Tasmania perfect place for Steindl to finish career

There was a chance Clint Steindl's NBL career ended when the Townsville Crocodiles folded. Instead, he now retires a three-time champion and his legacy is cemented forever after his final four seasons with the Tasmania JackJumpers.

By the end of the 2015/16 season when the Crocodiles became no more in the NBL, the players on that team were scrambling to find new homes around the league.

Despite having proven himself a standout shooter for someone 6'7 since starting at the Cairns Taipans coming out of Saint Mary's University and then joining the Crocs with his all-round game improving dramatically under coach Shawn Dennis, he had no home in NBL17.

He gave playing in Belgium a try and then a stint in Greece, but soon joined the Perth Wildcats where he would go on to play in two championships before being the one and only option that Scott Roth wanted to be his captain for the start up JackJumpers.

Now four years later and Steindl has been the perfect captain and leader on a JackJumpers team that has captured the heart of the state, and created one of Australia's all-time great sporting stories with the championship triumph of 2024.

Along the way, he's also become a husband to Kayla with the couple proud parents to Noah and Addison.

While the 35-year-old could clearly play on should he want to, he has decided to now call time on his 356-game NBL career rightfully proud of what he's done starting out as that knockdown shooter, and finishing as one of the most respected and revered leaders and people in the competition.

Speaking at his retirement announcement on Friday, Steindl reflected on when he did know that it was time to end his professional basketball career and it just felt right to call the Teal Game win over the Cairns Taipans, his original club, as perfect timing.

"There was a few moments here and there during the season and it was something that was at the back of my mind as much as I tried to push those thoughts away to concentrate on what was at hand," Steindl said.

"There were a few discussions here and there, and in the end it was about all the people who had invested in my career and my heart and head got to a point where I knew I needed to start investing in those people close to me that have sacrificed a lot for me.

"That starts with my mum and dad, my sister and her family, and then these three beautiful people right beside me (Kayla, Noah, Abbey). Now my why's have changed in terms of how I progress in life and these guys here are at the forefront of that."

Having grown up in Mackay, Steindl was proud to have started his career with teams not far from home, Cairns and Townsville. For a while he thought Perth would become the family home, but what they've found in Tasmania is more than he could have ever dreamed of.

"To start my professional career in Cairns and move on to Townsville, a quick Euro trip to Belgium and a short stint in Greece to four years in Perth, which we thought could have been home, but to finish up here in Tasmania, where we now call home and will for the foreseeable future," he said.

"It's been an amazing journey and I'm thankful to everyone who helped put this club together in Tasmania.

"It's been extremely special to finish my career here and it certainly would have been tough to find a better group of people, a better organisation and a better community to finish it around."

One of the major reasons that Roth knew that he wanted Steindl to be his JackJumpers captain when he was appointed coach was that he knew how selfless he would be, the standards he would set and that he would be perfect to build the culture.

Steindl will forever be too humble to worry about his own accomplishments, but the reality is he has been the perfect captain for the first four years with the JackJumpers where they have surpassed all expectations.

"I am conscious of it (legacy) and I try to play it down a touch because that keeps me level, but some of the messages I've received last night and this morning, and closest teammates and friends I've talked to, and listening to them, it certainly makes me feel special," Steindl said.

"That's just in terms of how I've tried to impact some lives and the more special thing for me is the way they've been able to impact my life, and the lessons I've learned from them.

"It's something I'm going to reflect on but there's something special being built here and I'm glad I was able to play my role within that, but this place is going to go on to bigger and better things."

Steindl isn’t exactly sure what the future holds for him in terms of what he'll pursue as a career, but his entire focus is on completing his master's degree in teaching at the University of Tasmania and dedicating as much time as he can to his young family.

"At this stage I'm very open minded about what's next and right now, there's no real rush. It's going to be about family and finishing off my master's," Steindl said.

"It's something that going back to uni was five years ago and it's special to me because I was at a point of my basketball career where I wasn’t doing too well in Perth.

"I was trying to find some success and my mentor mentioned I should go back to uni. My initial response was that I wanted success, not stress by trying to juggle a professional basketball career and uni.

"But it's one of the best things I've ever done. I remember passing that first unit when I went back and I felt success outside of basketball helped me place value in the important things in life, and gave me a bit of perspective.

"So to Conrad Francis, thank you for getting me back into the books and changing a few ways that I viewed things so between family and finishing off my master's, they are the two special things right now that I need to concentrate on."