Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} The Story A Kid A Ball A Dream by Andrew Gaze The Andrew Gaze Story: A Kid A Ball A Dream by Andrew Gaze. Andrew Gaze Biographical Information. Son of Australian stalwart , Andrew played in the NBL at age 18, before playing a season of U.S. at Seton Hall, where he led his team to the 1989 NCAA finals, losing in overtime to Michigan. He trialled with the NBA's Seattle SuperSonics, but was not offered a contract. He returned to Australia and began a stellar career in the NBL, named Rookie of the year in 1984. His incredible shooting skills saw him the top scorer in the league for a total of 14 seasons. A poor athlete, Gaze combined a great three- shot with an equally good pass. A crowd favourite, one of Gaze's trademark plays was a pass to American import Lanard Copeland for an alley oop. Playing under his father with the Tigers, Gaze led the team to two titles and were perpetual finalists. Gaze also excelled at the international arena, playing in a total of five Olympic Games with the Boomers and leading them to a best performance of the fourth, at the 1996 Summer Olympics. He was selected as flagbearer for the Australian team at the opening ceremony at the 2000 Games. He is the scoring record holder in Olympic competition, and second-highest scorer of all-time in World Championship play. Gaze had another short stint in the NBA in lockout-shortened 1998-99 with the , but received very little court time and was injured for the latter part of the season. He received a championship ring after the Spurs won the 1999 NBA title, although he was left off the playoff roster. Whilst Gaze never had a steady NBA career, unlike , he is still regarded by many Australians as their best-ever male basketballer (Lauren Jackson is arguably the best female player in the world). After the Sydney Olympics, Gaze retired from international competition, but continued to play in the NBL. On May 12, 2005, he announced his retirement from the game after 612 games in the NBL and 20 years as a professional basketballer. Soon after, he released his autobiography, 'A Kid, A Ball, A Dream', co-authored with Grantly Bernard. He is known for his gentle, unflappable nature, prematurely grey hair, and unwillingness to slam dunk. Andrew is married to Melinda. They have four children. Today, Gaze has carved out a career as a media personality, appearing on commercials for Dodo Internet and commentating NBL basketball matches for SEN 1116. The Snake is a Yang, and is the Sixth sign of the Chinese horoscope. The forgotten story of . v the Dream Team. Heading into Australia’s 1996 exhibition match against the reigning Olympic champions, peroxide-blond guard Shane ‘The Hammer’ Heal and his Boomers team-mates were excited but not daunted by the prospect of taking on the NBA’s best. “I think it was a defining sort of a moment,” Heal tells Guardian Australia 17 years after a fiery confrontation that remains the first thing basketball fans want to discuss when they meet the veteran of four Olympic campaigns. The Australians, a blue-collar line-up by international standards, approached the game with respect for their opponents but didn’t fear them. Heal recalls “we’d seen other teams getting photos taken with them and autographs before and after games and things like that. We said that wasn’t the Australian way and we certainly weren’t handling the game like that.” Heal would finish the Olympic tune-up with 28 points and shoot a remarkable 8-from-13 from three-point range, many of them a remarkable distance out from the line, but it was his confrontation with the notorious Barkley that captured the attention of the media and fans alike. Late in the first half and growing in confidence, Heal found himself open on the wing and released a shot for his fourth three-pointer of the game. Barkley arrived late, aggressively undercutting Heal and sending him sprawling to the floor in front of the Australian bench. “The thing with Barkley and I, it was just a dirty play. You just wouldn’t expect someone to make such a dirty play against someone that’s in the air, anywhere in the world,” says Heal. “He just took my legs out and I landed on my back. It was just a really dirty play … he just ran straight through my legs. You definitely don’t expect that and you don’t expect it from an NBA superstar.” Undaunted by the height and weight differential – his opponent stood six inches taller – Heal chased the American star back down the court, letting fly with a volley of verbal barbs, and bumped chests with Barkley. “When I got up and gave him a few choice words I remember him looking down and he said ‘What did you say?’ I didn’t know whether he couldn’t understand the accent or he couldn’t believe what I’d just called him.” The tough-talking Barkley would later conclude: “He’s a talkative little fellow. I told him that if I don’t take that off Americans I’m definitely not going to take it off foreigners.” Heal and his team-mates acknowledged they were playing against the world’s best but refused to back down from confrontation when necessary. “ I guess the Australian way is that we weren’t going to kiss their arse – we were going there to test ourselves against the best. We weren’t going to treat them any differently than we did anybody else. We had respect for them but we certainly weren’t going to bow to them.” As stunned as the Aussies were by the physical nature of the clash, not even Heal expected the sight of Barkley mimicking a gunshot at him as the teams went to their huddle. “ I was going from one end of the court to our bench and he was going from the other end to his bench and we ran into each other again and we grabbed each other by the singlets and he was a big man, mate, he was a very big man. I’m very lucky he didn’t hit me because I’d still be asleep today I reckon.” Not for the last time, the match officials had to intervene. Boomers captain Andrew Gaze recently remembered the clash. “Shane, I think in the emotion of the situation and also just trying to make a statement to the rest of the group to say, ‘Hey, we don’t back down to anyone. I don’t care who you are or what your reputation is, we play it on its merits.’ You could almost see Charles [think] like, ‘What is this little peroxide-haired bloke doing?’” In turn, Heal recalls Gaze’s attempts to halt the bubbling animosity, “I remember Andrew trying to calm [the Dream Team] down and try and calm us down, he was like the international peacekeeper. I remember him being hurt by the fact that they were so angry, but we really didn’t take a backward step.” Asked if his treatment of Heal was a sign of respect, Barkley replied: “I try to treat people equal. I try to hit everybody, and in that way I’m very consistent.” “He was definitely consistent,” laughs Heal. All the while, Heal had been on the receiving end of a trash-talking masterclass from the Dream Team guard and future NBA hall-of-famer Gary Payton. “ The amount of rubbish that I listened to from Gary Payton about what he was going to do to me after the game and all the rest of it, it was just laughable. No-one spoke as much as what he did, that’s for sure.” On a promotional tour of Australia later in the year, Payton would admit that he was looking forward to squaring off against the NBA-bound guard and that he’d eat Heal for lunch, mockingly concluding: “It is wonderful for Australia that a short guy can make it to the NBA.” “We certainly didn’t expect that it was going to be as physical and that we were going to have to stand up for ourselves like we did either,” says Heal. “The fact that they could be frustrated by an Australian team coming over with no NBA players like that, it was a little bit embarrassing I would have thought if you’re an American.” The US media were decidedly unimpressed by the antics on display. Sports Illustrated singled Barkley out: “It’s hard to imagine an Olympic athlete who adheres less to the Olympic ideal than Barkley”. He was unflinching in his response. “We’re going to defend ourselves. If the American press wants to make us the bad guys, so be it.” Though Heal wishes fans would remember the game for his three-point spree and not the fight, his analysis of his own performance is matter of fact. “That was my role on the Australian team. Andrew [Gaze] didn’t have a great one in that game so I needed to try and be able to put some more points on the board for us.” “ A lot of the time when you look back on games you didn’t realise you were [shooting from] that far out, especially when you’ve got momentum and adrenalin and everything. You just shoot.” Despite Heal’s game-best scoring performance, the Australians went down 118-77. At the conclusion, Barkley stopped and embraced Heal in a sign of respect for the Australian’s performance and chutzpah.“From that point on he was great,” recalls Heal. “During the battle he was a knucklehead but then you forget about it and you move on.” Still, Heal’s stoush with Barkley was a microcosm of a basketball nation standing up for itself. The sensation that surrounded the “Barkley game” possibly even obscures the underdog story of the Boomers’ incredible fourth-place finish in Atlanta. Heal still views that Olympic tournament as the sport’s peak in his homeland. “Australian basketball was probably, if you look back and pinpoint where the high was in Australian basketball, it was probably right then.” Having defeated the Toni Kukoc-led Croatian side in a thrilling quarter-final knockout game, the Boomers progressed to an unlikely semi-final clash with the Americans. “We were so excited to get back in that locker room and we sang with so much gusto that it was like, it was just great to be an Aussie.“ In the semi-final clash, Payton was straight back in Heal’s face. “He was still talking to me right from the start and we were playing off to go into the gold medal game and obviously it was a big thing then because there was so much build-up because of [what had happened] the last time we played. During that [time Payton signed] an $89m contract and I remember when he was talking trash I said to him, “mate, the first thing you need to do when you get your $89m is buy yourself a jump shot.” His eyes spun – I reckon he was then the angriest man that I’d ever played against. He wasn’t happy.” Sticking with the US for the early stages of the semi, the Australians went down 101-73 in a spirited display. Barkley noted his grudging respect for Heal in particular. “That little kid’s tough. I hope he comes to the NBA. He doesn’t have good common sense so he’ll fit right in with the [NBA guard] JR Riders.” “I think that from that Dream Team game we built belief and then we won big games and played our roles and just kept finding a way to be able to get through,” says Heal. “We knew they were going to throw everything at us and we were on the world stage and playing in front of 40,000 people or something.” Barkley concluded, “I don’t stroke people, but I think the Australians should be very proud. I really think they thought they could win. “ Australia had made the voyage weakened by the absence of then-Chicago Bulls centre Luc Longley but succeeded largely due to strong tournaments from Gaze and Heal and a healthy dose of enthusiasm and team spirit. “I have the utmost respect for guys like Bradtke and Ronaldson and Vlahov that were playing against much bigger opponents,” recalls Heal. In the bronze medal play-off the Australians went close to upsetting a strong Lithuanian team containing NBA stars and Sarunas Marciulionis. Heal recalls those opponents in similar esteem to the Americans. “Sabonis in that game for the bronze medal, I can’t remember his exact stats but it was just unbelievable.“ The Lithuanians triumphed 80-74, sending the Boomers home without a medal but an enhanced standing in the international arena. Heal’s performance at Atlanta landed him a three-year NBA contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves. “I didn’t ever envisage playing in the NBA. Leading right up to that first game [in Atlanta] I didn’t have goals of playing in the NBA. No-one from Australia had gone to the NBA except Luc Longley and he was 7ft 2in.” Heal says he only has himself to blame for not playing in the NBA for longer. “I don’t have too many regrets but that’s one of them.” Injuries and the challenges of raising a family in the land of 10,000 lakes got the better of the Australian, who packed his bags for home after a single season. Along the way Heal found a mentor and friend in wily Wolves veteran Terry Porter, but the warmth of their relationship took some time to develop. “We didn’t get off on a good foot. I remember in the [NBA] pre-season he got off the bus and he said, ‘Rookie, you carry my bag.’ I said, ‘I’m not a rookie, mate, I’ve played for 10 years and I’m not fucking carrying your bag.’ Anyway, I left it in the car park and I just kept walking. I know he was fuming after that but we ended up becoming pretty close.” The Timberwolves stint also reunited Heal with his Olympic sparring partner Payton. “He was still speaking when I went to the NBA and it was amazing. I remember standing at the free throw line and he looked over at a team-mate and he’s like, ‘I’ve got him, he’s mine’. I was like, ‘mate, you’ve gotta let it go – I’m a scrub at the end of the bench and you’re a superstar.’ “He didn’t stop talking trash to me until I hit the five threes in a quarter for Minnesota against Seattle. At the end of that game when I hit five threes he came up and sort of gave me a hug of respect and that was the only time he ever did that. “ Barkley was even more effusive in his praise of Heal’s journey to the big-time, stopping the Australian on the way to the lift when they were due to square off in the NBA play-offs that season. “I was like ‘wow, that’s Charles Barkley.’ I was sitting down and having a chat and he was great.” After a long career that included a further NBA stint and seasons in Europe, it’s the memories of his four Olympic campaigns that Heal holds dearest. “I told my Dad when I was 12 that I was going to play for Australia. Going to an Olympics was all I ever dreamed of. I was in the backyard for hours and hours and I was counting down, making game-winners against America. That’s what I did.” Atlanta still looms large in the careers of Heal and team-mates such as Gaze, and , who had risen through the Institute of Sport together and benefitted from a warm camaraderie. He calls Atlanta a " pivotal moment”, adding: “for us to finish fourth and come within a basket of winning the only ever medal against Lithuania is something that I look back on and just think it was one of the biggest overachievements for a team in our history. “When I went to Europe, the Greeks used to be blown away and say: ‘How the hell can Australia be in the top four in the world?’ We only had local players, no-one played in Europe back in those days and only [Atlanta absentee] Luc Longley played in the NBA so we were certainly fighting out of our weight class. “I think the main reason was because of the camaraderie we had and passion we had for playing for Australia and what it meant. It gave us that opportunity to overachieve. To lose by a bucket against Lithuania with those unbelievable superstars on there, people are looking at the line-ups and going: ‘Wow, how did this happen? Who are these guys?’ “I think we earned a lot of respect in that period in world basketball. “ Andrew Gaze. Andrew Barry Casson Gaze (born 24 July 1965) is Australia's best known basketball player, [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] and one of its most successful. He is considered as the greatest player in the history of the NBL. Son of Australian basketball player and coach, Lindsay Gaze, Andrew began his career in the NBL at age 18, being named Rookie of the year in 1984. He was the top scorer in the league for a total of 14 seasons. Not an outstanding athlete, Gaze's heavy scoring was due to exceptional shooting, including from three-point range. A crowd favourite, one of Gaze's trademark plays for the Tigers was a pass to American import Lanard Copeland for an alley oop. [ 5 ] Playing under his father with the Tigers, Gaze led the team to two titles and were perpetual finalists. Gaze also excelled at the international arena, and in 2000 became (jointly with American ) the third basketball player to compete at five Olympics, after Puerto Rican Teófilo Cruz and Brazilian . He led the Boomers to their best performance, fourth at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. (The Boomers also came fourth in 1988 and 2000. [ 6 ] ) He was selected as flag-bearer for the Australian team at the opening ceremony at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. He is the scoring record holder in Olympic competition, and second-highest scorer of all-time in World Championship play. In 1988–99, Gaze played a season of U.S. college basketball at Seton Hall, where his team made the 1989 NCAA finals, losing in overtime to Michigan. He tried out with the NBA's Seattle SuperSonics, but was not offered a contract and ultimately waived. [ 7 ] In 1993–94 he played seven games for the Washington Bullets. He had another short stint in the NBA in lockout-shortened 1998–99 with the San Antonio Spurs, but received very little court time and was injured for the latter part of the season. He received a championship ring after the Spurs won the 1999 NBA title, although he was left off the playoff roster. After the Sydney Olympics, Gaze retired from international competition, but continued to play in the NBL. On 12 May 2005, he announced his retirement from the game after 612 games in the NBL and 20 years of professional basketball. Soon after, he released his autobiography, A Kid, a Ball, a Dream , co-authored with Grantley Bernard. Today, Gaze has carved out a career as a media personality, appearing on commercials for Dodo Internet and Voltaren and commentating NBL basketball matches for SEN 1116 and (occasionally) . Also, Gaze now coaches for the Melbourne Tigers' junior basketball club. Gaze appeared in series five of Dancing with the Stars . In July 2007, Gaze was approached by members of the Australian Labor Party to stand as a candidate in a by-election for the Electoral district of Albert Park. Gaze had previously considered running for election for Labor. [ 8 ] He is a republican. [ 9 ] He currently is a presenter on Channel Seven's Guide to the Good Life and on After the Bounce on Fox Footy. Hoops. You must be a registered and logged in user to create a new topic. NBL Books. Hey I am looking to do a bit of NBL History revision and was wondering if you guys know of any good NBL books and where to purchase them? So far I've come across: - Mahervellous!, The Brett Maher Story by Boti Nagy. - Basketball the Andrew Gaze Way by Andrew Gaze. - THE BLACK PEARL: No Regrets by . - Andrew Gaze Story: A Kid, A Ball, A Dream by Grantley Bernard. - Making a Dream come true by Damian Keogh. - Boom!: Inside The NBL by Bret Harris. Anything else that has been missed here? Anonymous Last year. Anonymous Last year. If you want a good book written by an NBL Coach and Dr Stephen Bird try When Winning Matters by Rob Beveridge. 