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Tom Maher (born 4 September 1952 in Melbourne, Victoria) is an Australian basketball coach, who is the most successful coach in Women's National Basketball League history, having won nine WNBL titles. He coached Nunawading Spectres to six titles, Perth, Canberra and Bulleen to one apiece (A tenth eluded him when in 2001 he had to leave his role as Sydney coach to take up a position in the WNBA. He had Sydney in first place when he left late in the season and it continued on to win the championship with Karen Dalton at the helm.). Carrie Graf, who won seven championships, one with Sydney and six with Canberra, and Jan Stirling who led Adelaide to four titles, are the next most successful WNBL coaches.
Maher was WNBL Coach of the Year in 1987 and 1992, and is a Life Member of the WNBL.
Maher led the Australia women's national basketball team to their first Olympic medal (bronze) in 1996 and then on to silver at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. He was head coach of New Zealand in Athens 2004, and coached the Tall Ferns to their best-ever performance of eighth. He coached the China women's national basketball team at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, finishing fourth.
In May 2009 he was appointed coach of the Great Britain women's team, replacing Mark Clark. He coached Great Britain at the 2012 Summer Olympics, finishing eleventh. Maher returned as the head coach of the Chinese national team again for the 2016 Summer Olympics, which marks his sixth consecutive Olympic Games as a national head coach. [1] The team finished tenth overall.
Maher is married to former Australia women's national basketball team captain Robyn Maher.
Michele Margaret Timms is an Australian basketball coach and retired professional basketball player who played for the Phoenix Mercury in the Women's National Basketball Association(WNBA). Many people consider the Melbourne native to be one of Australia's greatest basketball players of all time. She has one daughter, Kalsie Timms. Timms was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008. She was inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2016.
The Women's National Basketball League (WNBL) is the pre-eminent professional women's basketball league in Australia. It is currently composed of eight teams. The league was founded in 1981 and is the women's counterpart to the National Basketball League (NBL). Several WNBL teams have NBL counterparts. The Adelaide Lightning, Melbourne Boomers, Perth Lynx, Southside Flyers and Sydney Uni Flames are the current WNBL teams sharing a market with an NBL team. The current league champions are the Townsville Fire, who won their fourth title in 2023.
Suzy Batkovic is an Australian professional basketball player and politician. Suzy played her junior basketball with the Port Hunter Basketball Club in Newcastle. She has played basketball for several European clubs including the French Valenciennes, the Spanish side Ros Casares, the Russian side UMMC Ekaterinburg, and Italian side Cras Basket. In the United States, she has played for the Seattle Storm after having been selected as a first round draft pick in 2003. She has played professional basketball domestically for the Australian Institute of Sport in 1996–1999, the Sydney Uni Flames from 1999–2001, and 2009–2010, the Townsville Fire in 2001–2002, the Canberra Capitals in 2010–2011, and the Adelaide Lightning in 2011–2013; she returned to the Fire for the 2013–14 season. She has been a member of the Australia women's national basketball team, being named to the team for the first time in 1999. She won a silver medal with the team at the 2004 Summer Olympics and the 2008 Summer Olympics and a bronze medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
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