Love of the game freed Harry from his darkest days

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Australian basketball star Harry Froling admits he was feeling sorry for himself when close mate and NBL champion Will Magnay and former NBL1 teammate Lachie Venus' tough love "spray" helped turn his life around.

“It got to the point where Magnay and Lachie gave me a bit of a spray and they’re ‘if you don’t want to help yourself, we can’t help you’ and that sort of just sunk in,” Froling revealed to basketball.com.au.

“I was just playing the victim a lot, which obviously I was a victim, but they let me go through my grieving process and be upset and be down in the dumps… but it got to the point where I kept dragging it along,” he said.

Froling, who was trying to overcome the trauma of a near death brain injury, is now on the brink of a remarkable NBL return.

His life, not just his basketball career, was turned upside down after suffering serious brain injuries following a cowardly one-punch attack in the early hours of the morning in Wollongong on January 22, 2023.

Froling had just played for the Brisbane Bullets against younger brother Sam and his Illawarra Hawks — the Townsville centre was enjoying a night out.

Froling was taken to Wollongong Hospital but later, extraordinarily, checked himself out despite the severity of his injuries. He wanted to return home to Brisbane with his Bullets teammates.

Getting on an aeroplane with serious head trauma only made Froling’s condition worse. He suffered a brain bleed, which led to his then-partner calling his parents when he landed.

“I don’t really remember too much to be honest,” Froling admitted.

“From midnight onwards, I remember the game, but don’t really remember getting on the plane, don’t remember talking to anyone.

“Obviously having alcohol in your system and having a big brain bleed, you’re probably not functioning the way you need to be, telling people how you’re feeling or what’s going on.

“I guess that was one of the issues I had with not knowing where I was or what I was doing,

“It was definitely traumatic.

“But I don’t really remember a lot from midnight to the Wednesday. I haven’t had any flashbacks or anything. Like, if you showed me the bloke who punched me, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you who it was… There’s not a lot of memory of the whole thing besides what I saw in court and all the evidence.”

Froling spent most of the two weeks in ICU and said he woke up the first night thinking: “Why am I in hospital?”

“It was just more the anxiety of not knowing what happened (that was hard) and the whole true story of everything and dealing with all that,” he said.

Having fought through a near-death experience, the man who had spent his whole life playing basketball never thought it could possibly end his professional career, even though he was battling something that meant much more than a game.

“I thought I’d be playing NBL1 six weeks later,” Froling said.

“I think that’s probably why I spiralled and got as big as I did and sort of fell into depression. I was told by the top neurosurgeons, by all of them, ‘you’re not playing sport again’ and that it’d be hard for me to work a job or even have a normal life.

“That was obviously traumatic and I guess at the start, you’re sort of optimistic… then it sinks in that you might not play again, might never work again and might have issues for life.”

Battling those demons sent Froling into a spiral. He had gained weight, ballooning to more than 160kg and in his own words “wasn’t a fun person to be around” for his friends and family.

Froling said he watched his two sisters in the WNBL, Keely and Alicia, as well as brother Sam playing for the Hawks – and it was “great” but it did make the thought he may never play again even tougher.

“Just not being in a team environment, sitting home, not working for two and a half years, just going through that whole thing while they're living their dreams and doing their stuff and, I'm sort of sitting there and I'm just suffering in silence,” he said.

“It's all ripped away from you, and they can be there and support you but what do you tell someone that has been told they're never going to play the sport they love again or the job they love or whatever?

“You can be there for them, but you sort of have to go through that grieving process yourself.”

But that’s where Tasmania JackJumpers star Magnay and former NBL1 North player Lachie stepped in to deliver a message, which ignited Froling’s turnaround.

Struggling in Brisbane and on his own, the message from two of his closest mates hit home.it was then he decided to take steps to take his life back.

Froling packed up and moved to Mackay last year to spend time with the Meteors in the NBL1 North, a group that featured NBL stars such as Todd Blanchfield, Isaac White and Emmett Naar, as well as Hawks assistant coach Joel Khalu.

“I was 160kg at the time… and I thought I’ll just go up there and be around a team environment, be around some of my best mates and just see where it takes me,” Froling revealed.

“Slowly it started to build my mood back up and be happy and enjoy life and got into all my fishing and spearfishing and it was a good distraction from what I was going through.

“Obviously my whole career has sort of been,  not in the best shape, not this, not that and this was where I was at the heaviest I've ever been and the worst shape I've ever been in and I was like, you know what, I'm just going to do it for myself and for my family and show that I can get through all this.

“It just sort of built from there and slowly progressed.”

Side note: the Meteors would go on to win the NBL1 North championship.

Froling dropped about 13kg in Mackay, before spending some time in his hometown, where he paid for nutritional plans and lost another 10kg. It put him in a position to join the Illawarra Hawks as a training player.

“It all just sky-rocketed from there,” he said.

Froling’s recovery reached new heights with immense support from the Hawks, access to doctors, physios and being welcomed with “open arms” by coach Justin Tatum.

The 2019 NBL Rookie of the Year spent the closing stages of the NBL season playing the role of opposition big men, such as Matt Hurt from the South East Melbourne Phoenix and Rob Loe from Melbourne United, as the Hawks prepared to win their first title since 2001.

All the bumps and bruises along the road led Froling to March 10 this year.

Froling stepped back on to the court for his first professional game in the NZNBL with the Taranaki Airs, trying to shrug off intense emotions of the past two years.

Froling said it was a “weird feeling”.

“Everyone sort of was up in the air with like, is he going to be any good, is he not going to be good,” he said.

“Two and a half years is a long time out of the game and obviously I'd trained a bit and done stuff with the Hawks, but as you know with NBL towards the end of the season, trainings aren't up and down scrimmages.

“It was a bit overwhelming.

“It didn’t think it sunk in more until afterwards when I did the post-game interview with Casey Frank because it is a long time and, obviously my goal is NBL, but I was sort of like this is the start, I'm back playing now.

“It's a pretty special thing and obviously to play the way I did and everyone be a bit shocked about it… I’m probably another 10kg down from what I was when I first played that game, so as I said it's just ascending for me and it's been a good few months.”

While so many fans and experts were surprised, Froling wasn’t. He went on to put up dominant figures with the Airs before returning to Australia to play in the NBL1 South with the Melbourne Tigers under the great Andrew Gaze.

At the Tigers, the former Hawk, Bullet and 36ers big man continued to push claims for an NBL contract, averaging… and even winning a Player of the Week in his first month with the Tigers.

It’s that form which has multiple NBL teams calling as Froling nears a fairytale return to Australia’s elite league — a return he said would mean everything to him.

“I get goosebumps thinking about it because the NBL is a hard thing to make in general for you know the general public, and to come back from something like I've done, you know it's not something where it's a nine to 12 months and hey you're back. It was a bit different for me, so be it'd be cool and pretty special,” Froling said.

“I think the sky's the limit for me… It might take a little while (when I get back) like obviously it's a shock to go back to that level and if I'm lucky enough to be back there and back out playing, I just want to contribute to winning.

“It's not about coming out and dominating, it might be a long process, it might be just playing my role for a couple years, it might be being cheer squad on the bench or whatever it is.

“I just want to get a foot in the door again and I know everything will take care of itself.

“(Getting back to the NBL) means the world.

"That's sort of what I said when I started doing this whole thing, I obviously haven't earned money for two and a half years, I haven't had an income but yeah just it's what I love.

“I love playing love hoops, love being around team environment and I guess it's shown me how quick it can be taken away so as I said I’m grateful for it.”