By 
JOSH GIDDEY IS fast developing a flair for the dramatic. This past week, Giddey’s surprisingly hot Chicago Bulls took on the equally molten Philadelphia 76ers. With the Bulls trailing by a point, 111-110, Giddey had the ball at the top of the key, with 14 seconds remaining on the clock.
In NBA circles this is known as clutch time and players who excel in this crucible of sporting pressure are known as ‘clutch’ players. Portland’s veteran point guard Damian Lillard has been so clutch throughout his career, he took it upon himself to claim these periods as ‘Dame Time’, theatrically tapping his wrist after each improbable shot.
In Giddey’s case, he attempted to drive past his defender, Kelly Oubre, who did a good job forcing the Aussie to the baseline. With no avenue to the basket, Giddey recalibrated, firing a precise left-handed pass as he fell out of bounds to teammate Nikola Vucevic, who calmly sunk the three-pointer for the win. Cue players jumping into each other’s chests.
With the win the Bulls moved to 6-1 to lead the Eastern Conference and while the team, as a whole, is firing on all cylinders, there’s no mistaking who’s been their driving force. It’s their cherubically faced, lustrously locked point guard, who finished the night with a team-high 29 points, 15 rebounds and 12 assists. For the season, Giddey’s averaging 23 points, 10 rebounds and 9.1 assists per game. These are All-Star numbers and while seven games are an admittedly small sample size, it’s worth noting that the Bulls, led by Giddey, finished the end of last season on a 15-5 run.
The most memorable of those wins was Giddey’s half-court heave to beat LeBron and Luka’s Lakers in a clip that melted social feeds. A couple more of these last-second heroics and Giddey can start working on his own clutch nickname and corny gesture.
Another stat that leapt out this week, is that with his ninth triple double against the Sixers, Giddey now trails only Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen in career triple-doubles for the Bulls. At the same time, he also became the first Chicago player to record back-to-back triple-doubles since Jordan achieved the feat in the 1988-89 season – rare air indeed.
All of this comes after a summer in which the Bulls hemmed and hawed about paying the point guard, making the Melburnian sweat until September before they were finally able to come to terms, allowing Giddey to ink a four-year, $100 million ($154 million AUD) contract extension. As absurd as it sounds to dissect such preposterous sums, given Giddey’s play thus far, that transaction is already looking like a bargain for the Bulls.
Giddey, you might remember, was traded to Chicago from the ascending OKC Thunder for Alex Caruso back in June 2024. At the time most analysts believed that with Caruso’s curmudgeonly defence and willingness to do the small things that aid winning, the Thunder got the better of that deal – they did go on to win the title last season. But in the longer run the Bulls may end up winning the trade – unless, of course, we all just put pettiness aside for once and agree that both teams won it. No, didn’t think so.
The primary knock on Giddey at Oklahoma was his shooting. He’s a career 33 per cent shooter from beyond the arc. This season he’s shooting at a 41.9 per cent clip and when you combine that with his preternatural playmaking, ability to puncture defences to get to the hoop and strong Aussie Rules-inspired rebounding ability, then you’re looking at a player you can build a franchise around – a Luka Dončić-lite or Cade Cunningham-adjacent-level player.
If you want to be unkind about it – guilty as charged – Giddey is becoming the player Ben Simmons was supposed to be. Simmons, the prince who was promised to Giddey’s (relative) pauper who persisted, has since floundered due to injuries and mental health issues. Both had shooting issues – Giddey couldn’t shoot, Simmons refused to. Simmons famously pretended to work on his shot in tantalising off-season highlight reels that showed him nailing unguarded 3s. Giddey did the work behind closed doors and it’s beginning to bear fruit.
Of course, the question now is can he keep it up? The early season isn’t always a strong predictor of success over the full 82-game slog. Many teams that emerge hot out of the gate come crashing back to earth. Players who look like they’ve made the much talked about ‘leap’ start to see more committed defensive schemes and targeted game-planning, and columns like this – and those who write them – end up looking like starry-eyed fools – believe me, I pumped up Simmons’ tyres many times early in his career.
But let’s say Giddey’s leap is legit. Does he have what it takes to go from All Star to superstar? That generally requires an elusive combination of talent, charisma, or ‘aura’ as they like to say in the NBA, and a willingness for brands to hitch their wagon to you. The marketing that goes into sporting myth making is a gargantuan apparatus that’s as important in creating a household name as the ability to penetrate a defence and throw a kick-out pass is.
A few years ago, Giddey looked like he was becoming the prized golden goose. With his flowing mane, humble nature and on-court chops, he appeared to have it all before him. But a social media scandal involving an alleged one-night stand with a minor that came to light in 2023, stalled the marketing machine, dampening corporate enthusiasm. He was relentlessly booed throughout the 2023/24 season by opposing crowds.
While not looking to make light of allegations that have never been fully addressed – the parents of the girl involved declined to cooperate with police, who were “unable to corroborate any criminal activity” by Giddey – the funny thing about mud is it only seems to stick if a player’s performance declines; just ask any Kobe Bryant fan. If a player keeps knocking down shots and coming up clutch, all is either forgiven or forgotten. To wit, there aren’t many people bringing up Giddey’s alleged – for-want-of-a-better-word – ‘misdemeanour’ right now and he’s no longer getting booed. The higher his star rises, the more likely it will be that the incident fades from fans’ memories. Whether that’s good or bad is a column for another time.
While such grubby calculations are undoubtedly premature, you can bet there are corporate bean-counters out there right now watching Giddey’s rise and wondering if it’s safe to get back on board.
For now, though, it’s worth reiterating: we are in the NBA silly season, a time where we’re supposed to overreact, make bold predictions based on limited sample sizes and hoist players’ stars skyward to burn bright or burn out.
In nine months’ time, our future selves may scold us. But for now, well, it’s fun, though perhaps still somewhat awkward, to feel a little giddy over a player named Giddey.
