ORIGINS Kody Stattmann: Homecoming

On a humid Friday night at the Convention Centre, there’s a moment that lands differently when it’s your city calling your name.

Not because the shot is harder or the defence is tighter, but because every sound in the building belongs somewhere in your own timeline.

The seats where you sat as a kid. The tunnel you once stared at, wondering what it would feel like to run out. The people who watched you grow up, watched you leave and now watch you return older, sharper and finally in a role that matches the noise.

For the Taipans, Kody Stattmann is a sharpshooter and an offensive weapon. But in this town, he’s also something rarer, a local who made it all the way through the maze and came back.

He’s a local in the truest sense and the Orange Army treats him like family.

Tiny Taipans, Big Beginnings

Stattmann’s earliest basketball memories begin with a camp run by a former Taipan and at five years old, it felt like the first real step into the game.

“Kane Oakley (who represented the Taipans from 2001-07) had a weekend skills basketball camp,” Stattmann said.

“That was my first memory of actually training, before playing club basketball for All Stars. My mum and Auntie played. Since I was born I have always been around basketball.”

Basketball runs through the family. Kody’s mother Tonya and aunt Chantele both played for the Cairns Dolphins. His great aunt Rayleen Lynch played at the 1967 World Championships in Prague, while also becoming the first Queenslander to represent Australia.

He wasn’t a basketball obsessive at first.

“I rarely watched the NBA growing up,” he said. “I was a real Motocross outdoorsy type of kid, rode motorbikes all the time, huge Travis Pastrana fan. Massive into the Nitro Circus.”

A Geelong Cats and Gary Ablett fan growing up, he gave AFL a crack, but as the years moved, the NBL started to take up more space.

“Around 11 or 12, I started to watch the NBL a lot more. I went to all the Taipans games as a kid.”

Before he wore the uniform, he was the kid in the stands, sometimes even part of the Tiny Taipans who ran out at halftime, soaking in the noise and the theatre.

He remembers the Taipans’ 2011 run.

“I remember being at the game when we were in the finals and Ron Dorsey hit a deep three and the crowd went crazy.”

He idolised Taipans he could see in person, in particular Aaron Grabau and Martin Cattalini, while watching Kirk Penney as an opposing star, the Breakers sharpshooter who still stood out thousands of miles away.

“They were people I looked up to, always wanted to meet them.”

Backyard Rumbles: Stattmann vs Stattmann

Stattmann grew up in a routine that didn’t really allow shortcuts.

When his younger brother Ky got old enough, it became a three-person battleground, Kody, Ky and their dad in the backyard after school, grinding every day.

“When I got older and a little bit better it would become two-on-one battles,” Stattmann said.

“We were in the backyard pretty much every day. I think that’s kind of what made me and Ky better than most people around our age. If we weren’t at the courts we would be in the backyard. Our parents always said if you want to be good you’ve got to put the hours in.”

“The biggest mentors growing up were pretty much mum and dad, they really pushed me.”

Outside the home, he remembers the people who grabbed his development with both hands.

“Colin Donovan, he took me under his wing, improved me. He saw my talents pretty young and put my name out there,” he said.

Fast-Tracked: Marlins, Australia

Stattmann broke into the Cairns Marlins system young, debuting at 17. Not long after, he was travelling with Australia at multiple junior levels, missing school, living out of suitcases, measuring himself against different styles around the world.

“When I was 16-17, I missed a bunch of school to go to Adidas Nations and world championships representing Australia,” he said.

“Being able to travel around the world with my mates on the Australian team, playing against the best talent around, I really got the chance to compare myself and see where I stack up.

“Going up against Eastern European teams that play a completely different style of basketball to us. It really is a different type of game everywhere.”

Then came Adidas Nations in the US, packed gyms and a warm-up on the other end of the floor that didn’t look human.

“We were just trying to warm up and (future NBA number one draft pick) Zion Williamson was down the other end doing 360 windmill dunks, the crowd were trying to rush the court in the warm ups. It was nuts.”

For a shooter who plays the game to score, it’s no surprise he seized the opportunity to drill buckets over a future NBA all-star.

“Always been a natural scorer,” he said.

“Everything I trained skill-wise when I was younger was all just to be a scorer. I used to always get in trouble for being lazy on defence, because I just never wanted to play defence.”

Then he landed at the University of Virginia, where defence isn’t just a focus, it’s the culture.

Virginia’s identity under Tony Bennett was built around the pack-line.

“The first 45 minutes of training each day was just straight defence,” Stattmann said.

