If it was up to me, he would have been fresh out of high school and going to the NBA but that couldn’t happen (as the NBA has an age limit) and the road he has taken through college and Europe has built character. When you have to go through some tough times and detours, it makes you have to recalibrate yourself to get back on track and start moving things forward. When he was six or seven years old, he was just like a normal kid who loved basketball but he didn’t have that height at that time. Jonah trains under the eye of father Bruce. Credit:Daniel Pockett So fortunately for him, he was able to come to a lot of my basketball camps so he could hone in on his ball-handling, his passing and court vision like a point guard would.

Then as he got into his teenage years he had a growth spurt so I knew he wouldn’t play in that position but I knew he had the skills to play that point guard position and I knew that would work in his favour as he grew from 6’8 (203cm) to 6’10 (208cm) now. These last few months have been fantastic (as Jonah signed with Philadelphia). It’s been something he has had his mind set on, he has put a lot of hard work into getting to this point. The journey hasn’t been straight forward, at the same time this is OK as it builds character, builds dedication and adds that little fire in your belly. From a father’s point of view it has been pretty special. As told to Roy Ward

Bruce Pendlebury on his son, Scott, Collingwood captain, premiership player and Norm Smith medallist. Scott and his brother Kris were close but they were so competitive in the backyard, mainly with a basketball but occasionally a football. We set up a basketball ring on the old garage of a house we bought in MacArthur Street, Sale.

The boys were always at it. They would come home and didn’t worry about homework. They just got the ball and went straight out the back. New Collingwood recruit Scott Pendlebury, 2005. Credit:Sebastian Costanzo Ryan came along later, which only added to the competitiveness.

There was no secret. They just picked it up and away they went with it. They all loved basketball and they all still do now. I don’t think they were doing anything different to what any other kid does, I suppose, if they want to play basketball. However from an early age Scott set himself some goals and his ball skills were very good. In that little house in MacArthur Street, he wrote up on his window certain goals. He wanted to go to the the AIS, play for Australia and be in the world championships. He wrote them down so every time he went in to his bedroom they were up on the window. They used to go to a basketball stadium and have 1000 shots before school. They would just get the ball and shoot, get the ball and shoot. That’s a 1000 shots just shooting the ball and nothing else. He was just so driven. When he played with Vic Country in a rep basketball tournament, I realised how talented he was. The coach was from Bendigo and he ran their absolute guts out. He probably gave Scott the hardest time and Scott never wavered. He was a total standout in that competition and no matter what they threw at him, he just kept dishing it up. No one came near him as a point guard.

He was playing two games a day and he was just exceptionally good that week. I just thought, ‘God, he has got what it takes to go to the next level’. The basketball was the pinnacle for him as far as having all that time and space goes. His awareness is something else. He used to dribble down the court and throw the ball and if you weren’t ready he would smack you in the nose. They would all think he was going right and he would go left and if you weren’t ready you were going to cop it. Then he played school football and it didn’t take him very long to realise what footy was all about. One day Scott and Kris kicked 16 goals between them playing Auskick. They thought there was only two kids on the ground. Because I am a fly-in and fly-out worker (on gas and oil rigs) my wife, Lisa, used to do the bulk of the work with the boys because I was always away a couple of weeks at a time. The kids used to travel from Sale to Melbourne after school on a Friday to play junior basketball, get home at 1 or 2am and then get up and play football.

Best of all, he has never got a big head. All of the groomsmen from his wedding were all from Sale. He is very close to his brothers. I told him to keep his mates close because football won’t be forever and I think it’s a credit to him that he has done that. As told to Peter Ryan Roger Kerr on his daughter Samantha, the Matildas’ star striker and Young Australian of the Year

Sam was playing Aussie rules against boys and in under-10s or 11s kicked six goals in a game. At any level of footy you play, doing that you know you’ve got some ability. Roger Kerr with his daughter Sam. Then she went to soccer for under 12s, because she was getting roughed up too much in Aussie rules, and played against boys and was kicking three or four goals a game and I was going, ‘There’s something special about this one’. She played with the boys until she was 15, until she made the Australian side. Sam was a very energetic type of girl. Always loved her sport from day one, was always kicking a footy around the house. She was always a nice natured person and she was a great little kid.

