The 229cm, 18-yer-old Australian basketball prospect chasing his NBA dreams

Jongkuch “JK” Mach is unfailingly polite and patient, but sometimes the attention can become a little too much for the 18-year-old basketballer.

It starts in the morning, and it doesn’t end until he falls asleep. He doesn’t mind the countless photo requests before and after games, but still gets nervous in interviews. When you’re 229cm tall, people are always going to be curious.

Mach got used to the attention early. Growing up in Perth, he shot up to 193 cm by the time he was 14. At that point, he hadn’t played any formal sport beyond scuffling with his six siblings in the backyard over a soccer ball. Basketball seemed a better fit, and he quickly flourished in junior leagues.

That rapid improvement means he has offers from three American colleges, Louisiana State University, Colorado and Santa Clara, and has dreams of making the NBA.

For now, Mach is a member of the Australian Institute of Sport’s Centre of Excellence (CoE) program that competes in the second-tier NBL1 competition.

It’s a program designed to nurture Australia’s best young basketball talent, and during the season, they train five days a week before playing matches on the weekends against players usually older, stronger, and more experienced.

Quite often, Mach’s opponents will have years of experience in Australia’s top league, the NBL.

His coach at the Canberra-based program, Robbie McKinlay, has looked after some of Australia’s best young basketball talents, including the Chicago Bulls’ Josh Giddey, but has never met anyone like Mach.

Last Friday night against the Hills Hornets in Sydney, Mach scored 12 points and had two blocks in a comfortable 19-point win for his side. McKinlay then braced himself for what always happens. Mach got mobbed by schoolchildren. His height explains part of the appeal; his ability also helps, but McKinlay believes largely it is down to his personality. The teenager rarely stops smiling on and off the court.

“Besides the physical gifts he has, he’s just a great kid, he works hard, and he’s obviously the tallest person I’ve ever seen,” McKinlay said.

“He’s always showing up with a big smile on his face; he can get a little loud at times, but the boys do love him, and everyone just gravitates towards him, and he brings an infectious energy everywhere.”

McKinlay jokes that Mach believes he is the best shooter on his team. The young centre’s shooting and handling skills are strong, aligned with the blocking and rebounding skills that come with his height.

Mach has finished his high school studies, allowing him to focus on basketball. That allows him time to build muscle on what right now is a very long and lean body. Mach estimates he has put on 18 kilograms, which has come from lifting weights four times a week and also being a frequent visitor to the dining hall.

“When I first got here (to CoE) I was weighing in at 73 kilos, but now I’m sitting at 91 kilos, and it’s just been the nutrition. I go into the dining hall and just fuel up as much as I can,” Mach said.

“I’m trying to fit in some snacks between training sessions and meals, I’m eating way more than normal, chicken, rice, some apricots, some chocolate milk, even protein bars, just get them, just get anything I can.”

Mach loves the physical aspect of basketball. In Canberra, McKinlay is focused on Mach’s long-term goals in basketball. To do this, the coach knows he needs to build up Mach’s body, specifically his knees, for the huge amount of force that will be driven through them over his career.

“I’ve done a lot of work with our physio, Tony Ward and JK on balance, landing, all those kinds of things,” McKinlay said.

An obvious physical comparison for Mach is French NBA superstar Victor Wembanyama, who stands at 224 cm. Mach models his game on the man leading the San Antonio Spurs team he plays for in the NBA’s Western Conference finals.

Wembanyama turned in a stunning performance in game one of that series on Tuesday (Australian time), scoring 41 points and securing 24 rebounds in the Spurs’ 122-115 win over defending NBA champions, Oklahoma City Thunder.

His coach can understand the similarities, but stresses that Wembanyama’s brilliance cannot be replicated, having watched the Frenchman star in the 2021 under-19 World Cup in Latvia.

“I was lucky enough to be on the [Australian] staff for the under-19 World Cup where Wemby played and he was physically different, you just looked like, okay, he’s big, but then on the floor, his ability to block shots and make shots was incredible, so I don’t want to compare him to Wemby, because Wemby’s a unicorn, but he’s in that mould, everyone who looks at JK, they just go, oh my goodness, that’s a tall human being.”

Mach has got used to life in Canberra and stays in close contact with his family, phoning home to his siblings in Perth every day. But he is also ready to go to college.

Mach is still growing, not only in height, but also in basketball acumen and toughness. McKinlay loves his appetite for the rough stuff that can happen in the paint. There are sledges from opposition players, but Mach never reacts, he just smiles and blocks the ball. The coach believes his young star’s ceiling is as high as he wants it to be.

“The biggest thing for him is his work ethic, and that’s very strong, he’s very coachable, he wants to be coached,” McKinlay said.

“He knows he’s got a lot of work to do, but he’s not afraid of the work, and I think that’s what makes it so intriguing to NBA scouts, is how good can this kid get? He’s still a long way to go, but he’s showing signs he wants to get to that highest level, and we’re here to support that.”

Ask Mach where he wants to be in two years, and there is no pause: “I want to be in San Antonio, playing with Victor Wembanyama.”

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