'If you want a good book written by an NBL Coach and Dr Stephen Bird try When Winning Matters by Rob Beveridge' - Ordered. Thank you very much. Anonymous Last year. You might want to look at the book 'Sports Business in the Pacific Rim'. It has a chapter on the governance of the NBL from beginning to 2013, written by Robert McDonald and Rick Burton. See https://www.researchgate.net/publication/301949056_The_Evolution_of_Governance_in_the_Australian_National_Basketball_League_1979- 2013. Anonymous Last year. The National Library also has some copies of year books, media guides and so forth, published by or specific to the NBL in various periods of its life. E.g., it has the copies of a periodical called 'One on One', which covered NBL and NBA and was published in Australia through the 1990s. Anonymous Last year. Rick Burton was one of the poorestadministrators ever to be involved with the NBL. ME Last year. Rob Beveridge has just dropped "When Winning Matters" and Matt Logue's "Hoops Dreams Down Under" They're not specifically NBL related but they're must-reads for Aussie basketball fans. Anonymous Last year. Ever read the flog who never got his shot. An autobiography by anonymous? Compelling read. You need to be a registered user to post from this location. Register here. Advertise on Hoops to a very focused, local and sports-keen audience. Email for rates and options. Recent Posts. Updated every 15 minutes Anonymous , - re: Grand Final: Recipe for . Anonymous , - re: JackJumpers major announ. Anonymous , - re: Grand Final: Recipe for . Anon, - re: Channel 10 makes $300m s. Anonymous , - re: Did the Monstars steal B. Anonymous , - re: Did the Monstars steal B. D2.0, - re: Did the Monstars steal B. D2.0, - re: Grand Final: Recipe for . LV, - re: Grand Final: Recipe for . 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[1] [2] [3] He has been very successful in his career. Andrew is the son of Lindsay Gaze, who coached and played basketball himself. Andrew started playing in the NBL when he was 18 years old. He won the 'rookie of the year' prize in 1984. He scored the most points out of everyone in a season 14 times. This was because he was very good at shooting, including 'three-point' shots. Gaze played with Lanard Copeland at the Melbourne Tigers for most of his career. He often through 'alley oop' passes to Copeland. [4] Gaze helped the Tigers reach the finals almost every year. He also helped them win two championships. Gaze played in the Olympic Games for Australia in 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996 and 2000. In 2000 he became only the third basketball player to play in 5 Olympic Games. He led the team to 4th place at the 1988, 1996 and 2000 Olympics. [5] ) He was chosen to be the flag-bearer for the Australian team at the opening ceremony at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. He has scored more points at the Olympics than any other player. He is the second-highest scorer of all-time in World Championship play. In 1988–99, Gaze played for a season college basketball at Seton Hall. His team reached the 1989 NCAA finals. They lost in overtime to Michigan. He tried out with the NBA's Seattle SuperSonics, but did not make the team. [6] In 1993–94 he played seven games for the Washington Bullets. He also played with the San Antonio Spurs in 1998, but became hurt at the end of the season. The Spurs won the title and Gaze was given a championship ring. After the Sydney Olympics, Gaze retired from playing overseas. He retired from the NBL on May 12th 2005. He had played for more than 20 years. Soon after, he wrote his autobiography, A Kid, a Ball, a Dream , with help from Grantley Bernard. Nowadays, Gaze often takes part in TV advertisements. He also commentates for channel 7, SEN 1116 and (occasionally) Fox Sports. Gaze now coaches for the Melbourne Tigers' junior basketball club. Gaze took part in series five of Dancing with the Stars He is now also working as a presenter on Channel Seven's Guide to the Good Life .