He's said he is retiring. Nothing official has come out yet. He has a job in Sydney at the moment with his partner.

Probably rightfully so... there would have only been a career filled with mediocrity left. A sad end to what was once a promising career.

Walked away from the game when he got married over in the US and worked for her Dad for a while. Sixers got him back into bball and wasnt the same.

Think he was away from the game for 1-2 years.

Had a sh#load of potential

was another story of one of those guys everyone projects to go far who falls short.

guess thats the thing that makes it hard to project for future boomers teams. I mean jawai would be another aussie who should have done more in boomers then he has. between those who never overly bother and never reach potential.. very hard to say for certain that Aus is going to be as good as they should be in 2014/16

I just wonder whether he is completely over playing for Aus or not.

You're right anon, comparing Jawai & Bruce is more than a little 1 sided. Jawai is a top level pro according to his CV. Even if we think he fell short, his career is solid. Bruce on the other hand is mediocrity defined. A couple of years in the NBL, with 2 teams both ending in contract non-renewal.

Agree with Faux Mick above.

He made it pretty hard on himself. Trying to be a good PG if you can't shoot the ball from anywhere on the court is never going to be easy. And it's a growing trend with pretty much every young Aussie PG in the NBL: they can't shoot.

He Actually used to be able to shoot the lights out mick. It was one of his strengths throughout juniors and college basketball

Weird Sammy: the exact same thing is happening to young guys like Mitch Norton.

Absolutely one of the best pure shooters I have ever seen in juniors, then he comes to the NBL and he can't shoot to save himself. His technique has been completely changed by some meddling coach somewhere along the way.

Anonymous.. its a moot point. The biggest club in Europe... One of the biggest clubs in europe... I heard someone call the LA Lakers the biggest club in the NBA... I didnt go have a tantrum about it! I just accepted some people might think that and went on with my day!

Bruce could have declared early and was projected late 1st or 2nd round....however he had a "Lady Friend" so stayed in school.

Then after school took time off bball to stay in texas so i guess that was most likly his undoing rather than sticking with ball and working on his game got distracted took time off then before you know it the time off effects confidence & your game long term.

He was a great talent and sad to say a wasted one as really could have been high level in Europe or maybe NBA benchie if he had made better choices in college.

I was under the impression early on in college he was projected as a 1st rounder then as he stayed in college he kind of slipped from NBA teams radars. He still declared for the draft but didnt get picked up. He then signed with the Sixers, started off nicely and then tapered off but still took out the ROY. Rumours suggested the dip in his form/interest for the game was because of his lady friend and after the NBL season returned to the US to sort things out with her which he did momentarily but it caused him to take a year off. They then split up and he got a call from Marty Clarke to return to the Sixers mid season after 18 months away from the game which he did but he was never the same confident player that first started that rookie season....

And a failed marriage didn't help either.
I agree with most of your reasons. The NBL can be very disappointing in some clubs re the poor support groups and lack of resourcing, lack of funds generally. Players dig into their own pockets to pay for weight progammes (or have none atall) and players have even paid parking charges at some training venues.

that is rubbish
do you get a support network at any other type of employer? If they are paying for parking then they can claim that back as a work expense.
Aaron has only himself to blame for his downward spiral, can blame others all he likes but that is the truth. Blames a broken marriage , how about all the nocturnal activity in ADL when has was married?

"do you get a support network at any other type of employer?"

Um, yes.

I kind of get the feeling basketball isn't his true passion and played because it gave him a pay cheque.
When he went back to the States and quit basketball he tried to play golf professionally.
Now after a couple of years back in the NBL isn't really interested in playing.
Sounds like maybe his heart wasn't really in it to start with.

@situation so if your employer knows that you are cheating on your wife and you aren't doing much to hide it you expect the employer to help you out and support you when your wife leaves you. Crud.

You asked if other places of work offer support networks - the answer is yes.

His 4 seasons in college followed M Night Shyamalan's career trajectory, his rookie season was The Sixth Sense - leading rookie scorer in the entire NCAA and plenty of NBA buzz. The as the years went on his production, stats and court time all went down.

There is a bit of context to his college career, shortly before his rookie season one of the players on Baylor actually murdered his team mate, it obviously shook up the program and I believe it had an impact on the quality of player the team was able to recruit, basically Bruce was the main man as a rookie but as time went on and the whole murder thing become history they were able to recruit better players and Bruce was no longer required to contribute so much hence his numbers went down.

I think I've got that pretty much correct, basically circumstances come together to make a good player look and play like an elite player for a while, but eventually normal service resumed and he fell back into the pack of decent college players.

