of classes here and there. I was thinking of doing a little psych but I\u2019m pretty locked into what I\u2019m doing on the basketball court right now. I enjoy studying and what I want to do in the future but not right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHaving an equal balance is huge. That\u2019s something I\u2019ve tried to get better at recently. A few times where, for me personally, I really get invested in the game and it\u2019s sometimes like I want to wake up and I need to do this and that, this and that. I almost get too invested and takes a toll on me mentally. There are things I enjoy doing, hanging out with friends and trying to have a go at surfing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur team goes to Utopia, that\u2019s our spot on game day. We\u2019ll be there getting brunch every game day. I also love my coffee. That\u2019s my game day routine and before the game, I\u2019ll probably have a shot of coffee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t mind hanging out on my own, hanging out with the boys is always a great time. I don\u2019t mind going down to the beach and chilling or going to a nice little caf\u00e9. At the moment, I haven\u2019t got any off days because I\u2019m not playing so I\u2019m in the gym a lot so probably going down to try a new caf\u00e9 or going down to the beach and do some recovery stuff. It\u2019s pretty chill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“(My motivation) is my love for the game of basketball. It\u2019s a dream come true. I get to wake up and play basketball. That\u2019s honestly all I\u2019ve ever wanted to do as a job and that keeps me going for sure. When it gets hard, I like to remind myself how much I\u2019ve been through and to be grateful for everything and keep going. Sometimes, it can be tough, I\u2019m not going to lie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TOUGHEST OPPONENTS AND KEEPING COOL IN A CRISIS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mudronja shares who the toughest opponent he\u2019s faced are, and strategies he uses to stay calm during a game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ll probably go with Justinian Jessup, I know it\u2019s an interesting one,” Mudronja said. “Seeing the way he works, we tend to play some one-on-one and push each other in different spaces. Justinian always plays hard at practise and is a tough guard where he can shoot it from anywhere. I enjoy matching up with him everyday because I know he is going to bring it. So probably JJ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSeeing Justinian\u2019s habits everyday, he\u2019s on the court early, one of the last to leave everyday and he\u2019s working out full intensity workouts and seeing that stuff is cool. It shows me that he is a guy who is talented and not necessarily jumping out of the gym and dunking on people. Justinian puts a lot of  hours and shoots the ball and seeing that, and what he brings everyday has inspired me to just shoot more shots and be better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI used to ride the emotions a lot of the game. When it\u2019s on a high, I\u2019m celebrating and when I\u2019m on a low, I\u2019m kind of beating myself up. I realised it wasn\u2019t a healthy way to play because there\u2019s going to be mistakes, sometimes your own mistakes and sometimes teammates mistakes. For me, being a point guard and being a leader type of players, I wanted to be in more of a calm state to react to whatever I\u2019m seeing. For me, it\u2019s about learning to not ride the up and downs and to understand that whatever happens, it\u2019s the next play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m finally at that stage where even if I\u2019m shooting the ball and I miss, I used to get down on myself. If I miss two in a row and ride those emotions. Now, I\u2019ve got that next play mentality, next shot mentality, the next shot is going in or next time, the pass is going to be right. That\u2019s been a cool adjustment recently as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ROLE MODELS AND WHAT BASKETBALL MEANS TO ALEX MUDRONJA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mundronja shares what the sport of basketball means to him and the role models that he\u2019s looked up to along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy parents are the biggest role models for me,” Mudronja said. “I\u2019ve seen them go through struggles and hard times when we were young and they didn\u2019t make it obvious to us, they just kept their heads down and kept working at what they wanted to achieve and that was huge for me. The way my dad goes about his business and my mum and I think that\u2019s where I get it from. They just keep going and there\u2019s been hard times and they\u2019ve created a great life for me. They\u2019re probably my biggest inspiration.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lastly, Mundronja shares his wisdom to any upcoming basketballers wanting to improve their game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBe yourself,” he said. “I would say to anyone is the biggest thing that I\u2019ve learned is to do what you love and do it harder than anyone else. You have an opportunity to do that for a living. Honestly, there\u2019s nothing more rewarding to wake up everyday and play but along the journey, there\u2019s been player that have been a lot better than me and more talented than me. Enjoy the work more and be willing to go to a place that other people haven\u2019t. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FROM battling through many setbacks to earning a roster spot with the Illawarra Hawks, Alex Mudronja is not done yet, and says he is ready for more. Mudronja firstly shares how he got involved with basketball, his pathway through to the National Basketball League (NBL), being proud of his journey and overcoming challenges along the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10004,"featured_media":28076,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5878,10,2871],"tags":[2451],"class_list":["post-28020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-nbl","category-news","tag-alex-mudronja"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28020"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28085,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28020\/revisions\/28085"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}