IT'S a long way from the red dirt of Bamaga to the bright lights of New York City.

It has taken Nathan Jawai a little more than five years to traverse the thousands of miles that took him from basketball novice to the first indigenous Australian selected to reach the sport’s pinnacle – the NBA.

Click here to see the Nathan Jawai story so far

Indiana selected Jawai at No. 41 in the NBA draft in New York on Friday, but his "rights" have already been snapped up by the Toronto Raptors whose multi-player trade with the Pacers is set to get approval next week.

His selection outside the top 30 means he is not guaranteed an NBA deal, but the Raptors are said to be keen on the 208cm centre, who they flew halfway around the world to see playing in the NBL earlier this year.

The buzz surrounding Jawai has grown exponentially in the past year.

A year ago he had not yet played an NBL game.

Now he is the Cairns Taipans’ reigning MVP, NBL rookie of the year and All Star MVP.

Cairns Taipans coach Alan Black said Jawai’s story was "sensational".

"It’s great on all fronts — for the Cairns Taipans, for Australian basketball, for Nate himself and for Cairns as well," Black said.

"Every time Nate hits the court, there’ll be mention of the Far North and the NBL, it’s exciting."

The 21-year-old’s rise has been swift but his future did not always seem so rosy.

Jawai’s uncle Danny Morseu, a two-time Olympian, member of the NBL’s Hall of Fame and the first Torres Strait Islander to represent Australia, remembers counselling a then-teenage Jawai at Bamaga.

Morseu is not an uncle in the western sense. He is not a sibling of one of Jawai’s parents. But in the Torres Strait Islander culture, the Thursday Islander is "uncle’’ and has been one of his mentors.

"I was reflecting the other day back on when he dropped out of St Augustine’s (College in Cairns) and went back to the community in Bamaga," Morseu said.

"Worried" is perhaps too strong a word but Morseu was aware of the void there could be in a teenager’s life in a Cape community if he had no goal.

"I remember when we sat down to talk about my own journey – leaving the Torres Strait to go to Cairns and then Melbourne and then a couple of Olympics – I shared it with him," Morseu said.

"Basically I said to him, ‘you’re not built like an AFL player, you’re not built like a rugby league player, you’re built like a basketball player’.

"It was about creating pathways and opening doors and he needed to know that if he was playing basketball, people would help open doors for him and support him and we did that."

Jawai has extraordinary natural talent. Cairns Taipans assistant coach Aaron Fearne, who travelled to the US with Jawai and has helped guide him through his draft odyssey, believes he is physically ready to play in the NBA. "He can definitely play at this level, there’s no doubt," Fearne said.

"He’s big, strong, athletic, defends well and has shot the ball well.’’

It was not always that way though.

Morseu remembers convincing Jawai to make the short trip from Bamaga to Thursday Island to take part in a clinic he was holding.

"The kid was so shy he couldn’t come in the stadium," Morseu said.

It was the same when the then 16-year-old headed to Cairns to join Kuiyam Pride, the now-defunct Queensland Australian Basketball League team run by Indigenous North Basketball.

Morseu was Kuiyam’s foundation coach and he and Ben Johnson, an American import then playing with the Pride, convinced Jawai to join the program.

The teen was again loath to enter the stadium but edged his way onto the court at Fretwell Park and was soon making an impact in the league.

After working his way into the Queensland under-20 team, Jawai decided to switch to rivals the Cairns Marlins and entered the Taipans Academy program, run by Fearne.

Jawai undoubtedly had talent.

But until this point in his career he had been hiding a secret – he hadn’t really liked the sport.

Growing up on rugby-league mad Cape York, Jawai did not have a love of basketball.

"My first game at Fretwell, I was like: I don’t know if I want to do this, I was so uncomfortable," he said.

"I called home and my parents just told me to give it a try. A lot of this has to do with my parents because when I first came down, I’d call them and say, ‘Dad, I’m not interested, I don’t want to play this sport’.

