Shelley Gorman’s basketball journey started like so many others in that a friend needed some extra players on their team and asked young Shelley to play. As Shelley says, “I went along, loved it and the rest is history. I started going along to watch the men play at Albert Park Stadium and remember wanting to one day play like them.”
Shelley Anne Gorman was born on January 22nd, 1969 in Melbourne, Victoria. Her junior basketball started with the Diamond Valley Club and then Victorian State Junior Teams. She had an outstanding junior career with Victoria. At an early age she was identified at the Nunawading Club (where she was a team-mate of Michelle Timms and Robyn Maher) that she was an Australian representative player of the future.
Her first national representation was as a member of the 1985 Australian Junior Women’s team. After playing Athletes in Action and at the Calgary Women’s Tournament in Canada the Junior Team gained 6th place in the 1985 World Youth Championships in the USA.
In 1986 as a seventeen year old she was a member of the Nunawading team that won the Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL). That same year she toured to China with the National Junior Team.
In 1987 she was awarded a scholarship to the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) in Canberra where she teamed with other future Olympians such as Sandy Brondello and Fiona Robinson. That year saw her selected for the first time on the Australian Women’sTeam when it toured Europe for eleven games and then to Canada and the USA for seventeen games. She also played for Australia in the 1987 World Student Games.
Her big aim in 1988 was to make the Australian Team for the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games. It was a big challenge for one so young. After she played for Australia in games against Japan and Canada in Australia she received the great news that she was selected on the Australian Team for the Seoul Olympics. However they had yet to qualify.
After playing in the Seoul Goodwill Tournament Australia played in the 1988 Olympic Qualification Tournament, in Malaysia. Australia played very well and qualified for the Olympic Tournament in Seoul. Shelley was only eighteen years of age and off to her first Olympic Games.
Australia started the Olympic tournament with a big loss to Korea but then upset the mighty USSR, inflicting on that team their first ever loss in Olympic competition. The Aussies went agonisingly close to winning a medal when in the Semi-Finals they were beaten by a point with less than a second to go by Yugoslavia. That loss put them out of the Gold Medal game.
Unfortunately the Australian Team could not repeat their earlier performance in the tournament and lost to the USSR in the playoff for the Bronze medal. Fourth place at the Olympics was an amazing result and in many ways helped all future Australian Women’s Teams to believe that they could win a medal at World or Olympic tournaments.
Shelley played on the Australian Women’s Youth team on a tour to the USA and then in games against Japan in 1988. In1989 she was a member of the Australian Youth Team that travelled to Europe for the Pre-World Youth Championship Tournament and World Youth Championships in Spain. The Youth Team played extremely well with Shelley a main force and claimed Australia’s first medal (Bronze) at a World Basketball Championship. Shelley was co-captain of the team.
Shelley (“Gorms”) was a very aggressive player 5 feet 11 inch (181cms) guard-forward who played every moment of the game and never gave up. She was an outstanding shooter and defensive player. She was not recognised as a rebounder as she was not a big player but she proved at Olympic competition and World Championships that she was a great rebounder through her toughness and desire to get the ball.
Shelley established an excellent career in the Australian WNBL where she played 321 games with Melbourne East-Nunawading, AIS, Dandenong, Sydney and Canberra. When she retired she was the sixth in the all time games played in the WNBL. In the WNBL she won five WNBL Championships, including three with Nunawading. She was named as a member of the WNBL All Star team on five occasions (1988, 1989, 1991, 1993 and1995).
One year in the WNBL she shared the scoring title with Sandy Brondello and received the WNBL MVP award. Her career total of 5,204 points is second on the all-time WNBL scoring list. She was named to the WNBL 25th Anniversary Team.
Her feats were not confined to Australia as she played in Germany at BTV Wuppertal with Sandy Brondello and was a stand-out player in European basketball.
She also had a stint with the San Jose Lasers in the 1996-97 and 1997-98 seasons in the American Women’s Basketball League which no longer exists.