@Bilio - Good advice would have siad take your chances in the NBA draft as late first round and possibly a roster spot or even D-League would have meant solid cash!

If it falls over always NBL to come back to cause it's not like you can't study and play NBL hell they only play 1 or 2 games a week plenty of spare time!

In hindsight, yeah, for sure. I can totally see why he stayed on though, he would have been the man on campus, sounds like he had a nice lady at the time, he would have assumed that everything was on the up and up, why bother going pro now, I'll just have a another couple of years kicking ass and living the good life in college and then I'll take my talents to the NBA - if I'm this good as a freshman imagine how good I'll be as a senior!

Billo, I thought Baylor actually got a recruiting ban and werent able to bring in good recruits, meaning Bruce got a lot more attention from the defence and his %s went down? I could be wrong but that sticks in my memory.

Claiming the parking expenses back as a tax deduction does not pay for it all.
The broken marriage added to his woes especially since we heard he was being set up in business by his wife's family.
If the NBLPA was a decent union, hardly a team would hit the court. They'd be all blacklisted
for lack of support in all areas of player care.
But they aren't and they don't and they never will.... c'est la vie!

he could be on Home & Away with his mate?

You could be right Paul, for some reason I remember he was coming off the bench by his senior year but I'm not 100% on that. He was only getting 21 minutes as a senior compared to 34 as a freshman, I would have assumed that a recruiting ban would have resulted in equal or more minutes for Bruce in the absence of other stars but the numbers don't really bear that out.

Perhaps the recruiting ban was in his sophmore year? He went from 18ppg at 46% down to 13ppg at 37%, he did have a jump is assists though so that suggests he was probably getting a whole lot more attention in his second year.

paul's recollection of events rings bells with me too. He came in, set the world on fire in his freshman year, was even projected to be a lottery pick in some mock drafts at the time, but decided to stay in school. Due to the recruiting bans, Baylor didn't get much help, and Bruce faced double and triple teams the next couple of seasons, resulting in the reduced numbers and playing time. I do remember also after his senior year, he did some NBA workouts, and wowed the Suns in one with his shooting ability. Anyway, I guess we can just put this one down to another outstanding junior player not reaching his full potential at senior level, for whatever number of reasons.

Baylor were also recruiting Newley along with Bruce. I how different Brad's career path may have turned out if he had of gone the college route. If Bruce was able to put up 18ppg, I imagine Newley would have been good for 20ppg+. His NBL rookie year was amazing, averaging 16ppg including dropping 20 or more 10 times, as well as 35 in the All-Star game.

Maybe Bruce called it quits so he didnt get over shadowed by his younger brother, Shaun. Signing with the Taipans this year, has just as much potential and had to work very hard to get there seeing as not college, or AIS positions

The little Bruce isn't a bad player at SEABL level hope he gets his chance to show it at NBL level.

Love the M Night Shyamalan reference Billo.

Brucey had a great year with the Sixers first up and went to the states where things went pear shaped with a failed marriage, which would have been hard.

I would suggest he is still a handy NBL player and his full potential hasn't been tapped. Would a season under the "Red Fox" at the "Gong help his development? He seems to get all the "rejects" from the gutter, buffs them up with a bit of spit and polish (probably a poor choice of words but you know what I mean), then the Mark 2 version hits the shelf.

wouldnt agree that Shaun bruce has the same potential aron had. Not at all.

Wollongong would be a great fit for both Bruce and the Hawks on the court, but would any team take a chance after what happened with two of the Kings' most prominent supporters on twitter?

What if he pissed off Arun Jagatramka? That could bring the whole club down.

It's a shame, because in 2012 with the Kings he had some really good games that showed how effective he can be. Even the start of last season when his shot was falling he was playing some great ball and defending at a very high level.

Disagree with that conclusion, his best basketball was played when they were winning and he dropped away badly with the team as the losses mounted.

I am a bit annoyed that I started this thread now! lol. We can all agree... Aaron Bruce.. once promising player... now not even in the game. RIP Bruceys career... lets move on if we can now.

Thanks for putting things in perspective Paul.
Aaron Bruce has had a pretty decent career if he chooses to hang em up. World championships as under 19
under 22 and with Boomers. Good college career and decent if somewhat inconsitent NBL career. Much more than most could hope for. He has no responsibility to live up other peoples expectations.Always gave his best when on court.

I'd be stoked if he became a Breaker and upset idiots from Shortland Street on Twitter.
He'd fit in with the "no dickheads" policy from the owners as he is clearly awesome in how he took the piss out of the Home & Away tool on