NBA superstar Josh Giddey's basketball career takes him to some of the world's most glamorous destinations, but there's one place he keeps coming back to.
The Gold Coast.
And while the beaches and warm weather are part of the appeal, it's the world-class facilities at Bond University's High Performance Training Centre that have also caught the Chicago Bulls point guard’s attention.
During a recent visit, Giddey was put through an off-season strength session by performance coach Nik Popovic, utilising the centre's extensive equipment to prepare for another gruelling NBA season.
“The warm weather, beaches and great facilities make the Gold Coast somewhere I look forward to visiting every chance that I get,” Giddey said.
“I had a great experience at the Bond High Performance Centre given the world-class facilities that are there.
"The off-court work that I do with my coach is crucial to my continual physical development and improvement and Nik took me through a strength session that focused on upper and lower body work.
“I enjoy the work that it takes to get stronger, powerful, quick and in better condition and with that, the recovery is an integral part of schedule as well.
“In the off-season, I will be in the weight room five to six times a week and also do some type of recovery each day.”
Giddey is among an impressive list of international sporting stars to have trained at the Robina facility, which also includes fellow Australian Boomer Dyson Daniels, the All Blacks and the Irish rugby team.
Facilitating the rotating roster of talent through the doors is Bond University Strength and Conditioning Coordinator Rick Martin, whose 35-year career in elite sport has taken him from Olympic training camps to professional basketball programs across the globe.
On any given day, the centre welcomes Bond's Tier 1 sporting teams for early-morning strength sessions, alongside the Gold Coast Suns AFLW team and Chris Mooney’s Bull Sharks swim squad.
Martin says the key to ensuring visiting athletes and their support staff have everything they need is adaptability.
"Say with an athlete like Josh, if there's something he wants that's not on the floor, we see if we have it in the storeroom," Martin said.
"And sometimes, knowing my own weight area, I can suggest variations to the exercise he wants to do.”
The only thing more impressive than the names who have spent time in the centre is the equipment inside of it.
The centre’s fully equipped gym boasts eight power racks with dual barbell stations, a 16-metre training track, extensive free weights and resistance equipment.
Specialised flooring and flush-mounted lifting platforms allow athletes to perform Olympic lifts without raised platforms or trip hazards.
In a separate area are dedicated altitude and recovery facilities, including a 25-metre indoor heated pool and hot/cold plunge baths.
"We are a fully equipped one-stop shop for high-performance strength and conditioning," Martin said.
“There’s really nothing we don’t have, and you notice that from the calibre of teams we have in here training.
"It was a $300,000 refurbishment for the flooring and tracks and we’ve also made minor changes such as inserting double J-hooks inside the cage and a bar outside to enable more bodies to move around.
“From there we’ve just made smaller upgrades – more kettle bells, medicine balls, slam balls, strength bands and so on.”
For Martin, working alongside athletes of Giddey’s calibre is familiar territory.
His career began in professional basketball in 1992 when he joined the Gold Coast Rollers as head of conditioning, a position he held for five years.
That same year marked the beginning of his involvement with Olympic athletes, launching a career that would span multiple Games and an extraordinary range of sports including track and field, rowing, kayaking, taekwondo and basketball.
A Master Level 3 coach and a life member of the Australian Strength and Conditioning Association, Martin believes the secret to coaching elite athletes extends well beyond technical knowledge.
"You can have all the qualifications and a tonne of coaching experience, but you need to get on with the athlete,” Martin said.
“You need to be a good communicator, and you need to gain their trust.
"It's often not about how much you know, but how much you care."
With the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games fast approaching, Martin believes the centre is perfectly positioned to support athletes competing on the world's biggest sporting stage.
The facility previously served as a training base for men's and women's rugby sevens during the 2018 Commonwealth Games, and Martin expects the Olympics to bring further infrastructure improvements and opportunities to host international teams.
“The Olympics will be huge for the Gold Coast and for Bond University,” Martin said.
"We'll see teams coming over here to pilot train in the High Performance Centre as that's what a lot of top teams do.
"Teams do staging camps in an area if there’s a major competition coming up, so they’ll stay on the Gold Coast and train here for a week or two.
“They’ll get to know the nuances of the distance from accommodation to training and recovery, the temperature, what the facilities offer, the helpfulness of the staff and so on.”
But while the prospect of welcoming more international sporting stars excites Martin, some of his proudest memories originate from time spent with athletes who were still finding their feet when he first worked with them.
In 2016 and 2017, Martin was head of strength and conditioning for Bond’s women's rugby sevens program, which featured a group of emerging talent who would go on to become household names.
Among them were Millie Elliott (née Boyle), Charlotte Caslick, Emily Bass and Sophie Holyman.
Nearly a decade later, Martin has watched the group establish themselves as game-changers in the NRLW.
"I worked with those girls nearly 10 years ago and it’s just so good to see where they are now," Martin said.
"We always stand around and have a good chat - I have fond memories of where they were then and it’s awesome to see where they are now.
“It makes me feel great, I'm so happy for them."
As for Giddey, there’s every chance Bondies will catch him paying the High Performance Centre a visit as soon as his busy schedule with the Bulls allows.
“I have my basketball camps on the Gold Coast most years,” Giddey said.
“I feel it’s important to give back to the grassroots level and help the junior basketball athletes with their development.”