The 'many layers' of exceptional Isaac Humphries

• Former Australian NBA player Isaac Humphries has been playing professional basketball since 2017.
• He was named Role Model of the Year at the Australian Pride in Sport Awards after publicly coming out as gay in 2022.
• Humphries continues advocating for LGBTIQA+ athletes and men's mental health.
• He will play alongside Bryce Cotton and Montrezl Harrell in a star-studded Adelaide 36ers line-up in NBL26.

Isaac Humphries is a man of many hyphens. 

He’s one of Australia’s best basketball players, a former NBA player, a musician, an advocate for LGBTIQA+ athletes, a dog dad, and in April 2025 was named joint Role Model of the Year at the Australian Pride in Sport Awards. 

He’s a self-proclaimed workaholic. And he is exceptional. 

"I'm very proud of what I'm doing and take it all very seriously," Humphries told basketball.com.au.

“There's many layers to who I am and my life and I think it's just all starting to come to fruition and flourish,” he said.

At 27, Humphries’ has almost a decade of professional basketball behind him. He made his NBL debut playing for the Sydney Kings in 2017, where he was named NBL Rookie of the Year, before moving overseas in 2018 to play for FMP Belgrade in Serbia and for the Atlanta Hawks in the NBA in 2019.

This is Humphries’ fifth year at the Adelaide 36ers, having signed with Melbourne United for a season in 2022 after sustaining a knee injury and spending several months rehabbing in Los Angeles, California.

Humphries’ will be playing alongside American power forward Montrezl Harrell once again, as well as five-time NBL MVP Bryce Cotton, in NBL26.

“The team has made some really big changes and brought in some big players, and I think we're all just really excited about the potential of what it could all be,” Humphries said. 

“I'm a centre, so I really feed off of the point guard and need to be able to work with him in order to be successful.

“Bryce is an incredible scorer on his own, and he needs nothing else there. He's just an unbelievable player.

“For me, being the centre and having a point guard or having a guard who has such a high IQ and has the ability to be able to hit me on passes and find me down low while also drawing so much attention to himself is going to be really beneficial.

“There's a buzz around the team. There's a buzz around the city. Everyone has some expectations.

“There's so many question marks, but I'm very, very excited.”

Humphries said coach Mike Wells and general manager Matt Weston have recommended he step into more of a leadership role this season. 

“The leadership role this year is a high priority for me and for the coaching staff,” Humphries revealed. 

“I've got a lot of experience and played almost everywhere around the world at all sorts of levels, and I need to be able to identify and share my experiences and my knowledge with everybody.”

Since publicly coming out as gay in 2022, Humphries’ story has continued to ripple across mainstream news as well as in Men’s Health and on The Imperfects Podcast in 2025. 

He said after years of navigating uncertainty about his identity and sexuality, he saw an opportunity to help people and “see a bit of change”.

“There are many parts to the story that would affect people in different ways and would relate to people in different ways and I think that's the beauty of my situation,” he said.

“It doesn't just cover one thing.”

Humphries’ story is one of courage and of vulnerability. Not just for athletes. But for all those navigating mental health challenges.

“When I came out, I wanted to help so many people and change so many things,” he said.

“I knew it was going to change the trajectory of how my life was going to go. I knew it would come with a lot of media exposure and not just the one splash.

“I knew it would continue. I knew it would be a talking point for a long time, if not forever, and that was something I was very prepared for.”

Humphries’ averaged a career high of 15.3 points and 6.7 rebounds per game during the 2023-24 season and was named Adelaide 36ers’ Most Valuable Player. 

He said acceptance of who he was played a significant role in improving his game. 

“To be able to actually just be myself and openly talk about who I am and what I'm doing in my life, it’s a huge shift for me, and it's something I've had to learn and figure out how to navigate,” Humphries said. 

“I was literally hiding for so long. And for such a long period of my career, I was just totally hiding behind closed doors and really struggling.

“The biggest difference is the interest and the openness that I'm able to share with my teammates.

“They’re like your brothers, and to have them be so interested and so accepting and onboard is great. There's no locker room things. There's nothing like that.

“They're very happy with who I am and happy to see me happy, and I found that because I don't have to shield or guard anything anymore, I can just be a little bit more free with my style of play.”

When asked how he keeps up with everything, Humphries’ explained: “I've developed this real sort of expert tier of compartmentalising.

“A lot of this world is just seeing what comes your way and assessing if it’s right for you.

“I'm not someone who can just be a basketballer or just be a musician. I need to do many things. And at the crux of it, if I'm helping people, it makes it all a lot easier.”

He said he lived by the mentality, “bigger things come with bigger problems and bigger pressures.” 

Standing at 7ft (213cm) and recognised as one of Australia’s most influential athletes and in his own right, is a literal "big" problem for opposing NBL centres.

Humphries is no stranger to pressure, and said he welcomed being a role model in a sporting culture still grappling with homophobia.  

“Everyone's story is different and everyone's pathway is different," he said,

"But at least I can be there and show that you can do it and be fine and actually thrive as opposed to the opposite.”

Humphries’ music including his new single ‘Always Be Mine’ can be streamed on Spotify.