"And my Dad was like, just give it a try. I gave it a try and the first two weeks, I kind of enjoyed it a little bit.

"I didn’t even know how to play the game, I didn’t understand anything.

"And then I kind of started enjoying myself. You know how people say you get a love for the game?"

Jawai "kind of" enjoyed his first year in the sport but said it was after the move to the Marlins and being involved in the ABA title-winning team of 2004 that he really hit his straps.

"We were winning and I was really enjoying myself … and then I got called up to the institute (Australian Institute of Sport) and (I realised), I’m starting to like it," he said.

"I met Patty (fellow Torres Strait Islander Patrick Mills), I had Baynesey (Mareeba product Aron Baynes) with me, I made new friends.

"My love from the game just (rocketed). I just started to enjoy it.

"I hadn’t even turned pro yet, I didn’t know what was coming ahead of me, but I thought, damn man, this is fun, I enjoy it.

"I was starting to get better and I wasn’t getting better slowly, I was getting better quickly.

"Then when I got called up in my first Boomers camp, that was before my under-19 selection and I was chosen for that and I went to that and (was incredible)."

His game continued to develop with stints at the Australian Institute of Sport and Midland Junior College, in Texas, before Jawai returned to Cairns to sign with the Taipans in the NBL.

Jawai’s cousin Sonia Townson, an alcohol and drug education officer based in Bamaga, said his elevation to the Taipans was popular but she now expected a rush on Austar services in the community so people could watch him in the NBA.

"When he got selected for the Taipans and played for the Taipans, the world stopped – it was Nathan time," she said.

Jawai loves heading home to Bamaga.

After the Taipans’ season finished, he slipped back up to the township on the tip of Cape York, a place where he is still the "same Nathan’’ they grew up with.

The shoes slip off, he goes fishing and diving for crays and is just "home’’, somewhere he can refresh his soul.

"It was good when I went back for two months because I haven’t been back for a while," he said.

"That two months I spent up there was the best holiday I’ve had so far."

He may be the same Nathan back home but like it or not, he is also a role model.

"Everyone came up to me and (said), ‘keep it up man, you’re doing us proud, we’re supporting you from home’.

"That’s all they’ve got to say. They knew who I was before.

"My whole community is supporting me … it’s like my whole town is my family, so I can say Bamaga is supporting me."

He is immensely proud of being the first indigenous player selected to the NBA.

"That’s very, very, very special," he said from New York on Friday after being picked up in the draft.

"I’m proud of where I’m from."

And with Mills in the Boomers squad for the Olympics and making waves in his first year at NCAA Div I college St Mary’s, Jawai is sure he will not be the last.

"Hopefully my little cuz Patty can come along too … and I can help him with my experience," he said.

Morseu was "over the moon’’ after learning of his draft selection.

"Who would think a kid from Cape York where there’s alcohol and drugs and all sorts of problems … has managed to get out of there and on his way," he said.

"I think it’s going to be a great morale boost for the community.

"He’s a great role model not only for the Cape community and indigenous kids but for Australian kids generally."

The big shy kid who had trouble looking strangers in the eye just a few years ago has wowed the NBA’s top clubs over the past month, winning coaches and general managers over with his personality as much as his athleticism and skills.

Jawai’s NBA journey is far from complete. Plenty of water has to pass under the bridge before he lines up for the Raptors when the season starts in October.

But he is unlikely to change drastically from the lad that first left the Cape to try his hand at a foreign sport.

Jawai spent much of his conversation with The Cairns Post on Friday thanking people — his family, the Bamaga and Cairns communities, coaches, players, administrators and office staff from Kuiyam Pride, the Marlins, Cairns Basketball and the Taipans.

He is justifiably proud of the journey he has undertaken but determined not to forget where he has come from.

"It’s been a massive process," he said.

"I’m happy with myself. I’ve handled myself really well.

"I’ve grown up as a person."

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