Illawarra Hawks star guard Rotnei Clarke, the People's Choice winner of our Sportsperson of the Year Award, took time out to speak to JULIAN O'BRIEN about what drives his success, on court and off. Check out the videos below for more.
Rotnei Clarke recalls the first time he was asked whether he would go to “Wollongong, Australia” to play professional basketball.
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“I was actually shopping with her in some store in our hometown,” he says motioning to wife PD who is sitting by his side on a couch in the depths of the WIN Entertainment Centre. The couple, who call Arkansas USA home, are juggling their two gorgeous, but wriggling kids Kyah (two years) and Dre (10 months).
“(My agent) gave me a call and said ‘hey, I’ve got an offer from a team in Australia’. I said, well, I’m all about animals and wildlife, things like the beach and things like that ….. I said ‘I’m pretty interested in that. That sounds cool’.”
PD remembers it a little differently. “I thought it was awesome. The beach – you can’t really beat that ….. I think he was kinda worried about the spiders,” she says with a smile. It was a big decision for the newly engaged couple back then _ PD staying in the States to complete her degree as a dental hygienist.
In his rookie professional season in Australia in 2013-14, the sharp-shooting Rotnei won the hearts of the Illawarra and also the National Basketball League’s Most Valuable Player Award. His return to Wollongong and the NBL last season after stints in Europe started slower but a move by coach Rob Beveridge to play him off the bench paid dividends.
Rotnei won the league’s Best Six Man Award and the Hawks stormed into the grand final only to lose to arch nemesis, the Perth Wildcats. Again this year, he is back in the league’s calculations for MVP. Yet none of this tale would surprise Rotnei at all. It’s part of the plan.
While many great athletes fall into the trap of self belief verging on arrogance, Rotnei has a self belief powered by the fact he is in someone else’s hands. What will be will be. It’s God’s plan. Rotnei Clarke is a man of deep faith.
Faith, family and basketball.
“That’s the order. Faith, family, basketball, that’s what it is,” he said.
“I think (faith) is the cornerstone of our marriage and our family. It’s what we live by and keeps us going in our day to day life. We’re going to try and lead that into our kids and set examples for them. Live by our faith and stay strong.”
If you watch every one of his post-game interviews on television, they all start the same way.
“First of all, all Glory to God …………,” he says with conviction. You hear some athletes talk about faith, but when Rotnei says it you know he means it. All relationships take work and are often tested. So, has Rotnei Clarke’s faith ever been tested?
“It’s been tested a lot,” he says without missing a beat. “For me personally I’ve been doubted my entire life and that hits you hard. I play with a chip on my shoulder every time I take the court and I think my faith plays a role in that. I trust that God’s Will for my life is, as long as I am doing the right things and seeking Him, then I’m going to end up where he wants me to be.
“People may see me at the free throw line talking to myself or whatever and it’s me vocalising things and speaking things into existence. I think that’s my mindset going into things. I’ve been blessed. God has truly blessed me with two awesome kids, a great wife, and no matter the outcome of a game my life is still gonna be great and I’m still blessed.”
If ever there was a match made in heaven, it would probably be Rotnei and his college sweetheart PD …… but it got off to a rocky start with PD admitting she called him a “sissy” on first viewing.
“That is true,” PD admits with a laugh. “I think I was just trying to get his attention. I told a friend and I think I knew the friend might tell him that, it might spark his interest.”
“That’s not true,” Rotnei interjects to suggest it was his wife's firm belief. “She told her dad that (Rotnei was a ‘sissy’),” he said. “He tends to fall down a lot ……,” PD interjects. “She calls me a flopper,” Rotnei says with a hint of disbelief.
Another truth is PD came back from their first date and told her college room-mate she’d just met the man she would one day marry. But it wasn’t all love at first sight. ”I went to his game in college. He had like 52-something points and I remember calling my dad and saying `this little white boy he hit 52 points’ or whatever it was,” PD says. “But I didn’t register who he was until we saw each other later at church and some girl was talking about him to me and I said ‘who is that?’. I didn’t put it together as the same guy I had previously seen score and do all those things on the basketball court.”
So faith even played a role back then. Together the couple have two children with their happy little Vegemite, Dre, a born and bred Aussie. Kyah has become a sideline attraction in her own right at Hawks games, oozing cuteness from every ounce of her being in her Hawks top cheering for daddy.
Rotnei was an absolute superstar of American high school and college basketball. He led his hometown high school team to its first ever state title and there is now a street named in his honour in the Oklahoma town of Verdigris. “It's the street that the school is on. It’s pretty cool,” he said. “(The sign) has been stolen numerous times. They had to put another sign up there. When I tell people that, they think I’m crazy.”
A couple of years into college, a young centre by the name of Delvon (DJ) Johnson transferred into Clarke’s university where he was an already established star. “I remember coming on the (school) visit and I went to watch an individual workout and he didn't miss. I just thought `dang, this dude doesn’t miss’ and coach was telling me how hard he worked,” DJ, who joined the Hawks as an import this year, says.
DJ has known Rotnei personally longer than any of the Hawks, but admits this year he has seen a different side of his former college mate who is often labelled as an introvert, perhaps wrongly. “He’s kind of a private person. He sticks to himself. Now we hang around a bit more and I can see sides to him I didn’t see (at college) …. I honestly did not know he was this funny,” DJ said.
Certainly, Rotnei remains completely unaffected by the trappings that come with being a star athlete. He gets on with everyone on the Hawks team. Rarely do you see him express anger on court. “He’s exactly the same as how he was in college,” DJ adds. “That’s cool. A lot of people change.”
DJ also attributes a lot of his friend’s success to his devotion to his sport and faith. “He’s definitely a man of strong faith and has always been that way. He never loses faith and believes in himself,” he said. While others might retreat into their shell after missing shots, Rotnei keeps firing, knowing if he has faith, it will change. As well as the strong faith, Rotnei’s parents built an incredible and famous work effort into their son.
“He’s been doing it since I’ve known him. You see guys out going to parties and ‘where’s Rotnei?’, he’s in the gym throwing up shots,” DJ said. “He loves to play basketball and loves to work hard.”
That’s Clarke Rotnei in a nutshell right there.
Faith, family, hoops and hard work.
