Assistant coach and retired basketballer Darryl McDonald is probably what you would call the quintessential basketball story.
One of eight children, growing up on the hard and fast streets of Harlem, New York, D-Mac began playing basketball at the playground courts where he was known as The Playground King and eventually discovered.
D-Mac, now a veteran of over 410 games, said basketball saves a lot of people from disadvantaged backgrounds from a life of crime on the streets and it certainly was a saviour for him.
D-Mac dropped out of school in the ninth grade but after he was discovered by a college coach he was able to go to school on a basketball scholarship.
"If it wasn't for basketball I wouldn't be here, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing, basketball probably changed my life," he said.
"The neighbourhood I grew up in, it was, you know, drugs, crime and gangs and you can always get caught up in that," he said.
It wasn't always easy to steer clear of crime but D-Mac used his passion for basketball as an escape.
D-Mac said he has lost a lot of people to the streets.
"I've lost a fair few friends to drugs and crime you know and to be able to come to Australia where you can leave the door open and nobody is going to go in there and you can leave your car open and nobody is going to steal it," he said.
"Where I'm from, if you do that you won't have a car, by the time you get back and you won't even have a house."
"Basketball saves a lot, you have no idea.
"I mean you see a lot of kids grow up in environments where there's just one parent or one parent is working at a job and has to take care of everybody and he or she can't do the things for you that you know, say, getting out there and selling drugs, getting involved with gangs and robbing people can.
"If you do that you can make more money and that's what you think is a lifestyle, instead of sacrificing and saying 'forget that I'm not getting involved, I don't care if I gotta walk around with holes in my sneakers, that's what I'll do - I don't want to go to jail I don't want to end up dead'.
"A lot of kids think they want the fast money and get involved with the fast things and they don't last.
"To get an opportunity to come here and I guess basically live and I thought it was a great opportunity for my children 'cause even though they back there now (in the US) to bring them out at such a young age, to let them see something different, has probably been a highlight for me," he said.
D-Mac has seven children, his first was born when he was 18.
Four are now living back in the States but three remained here, including his 24 year old son who is also a basketball player.
In a historic game D-Mac and his son played together in the NBL when his son was a development player.
"That was pretty special," he said.
D-Mac played in the Continental Basketball Association but moved to greener pastures after another chance discovery.
North Melbourne Giants coach Brett Brown brought D-Mac out here after seeing a video of him playing.
"One thing about the CBA is financially it's not good and you can get stuck playing in the CBA for your whole life, I know people that would got stuck playing in the CBA and never played anywhere else."
D-Mac's advice for anyone wanting a career in sports or wanting to get out of a bad situation is never give up.
"Work hard and never give up, can't nobody take that away from you if you know in your heart you gave 100 per cent.
"For me growing up my dream was always to play NBA but you can get shattered when it doesn't happen and that's what happened to me.
"I got an opportunity to play but I didn't make it and I could have easily just you know forgot it and said I didn't wanna play no more but I never did that.
"I decided I'm still going to play, I'm going to keep going and look what happened, it's changed my life."
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