The Australian International Player of the Year (or Gaze Medal) is an award for the best player of the Australia men's national basketball team, given annually between 1988 and 2012 and then in World Cup and Olympic years from 2014 onwards. [1] The voting for the award is done by the players after each international match and is named after father-son duo Lindsay Gaze and Andrew Gaze. [2]
Lucien James Longley is an Australian professional basketball coach and former player. He was the first Australian to play in the National Basketball Association (NBA), where he played for four teams over 10 seasons. Longley most notably played for the Chicago Bulls, with whom he won three championships from 1996 to 1998. He represented Australia as a player at three Olympic Games in 1988, 1992 and 2000, and has worked as an assistant coach for the Australian national basketball team.
The National Basketball League (NBL) is a men's professional basketball league in Australasia, currently composed of 10 teams: 9 in Australia and 1 in New Zealand. It is the premier professional men's basketball league in Australia and New Zealand.
Andrew Barry Casson Gaze is an Australian former professional basketball player and coach. He played 22 seasons in the National Basketball League (NBL) with the Melbourne Tigers from 1984 to 2005, winning the league's MVP award seven times and winning the scoring title 14 times. He also guided the Tigers to two NBL championships, in 1993 and 1997, and was named an All-NBL First Team member for a record 15 consecutive years. Gaze has been described as one of the greatest players Australia has ever produced.
The Sydney Kings are an Australian men's professional basketball team competing in the National Basketball League (NBL). The team is based in Sydney, New South Wales, and play their home games at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney Olympic Park. The Kings were formed from a merger between the West Sydney Westars and the Sydney Supersonics in October 1987. The Kings have won five NBL championships in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2022 and 2023. They were the first team to win three consecutive championships in the NBL and currently sit third behind Melbourne United (six) and the Perth Wildcats (ten) for championships won.
Melbourne United is an Australian professional basketball team based in Melbourne, Victoria. United compete in the National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home games at John Cain Arena.
Australia was the host nation for the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. Australian athletes have competed in every Summer Olympic Games. 617 competitors, 341 men and 276 women, took part in 270 events in 34 sports.
Mark Davis is an American-Australian former professional basketball player. He most notably played in the National Basketball League for the Adelaide 36ers between 1985 and 2001, gaining the nickname of "The Chairman of the Boards" for his record-breaking rebounding achievements.
Mark Robert Bradtke is an Australian retired professional basketball player who played mainly in Australia's National Basketball League, but also had a single stint in the National Basketball Association (NBA) with the Philadelphia 76ers in 1996–97. As well as his outstanding play, Bradtke was known in the early part of his NBL career for his mullet haircut.
The National Basketball League (NBL) is the premier professional men's basketball league in Australia and New Zealand. It was established in 1979. Andrew Gaze is widely considered one of the league's greatest players and features heavily in these records. Since its inaugural season he has had seven of the top ten seasons for average points scored. Gaze is also the league's highest career point scorer with 18,908. Statistics have been kept for both individuals and teams since its inception.
Andrew Mitchell Vlahov is an Australian retired professional basketball player. He played his entire eleven-year professional career for the Perth Wildcats of the National Basketball League (NBL), with whom he won three championships in 1991, 1995 and 2000.
The Australia men's national basketball team, nicknamed the Boomers after the slang term for a male kangaroo, represents Australia in international basketball competition.
The 2006–07 NBL season was the 29th season of competition since its establishment in 1979. For the first time, a team was established from outside the Australasian area, with the Singapore Slingers taking over the licence of the Hunter Pirates. A new franchise, the South Dragons, was established in Melbourne, taking the number of teams to twelve.
Brad Newley is an Australian professional basketball player for the Frankston Blues of the NBL1 South. After starting his career in Australia, playing for the Australian Institute of Sport and the Townsville Crocodiles, Newley was drafted 54th overall by the Houston Rockets in the 2007 NBA draft. He never played in the NBA and instead carved out a career in Europe, playing in Greece, Turkey, Lithuania, and Spain between 2007 and 2016. Between 2016 and 2024, he played in the National Basketball League (NBL) for the Sydney Kings and Melbourne United.
Martin Peter Cattalini is an Australian former professional basketball player who won championships with both the Perth Wildcats and the Adelaide 36ers in the NBL.
Patrick Sammie Mills is an Australian professional basketball player for the Utah Jazz of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Mills was born and raised in Canberra, and is of Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal Australian descent. In 2007, he became the third Indigenous basketball player to play for the Australian national team. Mills was selected by the Portland Trail Blazers with the 55th overall pick in the 2009 NBA draft after playing two years of college basketball for the Saint Mary's Gaels.
Martin Clarke is an Australian former professional basketball player and coach. He is the former head coach of the National Basketball League's Adelaide 36ers and was an assistant coach of the Australian Boomers at the 2012 London Olympics. In 2018, Clarke was hired as the director of the NBA Global Academy at the Basketball Australia Centre of Excellence in Canberra.
University of Canberra Senior Secondary College Lake Ginninderra, formerly known as Lake Ginninderra College until 2011, is a public secondary college for students in Years 11 and 12. It is located in the Australian Capital Territory, Australia, situated on the lakefront of Lake Ginninderra.
Patrick Hennessy Hunt AM is a leading Australian basketball coach particularly in the field of player and coach development.
The 1997 NBL season was the 14th season for the Melbourne Tigers in the Australian-based National Basketball League. The club won its first NBL Championship after defeating the Perth Wildcats 2-1 in the Grand Final series in 1993. In 1996, the Tigers lost to cross town rival South East Melbourne Magic in the Grand Final series 1-2. A year later, they won for the second time.
Twelve men's teams competed in basketball at the 1996 Summer Olympics.