"Underdog" mentality driving defensive dynamo

The South East Melbourne Phoenix are enjoying their franchise's best ever start to a Hungry Jack's NBL26 season, sitting at 9-4 after 10 rounds.

A lot of the recognition for this historic start is rightfully going to Olympic bronze medallist Nathan Sobey and Australian Boomer Jordi Hunter, who are both enjoying career years offensively. But the unsung hero of the Heartland Club's success is perhaps import John Brown III.

The High Point University alum is second in the league in steals (2.2), trailing only five-time MVP Bryce Cotton by 0.1 steal, while also ranking highly in terms of deflections per game.

These are traits the 33-year-old from Jacksonsville has hung his hat on during his incredible career, which has included stops in Italy, Russia, Monaco and Serbia.

"I've been playing like this all my career, so this [style] is not new for me," Brown said.

"When he [Josh King] recruited me, he told me all I gotta do is just be me and that's what I've been doing.

"He gives me the opportunity lead the guys by example. [While] I'm not much of a talker, I try to just go out there and show the young guys that [standard].

"Others guys feed of that [energy] because if we're going to continue winning, we're going to have to stop guys scoring.

"A lot of teams in this league have guys you can go out there and get their own [scores], so we know the only way we can compete is if we play defence night in, night out.

"There's going to be nights where the ball doesn't fall for us offensively, [but defence and effort are aspects we can control].

"Our trust on the defensive end is getting better each week, as we want to get to a spot where we're all locked in for the 40 minutes. That's the next step [for us as a group]."

John Brown is a $279,600 forward in the NBL’s official fantasy game, Beat The Coach, presented by Choice Hotels. Take on Damon Lowery and Beat the Coach in any round of the NBL26 Season and you’ll receive an entry into the end-of-season $10,000 prize draw, including 1 x $5,000 cash and 1 x $5,000 Choice Hotels™ gift vouchers. Sign up to play now here.

Of that 9-4 record, Brown, who has a season plus minus of 5.8, and his Phoenix outfit have only suffered defeats to Melbourne and Adelaide twice.

Those are the two sides that sit ahead of South East Melbourne on the ladder, and going through them is the only way to achieve the ultimate goal of the club's maiden championship.

"Every year, you have opportunity to do something special," Brown said.

"But you also got to put in the work, it's not just going to fall in your lap.

"Teams aren't just going to lay down because you have a better record then them.

"We understand, regardless of the situation, we're going to to be the underdogs in each game. That's just our mentality.

"There's no miscommunications, as we're all on the same page [and working towards the same goal]."

The Phoenix resume their NBL26 season on Thursday, when they travel to Wollongong to face the reigning champions Illawarra from 7.30pm AEDT, live on ESPN.