Kaila’s dad says she’s a better basketballer than her brother. He plays in the NBA

1 month ago 12

Tyrese Proctor is considered a generational Australian basketball talent. Last year, the 21-year-old from Sydney graduated from the prestigious Duke University basketball program straight into the NBA draft, signing for the Cleveland Cavaliers in a deal worth millions.

Finding that level of talent out of a basketball club in Sydney should be a rarity. Instead, his father and former coach, Roderick, says he’s just one member of the Proctor dynasty set for success overseas.

Kaila Proctor is the younger sister of the Cleveland Cavaliers rookie Tyrese Proctor.

Roderick arrived at the Bankstown Basketball Stadium early on Wednesday morning. If it had been up to him, the father of two would still be in bed. Instead, he’s on the court working out, dragged there by his 17-year-old daughter Kaila.

Kaila has just received her second offer for a basketball scholarship to attend an American university, becoming the third in her immediate family to do so after her father and brother.

“With [Tyrese], I saw the potential but not knowing how far it was going to take him,” Roderick said. “With Kaila, I definitely saw the potential because in other areas she’s better than him at the same age.”

Inside the Bankstown stadium, Roderick and Kaila run drills and play one-on-one games. It’s the same routine they’ve followed for years, even during Kaila’s HSC year and even in the blazing sun when indoor courts were shut during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Cleveland Cavaliers’ Tyrese Proctor goes up for a dunk during the first half of an NBA game against the Philadelphia 76ers last week.

“We’d be outside in the boiling hot weather, it wasn’t even a basketball court, the one near our house. It was rocky ground near a tennis court,” Kaila said. “We had nowhere to train so we just went there ... The sun would be in your eyes and I’m trying to shoot and he’d be like, ‘why are you missing?’ You can’t even see the basket.”

Roderick’s own career in basketball – from playing for Mississippi College to signing for the Bankstown Bruins in the NBL1 – led to coaching Tyrese’s under 12s team.

“There have been moments where you’d know if it was a good training session by how Kaila walked in the door afterwards, if she was smiling or if she’d walk straight in and go up to her room,” her mother, Melissa, said. “Because she said Dad’s always harder on her. Tyrese used to say the exactly same thing actually, that he’s nice to everyone else, but he’s hard on them.”

But while Roderick can show tough love as a coach, it’s Kaila who gets him out of bed to train. She saw first-hand the opportunities Tyrese got through basketball, even sitting in on his meetings with university coaches when touring the US.

“I know how much he works,” Kaila said. “He’s just done so much to get where he is, I’m so proud of him for where he’s going … It kind of pushes me even more just to see what it can be like if you just keep working.”

Inside the Bankstown stadium, as Kaila shoots, Roderick points out the length of her arms and the size of her hands. Those features are advantages in basketball but had also long been a source of grief for the teenager who’d doubted whether she’d be tall enough to play professionally.

“Up until probably a year ago, a year and a half, Kaila looked like everyone’s baby sister,” Melissa said. “She was really tiny and little and then all of a sudden, a bit like me, the height started.”

Last year, Kaila was selected to represent Australia’s under-17s team and travelled to Samoa, Singapore and the US. Now she’s fielding offers from two universities in the US and still speaking to others.

Roderick and Kaila Proctor at the Bankstown Basketball Stadium.

“I’m extremely proud because she was a late bloomer, and she missed out on a few state teams when I knew she deserved a spot,” Roderick said. “But we’re not those parents that get in and say stuff.”

Kaila will travel to the US in March to tour colleges and beyond that, she wants to play professionally either in Europe or the WNBA. If she does, she could potentially join her brother in Cleveland when the WNBA expands there in 2028.

Then mum Melissa may have to follow through on a bet she’d originally made to Tyrese when he was 10 to get a tattoo if he ever made the NBA.

“And she’s petrified of needles, like hates needles. So we made this bet at the age of 10, she said, if I made it to the NBA, she’ll get a tattoo on her wrist of my number,” Tyrese said in August. After getting the tattoo, Tyrese said it was Kaila who was making the same bet with their mum.

“Once she got my one, they started talking already, so we’ll see.”