Sam reads the game really well, she is very good at anticipating what the next move is. Same with Daniel (Sam’s AFL premiership-winning brother), they’ve just got that ability to read the play. They see what is coming before it happens. She is always one or two steps ahead of where the ball is going to be, with her running speed that makes her so dangerous. She is seeing it all happen before others and is already in position before the other players have noticed what will happen. I wasn’t physical like Daniel, I relied on speed (Roger played in SANFL and WAFL premierships),

so that’s what I had that I see in Sam. Her work ethic sets her apart. I always told her it wasn’t about what you did when you touch the football it’s what you do when you’re not. She will go for runs every day or a bike ride, trying to be fitter than the next person.

She played netball, too, and was one of the best on the team but when soccer came along she was a different person, she fell in love and never looked back. Loves the running, loves the competition. We miss her when she is away. I was only just Facetiming with her, we do that all the time. She tells us what she is up to, how her latest game went and what she is looking forward to. Sam is paying for the family tickets to come to the World Cup (2019 in France). She has a big heart and that’s how she plays and how people perceive her, she doesn’t forget where she comes from. She loves the family being around her and we are looking forward to having a bit of a holiday in June. As told to Anthony Colangelo

Dave Simmons on his son Ben, Philadelphia 76ers’ star and NBA Rookie of the Year

I’m not going to say there was some early stage where I looked and went ‘‘he’s going to make it’’. A young Ben Simmons with his dad. I just knew he was unusual in terms of talent; he has always had talent and always had a bit of flair to his game that some coaches didn’t like. But I always tried to let him have fun and enjoy himself and that was the main thing for us – that he was surrounded by good coaches and he was enjoying himself. I coached him quite a bit as well and that flair wasn’t something I discouraged, he used to go down and make a move then miss and I would wonder, ‘‘How did he make that move? He was eight or nine years old. How did you even think of that?’’ I knew then there was something going on in his head that other people didn’t have.

So I tried to find coaches who would allow him to be himself and not try to put him in a box; you see now that if he was put in a box he would be a centre or a forward but he is a point guard. I have just been on this great journey with him. In high school (Montverde Academy, Florida) he won three national championships but does that make you an NBA player? I didn’t know at that time. NBA star Ben Simmons with father Dave, NBL legend. Credit:Paul Jeffers Then you go onto college (Louisiana State University) and he was not dominating in college but people were going, ‘‘He is really good’’ – I guess that was because he was a freshman and going against older guys and at that stage you know he is in line to go to the NBA but you still don’t know that he is going to be the No. 1 pick until you get further into that journey. I’m sure he surprised a lot of people last season; who knew he was going to be rookie of the year and have that many triple-doubles? It was actually amazing. I won’t say that I knew all along that he would do this but I did know he had something ... maybe that is the best way to put it.

As told to Roy Ward Greg Phillips on his daughter Erin, Adelaide star and former WNBA player and Opal ALFW star Erin Phillips. Credit:AAP Some kids who are born with this gift just stand out and you could always see that with Erin.

You would throw a cricket ball in the backyard and she would dive and catch it one-handed at a young age. We lived in a four-bedroom, single-storey solid brick house with a swimming pool and our three daughters – Rachel, Amy and Erin. Tennis balls would be hit at the garage door and it looked like it had bullet holes in it. Julie (Erin’s mum) would be in there cooking and all she would hear was ‘‘bang, bang, bang’’.

I remember once there were a couple of witches hats on the footpath outside because there was a hole there. Erin brought them home and used them as goalposts. We hoped no one went down the hole. Otherwise there would be someone bowling in the driveway. I also had a basketball ring made with a solid pole that lurched over the driveway so there were many fights and arguments under that. At one function at the footy club neither of us realised she hadn’t come home with the other parent until we had been home for 45 minutes. I raced back and Erin was still out there with three boys tackling and fighting and playing a scratch match game with the lights still on. Before she started playing basketball Erin was making a name for herself playing football with the boys at Rosewater. She was the blonde-headed little kid running around getting a lot of the ball and dominating. People used to say ‘‘get that girl’’ and ‘‘flatten her’’.

