29 August 2025
Kym Cheeseman
Victoria, Melbourne - Basketball Victoria proudly congratulates NBL1 South, Melbourne Tigers Head Coach Andrew Gaze AM on being elevated to ‘Legend’ status in the Sport Australia Hall of Fame – the highest individual honour in Australian sport.
Gaze becomes the first Australian basketballer to receive the honour, joining just 52 other athletes across all sports who have been recognised as Legends of Australian sport.
Gaze’s career is unmatched. A five-time Olympian, four-time World Cup representative and 297-game Boomer, he remains one of the most iconic figures in Australian basketball. Across 22 NBL seasons with the Melbourne Tigers, he won two championships, claimed seven league MVP awards and is still the league’s all-time leading scorer. Fittingly, the NBL’s MVP award now bears his name.
Basketball Victoria CEO Nick Honey said, “Andrew’s contribution to basketball in Victoria and Australia is immeasurable. His elevation to Legend status – the first for an Australian basketballer – is well deserved and a moment of pride for the entire basketball community. On behalf of Basketball Victoria, we congratulate Andrew and thank him for his extraordinary service to the sport – as a player, coach, mentor and ambassador.”
Gaze was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 2005, the Australian Basketball Hall of Fame the year prior in 2004 (where he was later elevated to Legend status in 2022), further cementing his place as one of the game’s greats.
Internationally, Gaze made history in 1989 as the first Australian to play in an NCAA Championship final with Seton Hall University. He also had a stint in the NBA with the Washington Bullets and San Antonio Spurs, where he was on the roster for the 1998-99 championship-winning team. On the Olympic stage, he was the second highest scorer in Los Angeles in 1984, topped all scorers in 1988 and 1992, and finished as the second-highest all-time Olympic scorer with 789 points. One of his greatest honours came in 2000, when he carried the Australian flag at his fifth and final Games in Sydney.
Today, his sporting influence and legacy continues through Victorian basketball. As Head Coach of the Melbourne Tigers men’s program, where his son Mason plays, he guided the team to a NBL1 South Grand Final appearance earlier this month and was shortlisted for the 2025 NBL1 South Coach of the Year award.
Gaze will be formally elevated to Legend at the 40th Sport Australia Hall of Fame Gala at Crown Palladium in Melbourne on November 17, 2025, where seven new Hall of Fame members will also be inducted and the prestigious Dawn and Don Awards announced.
For more information about other icons of the Victorian basketball community visit Basketball Victoria’s Wall of Fame:
