‘The Baseline Bandit’ to have Jersey Retired

The Brisbane Bullets will this Saturday honour one of the club’s greats, Robert Sibley, when his famous jersey number 52 will officially be retired.

For only the fourth time in 40 years, ‘The Baseline Bandit’ will have his name and number lifted alongside the Bullets’ highest-capped player, Leroy Loggins (30), Ron Radliff (22), who is the only Bullet to have featured in all three-championship wins, two as a player and one as an Assistant Coach, and Larry Sengstock (7), who appeared in four consecutive Grand Final series (1984-87).

Sibley, a 371 (305 for Bullets) NBL game veteran, was part of both the 1985 and 1987 Championship wins, scoring 3124 points during his career.

The club has been working on this event for the past six months and due to a number of games having to be rescheduled due to impacts of COVID-19, the presentation can finally take place this Saturday night with Sibley able to have all friends, family and former teammates in attendance to celebrate the significant occasion.   

Sibley is looking forward to Saturday and can’t wait to celebrate the event with everyone at Nissan Arena.

“I’m truly humbled and very honoured to have my jersey retired,” he said.

“Once the Bullets came into the League and as a proud Brisbane-born player, I always wanted to become a Bullet.

“The game of basketball gave me so much and to now have this honour, which I believe is the highest in the sport, it’s truly one of the proudest moments of my life.

“It will be an emotional moment on Saturday, with all my family, friends and a number of my old teammates there to celebrate the occasion. They all played a massive part in my career on and off the court, and it’ll be great to share the moment with them.”

CEO Peter McLennan could not think of a more deserving recipient.

“Robert is someone who epitomises who the Bullets are, he is one of our past greats and his name is synonymous with the Brisbane Bullets,” he said.

“Robert has played the second most games for this club. Mix that in with being part of two championships and I don’t think anyone could argue against him having this honour presented to him.

“He played through what was an extremely successful period for the club and I hope that many of the old Brisbane Bullets faithful get behind this occasion and come along to celebrate with him on Saturday night and witness history.”

“As a club we want to continue to honour our past legends and this is just the first of many ways we are looking to do that into the future. They did so much for basketball by winning the first ever major national championship for the city, consequently putting Brisbane on the map in a sporting sense.” 

The Brisbane Bullets take on the Perth Wildcats on Saturday at Nissan Arena, with tip-off at 5:30pm. Members and fans are encouraged to pre-purchase tickets to ensure they are present to witness history. Click here to get your tickets.