CG and Newls: A shared basketball journey

Written by Melbourne United Media

It’s not often you have a player reach 400 games in the NBL.

Over the league’s history, only 49 players have reached the mark, however that is set to become 50 on Sunday, with United legend Chris Goulding joining that illustrious club.

While this would be special enough on its own, Goulding will have the pleasure of sharing the moment with close friend Brad Newley, who will hit his own milestone of longevity when he takes to the court for his 300th NBL game.

The two have a long-standing relationship, spanning from CG’s first ever NBL game in 2006 to now, with the duo set to celebrate their achievements within the league nearly 16 years to the day they first faced off.

Goulding and Newley sat down with Melbourne United Media to talk about their shared basketball journey, as well as their close personal relationship.

What were some of your first memories of each other on the basketball court?

 Chris - He (Brad) was part of that Boomers crew when I was trying to make my way just as a basketballer, not even professionally or anything.

Newls, Joe (Ingles), Patty (Mills), DA (David Andersen), (David) Barlow, I would go and peek through the glass at Boomers camps and watch these guys go about it. At that time, they were just at a completely different level to what I ever envisioned myself getting to, so I definitely looked up to those guys.

Brad - For me, I didn’t know much about him (Chris) until I saw him playing for the (Brisbane) Bullets.

We were getting smoked, so Brisbane cleared the bench and got the young fella on for his first minutes. I was still on the court playing hard.

Chris - Yeah, it was junk-time and you were still trying to get buckets.

Goulding won their first meeting by 40 points in what were his first NBL minutes, contributing zero points, two missed free-throws and a turnover in five minutes of play. Newley scored 18 points in the game, but tallied eight turnovers and five fouls.

 

It was nearly 10 years before you two faced off on the court after that, but you ended up spending a fair bit of time together between then?

Brad - I left the NBL and didn’t really have much to do with Chris until a Boomers camp in 2013 or 2014.

He was good mates with Adam Gibson, and I liked Gibbo so I thought ‘This guy’s not a bad guy’.

I had been keeping my eye on the NBL and I liked the way he went about it. A young guy who had a crack, it kind of reminded me of myself. I was an attacking player from a young age, not afraid to have a go and I kind of liked that about him. We added him to our little crew and that’s how we became mates.

We spent a year overseas in Spain playing against each other after that. When we were in Spain I was asking him a lot of questions, trying to find out what the NBL was like now and if I should come back.

I saw Chris as an example of a player who was doing all they could to help establish this league as a powerhouse. He was a guy that left Europe to come back to Australia, which I thought was a pretty big move.

Once you were both back in the NBL, how were those battles when the Kings and United faced off? 

Chris - You gotta do what you’ve gotta do on the court. A big part of the scout was how to limit Newls and I would imagine the same would have been the other way around.

You try to use the little things you know about each other to your advantage each game to try and come out on top.

Some really good battles over the years but I’m much happier that he’s here now.

Brad - We crossed paths fairly early once I was back. Melbourne and Sydney were pretty big rivals. We didn’t really match up a lot but I hated playing against him, and didn't really talk to him before the game.

We’d normally catch up after but there were some pretty special battles.

The pair faced off 21 times while Newley was in Sydney, with United winning 13 and the Kings winning eight.

 

After all those years of going against each other, what was it like when the opportunity arose to bring Brad to United.

Chris - When the name was brought up it was like ‘Yeah, he can definitely help us get where we want to go.’

We were trying to win a championship so I just thought let’s make that happen. We knew he could contribute on court and off court in creating a strong culture, so it was a pretty easy decision to make.

Brad - As soon as I had the opportunity to come to Melbourne I didn’t even listen to anyone else.

I like it here and Chris is a big part of that. He’s my mate. I like hanging out with him, we spend a lot of time together, getting coffees, riding to the airport so to be able to work together is a lot of fun.

We didn’t quite get to where we wanted to last season, that was my whole goal in coming here, but I’m happy we get another chance at it together this season.


You two make up two of the three Australians to have scored over 45 points since Brad entered the league in 2004 (Martin Cattalini 51, Goulding 50, Newley 46). Does it feel special to share that achievement? Or does it annoy you Newls that he’s got one up on you?

Brad - Nah not annoying at all, that’s a pretty cool stat. I think I might have been overseas when he got that 50.

Chris - You would have been flat to see I got past you.

Brad - No I loved it! I thought ‘He’s an Aussie having a crack’ and that’s what I love. I loved growing up watching the Aussies in our league so to see Chris put up 50 was pretty special, it was really exciting for me to see. He had 50 points in 40 minutes. I had 48 minutes and couldn’t get there. I remember my point guard was gassing me up to get 50 and I was having a red-hot crack.

Chris - There’s plenty of games left, you could still get that 51. We’ll feed you if you’re close.

As Chris said, these two still have plenty of games left to play together, hopefully including plenty more wins as United make their playoff push across the back half of the NBL23 season.

From everyone at Melbourne United, we would like to thank and congratulate both Chris and Brad for everything they have given to the club.