She could have got in a development squad for football when she was under 14 but because she was a girl that was as far as she could go. She could just about imitate Port Adelaide coach John Cahill’s speech, mimicking him by saying, ‘‘Smash in, hit ’em hard, tackle hard’’. Our daughters were all very good at sport but Erin had more dedication and will to win. Erin only took up basketball when she was 14 or 15, after I introduced her to former Australian basketballer Rachael Sporn. She got four fouls in the first quarter when she was young, playing for Adelaide Lightning and then was fouled off in the second quarter. The team lost by a couple of points. She got in the car and slammed the door and I was like, ‘‘Hang on, don’t slam the door you were fouled off’’ but Erin wasn’t worried about that. She said, ‘‘When we lost all the other girls were laughing and talking. What are they laughing for?’’ She was more upset about the other girls being happy after they had lost. I could see she had a killer instinct in her but I had to talk to her about being graceful when you lose.

I am very proud of the fact she might be disappointed but butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth when she is with other people. The will to win was always there. As told to Peter Ryan Wayne Lanning on his daughter Meg, Australian cricket captain Meg Lanning, aged two-and-a-half.

From the age of about two she was bouncing basketballs, and throwing tennis balls, hitting golf balls, all sorts of stuff. So it was quite evident to me that she had talent at a very young age. Her hand-eye coordination in terms of being able to hit a ball and bounce a ball and that sort of stuff just seemed to be way ahead of other children, and certainly other children in my family, and other children that I’d seen at that age.

Cricket took a bit longer, because she went to primary school in Sydney. She was at a school called Warrawee Public, which was a small school. It had probably 50 children, they never had enough boys or girls to put in a girls team or boys team, but there was always mixed teams, and she was playing all sorts of sports. Cricket, football, netball, whatever the school was participating in, she was involved. She always showed that she could participate in virtually any activity, because she could pick it up very quickly. Meg Lanning as current-day Australian skipper. Credit:AAP

In terms of cricket though, she was actually playing AFL football for a little club called St Ives, and then on the presentation day for her football season, in which she won the best and fairest, instead of her going to the football presentation, the sports teacher at her school said, ‘‘Look there’s a cricket tryout for the NSW Northern team, being held somewhere near Gosford, I think you should have a go’’. So Meg said, ‘‘Yeah I think I’ll have a go at that’’. So she went up there and found herself in the team, principally as a bowler. So she was, I don’t know, eight or nine at that stage. She played in the Northern Districts team and the captain of that team happened to be Ellyse Perry. As told to Daniel Cherny Jeff Horn snr, on his son Jeff jnr, former WBO welterweight champion, who is in negotiations to fight Anthony Mundine later this year He was a cheeky little guy, always into a bit of fun. He was very competitive right from an early age, as was his younger brother Ben.

I’ve got two older girls who I hardly remember them fighting. But the boys fought like cats and dogs until they were about 18, when they got in the boxing ring and had their first sparring session. Jeff Horn snr with his son. They played soccer from a young age. Jeff was always a solid player. He changed when he was about 14 or 15. His uncle lived across the road and he got a set of weights, so Jeff started to develop quite a lot of strength. You could see that have a big impact in his soccer and he became a very decent defender ... he always thought he wanted to make a career in soccer. He had a feeling he could make a career in sport. It just wasn’t going to be that sport. He thought he might try rugby league and it was that time when he’d finished school and he’d had a bit of trouble with bullying.

His cousin guided Jeff to (the Brisbane suburb of) Stretton to meet Glenn Rushton and get some self-defence training. He did that, one night a week, for 18 months before he had his first fight. We went to the Queensland titles at the Mansfield Tavern and when his weight division came up, he said to me, ‘‘Dad, I think I can beat these guys’’. Jeff Horn goes toe-to-toe with boxing legend Manny Pacquiao. Credit:AAP I thought, ‘‘Good on you son, that’s the way to think’’. I was just trying to encourage him! But he did eventually beat those guys and then it all went from there. It’s pretty amazing to think back to those sort of moments, when the penny dropped for him. That was really the moment he thought he could excel at boxing. He just had that feeling.

But I’m just as proud of all the other kids as I am of him. As told to Phil Lutton