“Going there my first year and going up against future NBA draft picks De’Andre Hunter and Ty Jerome, I could not stay in front of them at all. I had to work really hard to work on my defence.”

UMBC & The Revenge Tour

Stattmann arrived at Virginia in the shadow of UMBC’s 2018 upset, the first time a number 16 seed beat a number 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

“Coming in my first year they had just lost to UMBC, opposition fans would be chanting ‘UMBC’ at games,” he said. “We copped a lot but we responded.”

He watched the core group of future NBA prospects Kyle Guy, Ty Jerome and De’Andre Hunter turn humiliation into routine, routine into a national championship.

“They were just completely locked in. They’d be working out 24/7, training there was always a lot of trash talk and really intense. Then winning the NCAA championship that year was just the craziest turn around ever.”

“Ty Jerome especially is one of the hardest workers I’ve been around, seeing all three put in the work everyday was pretty inspiring.

“In my third year when Sam Hauser and Trey Murphy III came, they were really strong shooters. Seeing their routines and playing alongside them was cool to see as well.”

Lucky Penney

Life works in mysterious ways, the player Stattmann used to watch as a kid in Cairns became someone he leaned on in the most pressurised environment in the United States.

Kirk Penney joined Virginia’s staff as director of player development in 2019.

“It was my first time really playing consistently in front of 20,000 people per game,” Stattmann said. “Coming from Cairns, I wasn’t really used to it, it was quite daunting.”

Penney helped on the shooting mechanics, speeding up a release, widening the base, getting shots off quicker, but Stattmann remembers the mental side more clearly.

“He’d just tell me to trust my work,” he said.

“The mental part was more the pressure side of the game, I’d always put unnecessary pressure on myself. He just said, ‘just relax, you can’t be perfect all the time, you’re going to miss shots’.

“As a shooter, my role is to shoot the ball, don’t overthink it if you miss a shot. Take a deep breath and go out and play.”

Bullets, Phoenix, Patience

When he returned to Australia, the transition came with its own adjustment, more freedom than college, but also more uncertainty.

Stattmann began his NBL career as a development player with the Brisbane Bullets in 2022-23, before joining the South East Melbourne Phoenix the following season. He got glimpses with a season-high of 16 points over Sydney, but the minutes never fully stabilised.

That’s when a decision was made to come home.

Homecoming: Marlins, Ky & 48

Stattmann says the chance to team up with his brother was one he had to seize.

“One of the biggest reasons for coming back to Cairns, I wanted to come home and play with Ky and play in front of my family and friends. I thought that would be pretty cool.”

In NBL1, the story became almost too perfect, the brothers sharing a court in the same city where their backyard battles started. He credits former Marlins coach Kerry Williams for giving him freedom and a long leash on offence.

And then came a colossal 48 points against rivals Townsville in a 138-108 win.

“It was just another game to be honest,” he said. “By the third quarter I didn’t even realise how much I had.”

After limited minutes last season, Stattmann has embraced the extra opportunity in orange this year.

“Mindset is just to stay ready for an opportunity, trust in my work,” he says.

Then, against the JackJumpers at home, the opportunity arrived in the exact shape every kid in Cairns imagines, a tight game, overtime, the crowd roaring and the local stepping up and icing the moment.

Stattmann produced a career-best 18 points, scored seven of Cairns’ 12 overtime points and closed the game with poise in a 96-93 win.

Afterwards, Sydney coach Brian Goorjian singled him out, not for the box score, but for the growth.

“Goorjian spoke to me after the Kings game,” he said. “He just said I had improved so much and great job putting in the work. It’s always cool to hear that from high-level, well-respected coaches.”

Stattmann has spent enough time away to understand what “home” really means in a basketball sense.

“It’s been really special this season,” he said.

“Growing up and watching Taipans all the time, playing in front of everyone at the Convention Centre is really special. I do hear people in the crowd yelling out my name. It’s nice when you walk around town and people come up to you and say really nice things.

“I’ve had a few parents say I’m their son’s idol because I’m a Cairns local and from the region. It’s really special.”

And underneath the professional ambition and the jump shot sits a grounded motivation.

“Parents have always been by my side. With any professional sport there’s so many ups and downs with injuries and game time. The emotional rollercoaster that comes with basketball, they just keep me level-headed.

“They’re the reason I play, I want to make them proud. They worked really hard to give me an opportunity and get where I am now, taking me to training, sacrificing their life to make me better.”

Cairns has always been a basketball town and again, one of its own is in the roar he grew up chasing.