Basketball Australia to recognise Michele Timms as a legend at Hall of Fame ceremony
SHE has long been regarded as a legend of Australian basketball but Michele Timms will be officially crowned as one next month.
The 51-year-old former national and international star point guard will become the first player to be crowned a Basketball Australia Hall of Fame legend at ceremony in Melbourne.
She is the fifth legend, joining Lindsay Gaze, Alistair Ramsay, John Raschke and Betty Watson in elite company.
It’s been a big year of celebration and reflection for Timms who was inducted into FIBA’s Hall of Fame in August.
“To be elevated to legend status is a prestigious honour that I am truly overwhelmed to be receiving,” she said.
“I am overawed when I look at the current Basketball Australia legends, people that are synonymous with basketball in this country like Gaze, Watson, Ramsay and Raschke.
“It is a special feeling to be named alongside them.”
Timms, who grew up in North Balwyn then Bulleen, won five championships (1986-89, 1992) during a sparkling 285-game WNBL career at Nunawading, Perth, Bulleen and Sydney.
She won All-Star Five selection seven times (1988-92, 94, 96).
She represented the Opals in 264 international games, played in four World Championships and three Olympic Games, winning a bronze medal in 1996 before captaining Australia to a silver medal in Sydney.
A trailblazer in international basketball, Timms was the first Australian to play professionally overseas when she signed in Germany in 1989, then in 1997 the first Aussie to be drafted to the WNBA in its foundation season.
Since retiring Timms has moved into coaching with roles in the NBL and WNBL at the South Dragons and Bulleen Boomers respectively and Olympic campaigns with China (2008, 2016) and the Opals (2012).
Former players Perry Crosswhite, Jeanie Kupsch, Liesl Tesch and Jenny Whittle will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on November 25 along with coach Patrick Hunt and contributors Ron Harvey and Ken Watson.
