Basketballer Joe Ingles appears as the archetype of the Australian larrikin. There is one box, however, he no longer ticks. The 39-year-old gave up alcohol in 2022 after suffering a serious knee injury, and he has now gone more than 1,500 days without drinking.

“Stopping – that part of it – during rehab was very easy,” he says from Melbourne, after moving back to the NBL following 12 seasons in the NBA. At that point, it was just one aspect of aiding his recovery. Like staying healthy and avoiding junk food.

“I even had made a joke with my [Milwaukee] Bucks teammates at the time of, ‘Oh, when I play my first game, I’ll have a beer with you guys,’ whatever. I played my first game and I was just like, ‘eh’.”

“My rehab was like 10 and something months. You go that long without a drink, and you’re, ‘Oh, do I really need this?’”

His wife, Renae, a former Australian netballer and now coach and businesswoman, expressed pride about the couple’s milestone on Instagram this week, and highlighted how “uncomfortable” it made people around them feel.

Her husband has found it an adjustment as he came to terms with life back home. “I think it is a bit of a culture thing in Australia. When you catch up with your mates, you grab a beer or a coffee, really, they’re the two options,” he says, adding he has not ultimately found it hard to resist.

“After a certain amount of time, you don’t even think about it any more. It’s like you deleted Instagram and didn’t use it for a few months, you would just completely move on with your life and you wouldn’t even think about it any more, so we don’t even think about it. It’s not even a question, I think it’s more funny now that people will try and explain to us why they are drinking instead of just enjoy their night.”

The couple and their three children are now adjusting to Melbourne after 12 years on the NBA rollercoaster. Ingles would typically travel for more than 40 road games each year, and he played for four different teams over his final five seasons. He has started the season for Melbourne United well, even if the highly fancied team is yet to fully gel.

Despite being so far away, Inglis still watches the NBA, which gets under way this week. “I’ll be sitting there on Amazon watching just like you, and I’ll be just as intrigued,” he says. “I sit here and I read the same articles you do.”

On Ben Simmons’ cruel Achilles injury this week, Ingles is “shattered for him” and says it will be up to the former No 1 draft pick where his career goes now. “Selfishly for Australia, we want him to play for the Boomers. We’d love to see him in the NBL. I think the fans would love to see him. But what is he, two days since injury? There’s a lot of water to go under the bridge before those decisions even become a thing. I just wish him all the best.”

On Josh Giddey’s situation in Chicago, Ingles believes a winning record will mean more than any individual statistics. On young big Rocco Zikarsky, likely to play big minutes in the second-tier G-League, Ingles thinks the 20-year-old could push for court time with the Timberwolves.

Of the 10 Australians in the NBA this season (including Kyrie Irving in Dallas), Ingles believes Atlanta centre Jock Landale and Los Angeles Lakers wing Matisse Thybulle might make the biggest impression.

“For [Landale] going back to the same team, a lot of the same players, same coach, don’t underestimate how good that feels,” Ingles says. “He was a free agent, they’ve wanted him back, they’ve paid him handsomely, and he’s going to have a really big role in that team.

“Then the other one to me is Matisse, I’m selfishly a massive Matisse fan. The guys they’ve got on that team. Everyone knows Luka [Dončić] and Austin [Reaves] offensively, but defensively, they need a little bit of help out there and Matisse is that perfect guy.”

Ingles turned 39 this month, and is signed to a two-year deal with Melbourne United. Across seven games he is averaging an efficient 11 points per game, with four assists and four rebounds.

Although the veteran had to postpone his conversation with the Guardian by a day due to the need for treatment, he is adamant his body is feeling good. “I feel like I’m fucking 21 all right, so put that at the top of your article,” he says with a smile.

As a late bloomer who became one of the NBA’s best role players, Ingles earned respect for his combination of outside shooting, secondary ball-handling and basketball nous, as well as a competitive edge. The combination of his laid back demeanour with a sharp, mocking tongue appeared very Australian, though it often rubbed American opponents the wrong way.

Off the court though, Ingles comes across as considered and diplomatic. Amid a growing schism about the role of betting in sports, San Antonio phenomenon Victor Wembanyama announced during the NBA off-season he would never accept gambling money, even as LeBron James inked an endorsement deal with prediction market Polymarket.

Ingles says sports betting is a “tricky one”, given sporting entities’ need for revenue, as well as the impact of increases in betting and integrity risks. Ingles was in the NBA when Jontay Porter was banned for life for disclosing confidential information to sports bettors and wagering on games.

“I don’t know where I sit necessarily on that,” he says. “Do I love chucking five bucks on a horse? Yeah, it’s a bit of fun with my mates. Do I live and die by betting on whatever it is? Absolutely not.

“Everyone makes their own decisions with different things and people and politics they support and we can all have our opinions on things, we don’t have to agree.

“But obviously, me and you can sit here and have a healthy conversation, debate about it, and both go off, and maybe we don’t agree in the end, but we’ve both put our points forward.”