[1] Bradtke was born in the southern Adelaide suburb of Noarlunga and began playing basketball in 1984 while attending Redcliffe State High School north of Brisbane in Queensland (by that stage he was already 6'8" (203 cm)).

At the time, 18-year-old Bradtke was the youngest player ever having represented Australia in Basketball at the Summer Olympics (he would turn 19 during the preliminary rounds).

Bradtke would spend another two seasons with the 36ers before taking up a short contract with Spanish club Juver Murcia following the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain.

For Bradtke personally, the move to Melbourne allowed him to be closer to his then girlfriend and later wife, internationally ranked tennis player Nicole Provis.

Bradtke received 35.71% of the votes to beat out former teammate Bill Jones (25.17%) and 36ers triple championship winning centre Paul Rees (23.81%).

Combining with star players Andrew Gaze (a fellow Boomer) and American imports Lanard Copeland and Dave Simmons, Bradtke's arrival helped transform the Tigers from a pretenders to a genuine championship team.

The team would win their second NBL title in 1997 when they defeated cross-Melbourne rivals the South East Melbourne Magic 2–1 in the Grand Final, reversing the result from the 1996 series.

Bradtke's form with the Tigers continued over the next nine seasons before finally receiving the ultimate individual accolade by being crowned the 2001–02 NBL Most Valuable Player.

After the grand final, and 59 games in two seasons with the Bullets, the 38-year-old Bradtke retired from playing professional basketball having played in four NBL Grand Finals (winning three) Bradtke retired as the NBL's all-time leading rebounder pulling down 6,283 rebounds (4,279 def, 2,004 off) at 11.3 per game.

Davis, who still makes Adelaide his home, was on hand to present Bradtke with the game ball in recognition of his achievement.