What does being Australian mean in Josh Giddey’s case? First, that he must be a talented athlete, as Aussies are really good at sports. And second, that he must also be talented in poker because that game is really huge in Australia, regardless of the format: traditional casinos, online gambling, friendly tournaments, etc.
Josh now has a US$100 million contract with the NBA, which means that even if he were solving puzzles as a side hustle, the media would still talk about it. But poker is huge, and his skills in the game are not those of a hobbyist, but rather of someone beyond that.
A hobby that fits the way he thinks
Giddey did not grow up as a public poker personality. He got into the game the way many young pros do: through teammates. Of course, those who play poker in Australia today first of all enjoy the community factor (which is big, as already mentioned), as having a shared interest is always better than gambling in a strategic game all alone.
Perhaps the community part was the pulling force for the athlete too, who later told the media that he first learned poker on a team flight during his early NBA years, when veteran players taught a few younger teammates the basics.
From there, the game moved into home sessions, and then into something he followed more closely instead of treating as a one-off way to pass time. That origin makes his poker interest feel natural, not staged. It began inside the rhythm of team life and slowly became part of how he likes to compete.
The same patience that shapes his basketball
The sharpest link between poker and Giddey’s basketball style is patience. Poker rewards that same skill. It is not about constant action but holding your position long enough to spot the moment when the table gives you useful information.
For a player from Melbourne, where card play has a strong social and competitive pull, the urge to play poker is not some side note to his career. It fits his sporting personality. He likes reading people, staying calm, and letting the right move arrive instead of forcing it. And perhaps, if one day he gets deeper into poker at a professional level, this will be the scene in the locker room of athletes:
From promising guard to premium asset
What pushed Giddey into a new pay bracket was not hype alone. It was the shape of his game once more responsibility came his way. The end of 2024-25 gave a clear look at what happens when the ball stays in his hands and the offense runs through his reads instead of around them. Below, you will find an informative graphic that brings together key data about Giddey’s career. Numbers are always useful, and in this case especially, they show his importance to the sport and the value the industry now sees in him.
A tall guard who can handle, pass, rebound and settle a team’s rhythm is expensive in the modern NBA, especially when his scoring is getting cleaner and his shooting trend is moving the right way. In simple terms, Giddey stopped looking like an experiment and started looking like an answer.
What his rise means in Australia
Giddey’s rise now carries a meaning that goes beyond one franchise or one season. It says something larger about where Australian basketball sits in the global sports economy.
Late in 2025, Forbes Australia described him as Australia’s highest-paid athlete at 23, a striking label for a player whose game is built more on control and vision than on loud self-promotion. That framing shows how valuable a complete modern guard has become and how far he has moved from being seen as merely intriguing.
That makes him easy to trust and easy to build around. His next step is not mysterious. The more reliable his scoring becomes, the more complete his case becomes as one of the defining Australian athletes of his era.
