To say the least, the past year of Duop Reath’s long and winding basketball career has been equal parts satisfying and exhilarating — with a helping of rewarding on the side.
The former LSU standout was the starting center for the Australian national team at the World Cup last summer before he finally broke through last fall and earned a spot on an NBA regular-season roster for the first time.
It got even better Saturday when the 28-year-old Reath was named to the Australia Boomers Olympic team for a second time after he was on the team that claimed the bronze medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
After paying his dues professionally in Serbia, China and Lebanon since completing his collegiate eligibility in 2018, the Paris Olympics will help the globetrotting Reath come full circle in his career.
Playing on the biggest international stage there will be appropriate for Reath after making good on a fourth NBA opportunity, where he had a solid rookie season with the Portland Trail Blazers.
Despite starting the season in the G-League, Reath played in 68 games with 20 starts for Portland. He averaged 9.1 points while shooting 46.1% from the field — including a respectable 35.9% from 3-point range — and added 3.7 rebounds and 1.0 assists a game.
He scored in double digits 32 times, going for a career-high 26 points at Minnesota on March 4, 2024. He had one double-double outing with 15 points and 13 rebounds on Jan. 7, 2024 at Brooklyn.
After playing on a two-way contract much of the season, Trail Blazers management rewarded Reath on Feb. 16 with a three-year, $6.22 million contract of which $4 million was guaranteed.
Boomers assistant coach David Patrick, a former LSU assistant who recently joined Matt McMahon’s staff, has seen the 6-foot-11, 245-pound Reath’s improvement up close and personal over the years.
Patrick had recruited Reath, whose family fled war-torn South Sudan when he was 5 years old, to LSU from Lee College in Baytown, Texas, when he was an assistant under Johnny Jones.
Even though Patrick left Jones’ staff before Reath made it to the LSU campus in 2016, he’s coached him for the past six years as a member of the Australian national team staff.
“It’s amazing to see Duop’s jump over the last five years as a player,” Patrick said from the Boomers training camp in Melbourne. “He ended up being a starter last year in the World Cup, and he’s got a chance to start again. Duop and (Houston Rockets center) Jock Landale will be battling it out.”
Australia will play two pre-Olympic contests in the USA Basketball showcase in Abu Dhabi against the USA (July 15) and Serbia (July 16). After that, it’s off to the Games and pool play for the Boomers against Spain (July 27), Canada (July 30) and Greece (Aug. 2).
As a newcomer to the Boomers in the Tokyo Games, Reath averaged just 2.8 minutes and 1.6 points in Australia’s six Olympic contests. But that could change this time with his leadership on and off the court and versatility on it, Patrick said.
“He can score in the post and he can step out and really, really shoot the 3-pointer,” he noted. “He can also block shots and run the floor, so he’s very versatile as a big — which is the way this game has gone.
“He’s a a legitimate NBA player who made it the hard way,” he said. “He went to Serbia, to China, to Lebanon. Now, he’s got a three-year NBA deal after us recruiting him out of a junior college in Houston. This speaks volumes to where he’s at in his career.”