Nick Kay

Nick Kay had nothing short of a spectacular US college career with the Denver’s Metropolitan State University (MSU) in Colorado.

In his four years there while he studied biology, Nick played alongside future Boomers teammate Mitch McCarron to help the Roadrunners to four consecutive NCAA tournaments as well as a runners-up finish in 2013.

He finished his time at MSU in 2015 with the second-most free throws made (449), games played (114), and minutes (3,969) in in Roadrunners history.

Following the end of his college career, Nick returned to Australia to play for the Townsville Crocodiles in the NBL. He averaged 10.8 points and 6.7 rebounds in his debut season to be named the NBL Rookie of the Year.

In 2016 he moved to the Illawarra Hawks and set off to the Perth Wildcats in 2018, where he won his first NBL title in 2019 against Melbourne United. In the same season he made the All-NBL First Team.

Nick was also part of the 2018 Commonwealth Games gold-medal winning side with an 87-47 win over Canada in the final.

In 2019 he was part of the Boomers line-up that made it to semi-finals of the FIBA World Cup in China.

At the 2019 Australian Basketball Hall of Fame awards night, Nick was recognised alongside Nathan Sobey with the 2019 Gaze Family Medal for their performances in China and on the Gold Coast.

In 2020, Nick signed with Spanish team Real Betis. In 36 games for the team he averaged 7.9 points, 5.5 rebounds, 1.1 steals and 1 assist per game.

Then at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics (in 2021) Nick and the Boomers lifted Australia to the bronze medal, defeating Slovenia in the bronze medal match 107-93.

He helped achieve our nation's first men's basketball Olympic medal since Australia made its men's basketball Olympic debut in 1956.

Nick played in all six games for the Boomers and averaged 11 points, 6.3 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.2 steals in 27.9 minutes per game.

From there he moved to Japanese side Shimane Susanoo Magic.

Nick was in the starting five for the Boomers at the 2023 FIBA World Cup, held in Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines. Although the Boomers failed to advance to the elimination rounds, they did secure a berth at the Paris Olympics, with Nick playing in five games and averaging 6.4 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game.

At the Paris 2024 Olympics the Boomers started on a strong note, defeating Spain 92-80 in what was regarded as the toughest group in the tournament.

Losses followed against Canada (93-83) and Greece (77-71) to close the group stage, setting up a quarter-finals clash against Serbia.

The Boomers pushed the Serbians into overtime on a Patty Mills made fadeaway jump shot over the outstretched hand of Nikola Jokic, that came with two seconds left in regulation time. Serbia took control of overtime (95-90), knocking Australia out of the tournament. Nick played in every game, averaging 19 minutes per outing.