In 1989, the year of the Youth World Championships, Shelley also played on the Australian Women’s Team that won the Oceania Championships and travelled on an eleven games tour of the USA. It was certainly a very busy year for her.
After a European tour of eleven games with the Australian Team in 1990, Shelley was selected to play for Australia in the 1990 world championships held in Malaysia. After playing in a warm-up tournament, the Seoul Goodwill Tournament Australia travelled to Malaysia.
In the 1990 World Championship in Malaysia Australia finished a highly creditable 6th.
At this time Shelley was a major player for the Australian Women’s Team even though she had only just left the junior ranks.
In 1990 Shelley also played for Australia in the Goodwill Games held in Seattle, USA.
Shelley was a member of the Australian Teamin 1991 in a series against the USSR, China and Korea and on the team that undertook a ten game tour to the USA.
In 1992 she was selected to the Australian Team for the1992 Barcelona Olympic Games.
After playing China in a six game series in Australia and playing Italy on the way to Spain the Australian Team played in the 1992 Olympic Qualification Tournament in Spain. Australia played extremely well only to lose the last two games (one in overtime to Brazil). Unfortunately the team failed to qualify for the Olympic tournament when they were beaten on percentages by Brazil. It was a big disappointment for Shelley and the rest of the team.
Shelley did not play for Australia in 1993.
In 1994 Australian basketball was a buzz as the Australian Team (now called the Opals) were playing at home in the World Championships. Shelley was selected for Opals and played against Russia and Bulgaria in Australia before playing Brazil, France and Canada in the Pre-Oz Games.
At the World Championships the Opals played wonderfully well but just failed to win that first ever medal at the senior level when they finished 4th.
In 1995 Shelley played for the Opals in the Korean Series and on the Opals team that won the Oceania Olympic Qualification Tournament. She then played for the Opals in the Goldmark Cup against China, and on a tour to Europe.
The 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games were now uppermost in Shelley’s mind. She won selection on the Opal’s Team for the Olympics and played for the Opals in a Challenge Series against the USA, Cuba and the Ukraine, and in pre-Olympic tournaments in Canada and the USA.
At the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games the Opals won Australia’s first Olympic basketball medal when they claimed the Bronze. Shelley had two particularly high scoring games when she scored 18 points against both Cuba and the Dominican Republic. It was a magnificent result for the Opals and Australian basketball.
The World Championships were to be played in Germany in 1998. Shelley played for the Opals against China and the USA in that year but she did not play on the 1998 Opals Team for the World Championships in Germany so her next chance for glory was the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
The Olympic build up for Sydney continued for Shelley in 1999 with games for the Opals against Cuba and Brazil. She had the honour of captaining the Opals in two games in the five match series against Brazil.
In 2000 Shelley played for the Opals in games against Russia and Canada as well as in the Olympic Test Event. Shelley was selected to the Opals Team for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Prior to the Olympics the Opals played games in Poland.
Back home in Australia Shelley played for the Opals in a game against New Zealand, in the C7 Challenge, against the USA in Melbourne and against Brazil in Wollongong.
The Sydney 2000 Olympics were the Opals big chance, not just for Silver but for Gold! It was not to be as the Opals were defeated by the USA in the Gold Medal game, however they had won Silver in what was a magnificent performance. Shelley’s main scoring games were nine points against Poland and ten against Senegal.
After the Sydney 2000 Olympics Shelley retired from International Basketball. She was 31 years of age. She played one more WNBL season after Sydney 2000 and that was with the Canberra Capitals. She then retired from all basketball playing.
Shelley Gorman set examples of the highest order for the generations of Opals and junior players to come. She had great skill, was an outstanding shooter and scorer as well as defender. She rebounded way above her size and strength. Perhaps her greatest attribute was her determination and fierce competitive nature. She played for Australia for fifteen years and in that time played over 300 games for her country. She also enjoyed an outstanding career in the WNBL and overseas.
Shelley Gorman was inducted into the Basketball Australia Hall of Fame in 2010.
Shelley Gorman (Sport the Library)
Shelley Gorman shoots for Australia (Basketball Australia)