Fox arrived in Australia from the United States earlier this year for his first season in the South East Australian Basketball League. 

Born in Fiji, rugby was Fox’s first love when it came to sport before he moved to California with his family.

It was there he found his passion for basketball.

Starting off in Los Angeles, the family relocated to San Francisco, where Fox attended school and university. 

“The first game we ever watched was the Lakers versus Kings in the western conference finals, so it was a pretty big game and we just fell in love with it,” Fox said. 

He played school, then college basketball for UC Davis (University of California). 

In his second year out, Fox has already had stints in England and New Zealand before coming to Australia. 

He had heard a lot about Ballarat from former Miner Everard Bartlett at Hawkes Bay in the New Zealand National Basketball League.

While Fox admitted he initially felt nervous coming in as only one of two new players on the Miners’ list, it has been a smooth transition with the 24-year-old even earning the role of vice captain. 

“Our first home game, all the fans were unbelievable,” he said. 

“Community support is the biggest thing and it helps you perform a lot better when you have your community behind you.

“It makes it more instead of just for us, for everybody else too in the city.”

As for his role on the court, Fox is coming off his biggest performance of the season after collecting 32 points and 17 rebounds against Nunawading on Sunday. 

The come-from-behind victory put the Miners in second on the men’s SEABL ladder, but equal with top team Kilsyth in wins and losses.

“Honestly, after seeing the stats after the game, I was kind of surprised at how well I played,” Fox said.

“There were a couple of areas where I thought I should have done a lot better. The guys just gave me the ball... I just owe it all to them, it’s a team sport, they got me the ball when I needed it.”

The hard-fought victory at Nunawading Stadium was the second in a weekend after the Miners defeated Melbourne Tigers in Oakleigh on Saturday night in overtime.

“We were down with a couple of minutes left (against Melbourne) and then Davon (Usher) actually made a lot of big plays for us,” Fox said.

“He is the reason we got into overtime and his energy was very infectious to the rest of us... we basically stole that win.”

But the Miners have not only come out the other side closer as a group, Fox said they will now have a target on their backs after the bye. 

“The challenges are good for us,” Fox said.

“I think it is helping everyone individually become better and, as a team, it is kind of exciting for us because we don’t think we’re playing our best basketball yet and we’re doing really well so far – but you can’t get complacent.”