{"id":732505,"date":"2026-06-12T19:56:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T19:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/732505\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T19:56:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T19:56:12","slug":"defensive-player-of-the-year-departs-phoenix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/732505\/","title":{"rendered":"Defensive Player of the Year departs Phoenix"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The off-season of change for the South East Melbourne Phoenix has continued with the club officially farewelling star forward John Brown III on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>The reigning Defensive Player of the Year, who powered the Phoenix to within one game of the Hungry Jack\u2019s NBL27 Championship Series, has penned a deal with Pallacanestro Brescia in Italy\u2019s Serie A.<\/p>\n<p>During his incredible NBL26 season, the American produced averages of 10.7 points, 6.4 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 2.1 steals (which led the league).<\/p>\n<p>These, and his relentless work on the defensive end of the floor, saw the 34-year-old named in the 2025-26 All-NBL First Team.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe&#8217;d like to thank John Brown III for his incredible time with the Phoenix,\u201d South East Melbourne said via a statement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe wish JB and his family the best.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe&#8217;ll forever be a part of the Heartland.\u201d<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">We&#8217;d like to thank John Brown III for his incredible time with the Phoenix. \ud83d\udc9a<\/p>\n<p>JBIII has signed with Pallacanestro Brescia in the Serie A &#8211; we wish JB and his family the best. He&#8217;ll forever be a part of the Heartland. \ud83e\udd1d <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/AanCqI1cLv\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/AanCqI1cLv<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 South East Melbourne Phoenix (@SEMelbPhoenix) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SEMelbPhoenix\/status\/2065347043154133339?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">June 12, 2026<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>This departure follows more recent change for Josh King&#8217;s side, including the signings of Tanner Krebs and Hunter Goodrick, from Melbourne and Sydney respectively.<\/p>\n<p>While the likes of Ian Clark, Wes Iwundu, DJ\u00a0Mitchell and Luke Rosendale remain unsigned for the Phoenix.<\/p>\n<p>Those two additions join Nathan Sobey, Jordi Hunter, Angus Glover, Owen Foxwell, Malique Lewis, Akech Aliir, Pat Ryan and Ellis Biggar under contract for The Heartland club for the Hungry Jack\u2019s NBL27 Season.<\/p>\n<p>&gt;&gt; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbl.com.au\/news\/nbl26-free-agency-every-move-as-it-happens\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Free Agency Tracker: Rolling updates, signings and reported moves<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781294172_505_69d47a153353ed2bdf7cd807_Article Banner_1920x250 (1).jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The off-season of change for the South East Melbourne Phoenix has continued with the club officially farewelling star&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":732506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-732505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=732505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/732506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=732505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=732505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=732505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}