Know Your Team: Gabe Freeman
6'6
Forward
From Phoenix, Arizona
Tenure: 2011-2012, 2013, 2015-2019
2012 NBLC Champion
2012 MVP
3xAll-NBLC
One of the most dynamic playmakers and tireless athletes ever seen in the NBL Canada, of his many abilities, attributes and accolades Gabe Freeman's place in NBL Canada history is the matter of being the league's all-time leading rebounder.
He achieved all that from humble beginnings and a slow start to his adult basketball journey. Freeman started out on the roster of the Southern Utah Thunderbirds, but was never selected to play, later averaging 16.8 points and 8.9 rebounds for the Mesa Thunderbirds in his final year of NCAA eligibility.
Turning professional in 2007, Freeman began a basketball journey that would see him play for 16 teams in five different countries. Beginning with Correcaminos UAT in Mexico, he would go on to play across the USA and Canada, as well as three teams in the Philippines and the Townsville Crocodiles in Australia.
His first accolade as a pro came in 2009, when he won the Continental Basketball Association Defensive Player of the Year award, after a standout season with the Albany Patroons. He then found success in the Philippines, winning the 2009 PBA Championship with the San Miguel Beermen. He went on to win the 2010 ASEAN Championship with the Philippine Patriots, sweeping SM Jakarta in the finals.
Freeman has been with the NBL Canada from the start, as he played for the London Lightning in the league’s inaugural season. Opening the 2011-12 season with back-to-back double-doubles, he went on to record a total of twenty-two, including a season high 34 points and 15 rebounds against the Moncton Miracles on November 24th. Part of the first NBLC championship team, Freeman was also the first recipient of the league's MVP award.
Freeman played just seven games for London in the 2013-14 season, then had another spell in the Phillippines and added another league title to his name, becoming Premier Basketball League champion with the Rochester Razorsharks.
Signing with the Saint John Mill Rats in 2015, Freeman picked up right where he left off in Canada and opened the season with five double-doubles in his first six games. He failed to reach double digits only three times on the season and had six thirty-point games. He helped the Mill Rats reach the post-season where they were finally taken down by the eventual champions, the Halifax Hurricanes.
Freeman re-signed with Saint John - now known as the Riptide - for the following season, where he compiled career-best averages of 23.2 points and 9.7 rebounds in the thirty-two games he played. This included a career-high 39 points against the KW Titans on February 23rd 2017. Eliminated in the first round of the playoffs, Freeman returned to the Riptide the following year and began the season with back-to-back thirty-point games.
He would later register ten double-doubles and on the last day of the regular season his first triple-double - 30 points, 11 boards, 11 assists - against Halifax. The Hurricanes would then be his next team, where he played fifteen games and averaged 14.1 points and 7.6 rebounds, his last efforts in the NBLC.
Trying to describe his contribution to the NBLC comes up short when Gabe Freeman's numbers alone speak for themselves. In just over five full seasons in Canada, he amassed 1,292 total rebounds, which remains a league record. In addition he finished in the top five all-time for scoring, achievements alone which make him an obvious choice for the league's tenth anniversary team in 2022.
