New Bullet Batemon to wreak havoc on NBL

James Batemon has wanted to play down under since graduating in 2019. Now it has become a reality for the new Bullets point guard. 

His young family are already enjoying their new life in Brisbane as he looks to wreak havoc on the NBL floor and take the next step in his professional career. 

The 27-year-old has already been quite the journeyman in his pro career playing in Latvia, France, Greece, Germany and Israel. 

He got a taste of the NBL on a pre-season tour while at Loyola Marymount University so he knew somewhat to expect in his first season at the Bullets. 

Batemon has shown exciting signs already too in pre-season wins for the Bullets against the Shanghai Sharks, Melbourne United and South East Melbourne Phoenix as he finds his groove at his new team, in a new city and with his young family settling in to life in Brisbane.

Batemon will fill the role as point guard on this Bullets team of NBL25 and prides himself on the array of talents he brings as a player who can run an offence and create for his teammates, get to the rack himself, and shoot from the outside.

Perhaps the best news for Bullets fans is that Batemon takes his defence just as seriously as anything he does with the ball in his hands, and is looking forward to the challenge of defending the best guards across the NBL this season.

"They can expect someone to come to work and show up every day, and go hard on both ends and try to lead this team to something they haven’t experienced probably in a while," Batemon said.

"I'm just motivated to come work hard every day and they can expect a guy to give them everything.

"Then skill wise, they can expect a guy who can shoot the three, who can attack and who can get his teammates involved, and look to wreak havoc when defending the opposing point guards on the other end."

While Batemon had an idea in terms of the physicality of the NBL based on his pre-season tour with Loyola Marymount while in college, he now feels he has a clearer picture of what to expect after the two games in Melbourne.

Batemon has come to the Bullets to test himself and to take his game to the next level, and he’s got a good view as to what that's going to take in those games against United and the Phoenix.

"The games were real physical, I kind of knew it was physical from when I played here six years ago with my college," he said.

"So it's a real physical league with skilled and quick point guards and it's going to be a real challenging year. But it's something that I'm ready for and I want to take my career to the next level. I was pretty excited by the first week of NBL basketball."

The move to Brisbane with his fiancé Nickayla and their three-year-old son Jay has been an easy transition for the family.

"They are loving it here. It's an easy transition to make because everyone speaks English so going to the grocery stores and stuff like that is easier to adapt to," Batemon said.

"The weather is nice, there's so much to do here in Brisbane and I've been loving it and they are really enjoying it too."

Watch the full interview here.