A professional basketballer from the Northern Territory is winning international attention after choosing to test his skills against killer crocs, dingoes and even an ostrich – all in the name of helping kids.
Freddy Webb is a professional basketball player who most recently played for the Eastern Mavericks in NBL One, the second-tier Australian basketball competition below the NBL, after previous stints with Wollongong and Mackay.
He is the son of Grahame Webb, a renowned scientist and the founder of Crocodylus Park, a conservation and research facility for crocodiles in Darwin.
Freddie grew up in a unique environment, influenced by his father’s passion for wildlife and crocodile conservation and his own love of basketball and desire to pursue a career in the sport.
Now he has found a way to merge the two.
Freddy regularly shares coaching videos to his Instagram account with skill sessions to promote his coaching business for kids, Adapt Basketball.
Professional basketballer Freddy Webb (pictured) was looking for a unique way to promote his coaching clinics for kids in the Northern Territory
Going 1-on-1 with a giant saltwater crocodiles is not a training drill for the faint of heart
Recently, he took the term ‘adapt’ literally, showing videos of himself conducting basketball drills with a series of deadly animals at the Crocodylus Park.
The footage shows him dribbling his way through snapping man-eating saltwater crocodiles, practising defensive moves against deadly native dingoes and even simulating a fast break with an ostrich in pursuit.
‘The ostriches scare the daylights out of me every time. The fact you’re in the same enclosure terrifies me,’ one follower commented on the video.
His video has gathered plenty of interest from hoops fans around the world, impressed with his skills and courage.
‘That’s how Matthew Dellavedova learned to cover Curry in that one NBA Finals,’ one posted.
‘This is what Space Jam could have been,’ another amazed viewer said.
‘This is giving me “if you can dodge a wrench you can dodge a ball” vibes,’ posted another, referencing the comedy classic Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story.
While Saltwater crocodiles are deadly, attacks in Australia are rare, with an average of one to two fatalities annually, and 30 deaths recorded over the past 25 years.
Instead of cones, Webb uses live saltwater crocodiles to practice weaving his way through the opposition (pictured)
The Territorian also tested himself against dingoes in the heart-racing video
Webb practices his fast break by legging it away from an ostrich in one of the less life-threatening segments of the clip
Most attacks occur in Queensland and the Northern Territory, often in areas with warning signs or during the wet season when crocodiles are more active.
Dingo attacks in Australia are also relatively rare, with 279 reported incidents, including 39 major attacks and one catastrophic attack, between 1996 and 2001.
Most attacks occur in popular tourist areas like Fraser Island (K’gari) in Queensland, where dingoes may become more aggressive if they associate humans with food.
The last recorded fatal dingo attack on a human occurred in 2001, when Clinton Gage, a nine-year-old boy, was killed by a dingo near Waddy Point on K’Gari.
Most of the reasons why there have been so few fatalities in recent years is because there has been pronounced awareness and educational campaigns to stop tourists from going near the beasts.
But Webb said he had no issue putting himself directly in harm’s way.
‘I started my own basketball coaching and mentoring business called Adapt Basketball and I was never really on social media or anything like that,’ he told News Corp.
‘Really the idea was a bit of Christmas fun for all the kids that have been training with me all year, or over the last couple of months, really trying hard, just to give them a bit of a laugh.
‘It was good fun… I had people around me to make sure nothing was going to go wrong, but probably something with the bigger crocs, like Speckles, is that you’re so hard wired, when you see this big thing coming out at you at the water’s edge, you just think ‘I’ve got to get out’,’ he continued.
‘It was a bit like, what are you doing, why are you dribbling a basketball… leave now, get the f–k out, so the heart rate does go up a bit when you see them so close, you realise they’re so big, so powerful, but I wasn’t really thinking, ‘one slip and you’re done’, it wasn’t like that.’
Webb’s unorthodox training methods come with a massive warning: do not try this at home.
‘I think for me, in a funny way it’s like the same sort of thing as when you watch Max Verstappen go 300 kilometres an hour around a track, I’m not going to go and do the same thing as him,’ he said.
‘I’ve grown up around these animals, I’m pretty well attuned to how they work, and I did have people there ready in the background if something went wrong, so I was a lot more safe than probably what it appears in the video.’
Webb also said he would have the advantage in a true 1-on-1 scrimmage with a croc – as long as it was on land.
‘They get tired too quick,’ he said.
‘But anything in the water, they’ve got me.’
