Debra “Debbie” Slimmon was born 3rd April 1967, in Melbourne, Victoria. She was the elder of twin girls and lived in the country towns of Malmsbury and Kyneton.
She first started playing basketball in the Under 14 Junior competition in Kyneton for the Wildcats Basketball Club. She was an outstanding junior player in the Kyneton Basketball Association and played with the Wildcats Senior Women in the A grade Division when she was fifteen years of age.
In her junior basketball playing days she was influenced by her parentsand her coaches Geoff Watts, Alan Smith and Alan Mathison. “My parents Bill and Barbara Slimmon had an enormous influence on my basketball career. The support, encouragement, dedication and selfless hours of driving me to training and games were absolutely incredible. Without them I doubt I would have achieved representing Australia,” says Debbie.
Debbie was spotted by referees from Melbourne and asked to try out for the Eltham Wildcats Basketball Club Under 18 team which she did and she was selected to the team. The drive to Eltham back in those days was ninety minutes from Kyneton.
She continued playing in Kyneton in both the Junior and Senior competitions, whilst still playing Under 18’s with Eltham Wildcats.
Her first Victorian State team was with the Under 18 Victorian Metro Team under Coach Ray Tomlinson. She had previously tried out for the Victorian Country Under 18 Team but was unsuccessful. Debbie played on the Victorian Metro Women’s Team that won the 1984 Under 18 Australian Championships which were in Adelaide. She then went on to represent Vic Metro in the Under 20 Team, again with Ray Tomlinson as coach.
“Ray Tomlinson was the most influential coach of my basketball career. He spent many hours training me individually as a player. Ray taught me the key fundamentals of the game to become the key centre player that I needed to be,” says Debbie.
Debbie was dedicated, had a passion for the game and was always a team player.
As she was 6feet (183cms) tall Debbie always played Centre but often against taller opponents. As a result she had to play strongly, be physical and learn how to play position basketball, especially when blocking out on rebounds. The majority of her points came from close to the basket, and rebounding became her forte.
In 1985 Debbie won a basketball scholarship to the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS). Her first Australian selection came that year when she was selected to play for the Australian Women’s Youth Team for a match against Athletes in Action USA.
She then represented Australia at the Women’s Youth (Under 21) World Championships held in Colorado Springs USA. It was her second time travelling overseas and sherecalls that she was excited about travelling to the USA. The team coached by her mentor Ray Tomlinson gained 6th place....... an outstanding result for our first ever Junior /YouthWomen’s Team at a World Championship. On that team Debbie played alongside other notable players such as Sandy Brondello, Nina Cass, Shelley Gorman, Gaylene McKay, Michele Timms and Samantha Russell.
At the AIS Debbie played with the AIS in the Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL) and toured to Taiwan. She also thrived on the daily coaching and expertise of Brendan Flynn and Jenny Cheesman. Debbie comments, “The AIS scholarship was the opportunity of a lifetime for a country kid from Victoria. It was beyond all my expectations. The coaches were great, very knowledgable, dedicated and provided me with wonderful experiences, opportunities and life lessons. The AIS had an enormous effect on my basketball career. I learnt developmental skills I never knew. The AIS gave me perspective and direction toward my future in basketball. I will forever be grateful.”
After the one year with the AIS Debbie returned to Melbourne to play with the Melbourne Tigers Basketball Club under the coaching of Sandra and Ray Tomlinson, who had mentored her through her early career.
She then moved to the Coburg Club so that she could play in the WNBL.“After many wonderful years with the Melbourne Tigers,in what was a very difficult decision for me, I transferred to Coburg (WNBL team) to further my career and play in the WNBL,” recalls Debbie.
Her coaches at Coburg wereSteve Brehneyand Tammy Good. After several seasons with Coburg she transferred to the Bulleen Boomers under coaches Paul Deacon, Tammy Good and Lori Chizik.
In 1990 and 1992 Debbie was named the Most Valuable Player (MVP) for the WNBL while playing for the Bulleen Boomers and she was named to the WNBL All Star Five in 1988, 1989 and 1990.
After the World Women’s Youth Championships in 1985 Debbie’s next national selection was to the Australian Senior Women’s Team in 1987 when she was chosen to tour with the team on an arduous seventeen games tour of Canada and the USA. This tour was an immense experience for Debbie and the whole team as the tour was tough and long.
Debbie was now in the mix to be selected for Australia for the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games.
In 1988 Debbie played for Australia in a match against Japan and then in five matches against the touring Canadian National Team. Debbie’s dreams came through when she was then named to the Australian Women’s Team for the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games. However Australia still had to qualify.
The Australian Team departed for Korea and played in the Seoul Goodwill Tournament before travelling to Malaysia for the 1988 Olympic Qualification Tournament.
That tournament was a tough one with many teams participating and only the top six nations going on to the Seoul Olympics. The Australians played very well and qualified sixth in the tournament. Debbie was going to the Olympic Games.
At the 1988 Seoul Olympic GamesAustralia finished 4th under Coach Robbie Cadee. This was a brilliant performance for the Aussies to finish 4th in the world. The team started slowly in the tournament with a heavy loss to hosts Korea but then bounced back to cause a huge upset by defeating the USSR who had never lost a game in Olympic competition. Australia missed out on at least a Silver Medal when they lost by one point (with 0.8 seconds remaining in the game) to Yugoslavia in the Semi-Final game to advance to the Gold Medal game. They were then defeated by the USSR in the Bronze Medal playoff game.
Debbie remembers, “This was the highlight and pinnacle of my career....... participating in an Olympic Games. Representing Australia and participating in the Opening and Closing Ceremonies was a memorable experience for me as was living in the Olympic Village. I was in awe of all the athletes from all the different countries as I was only 21 years old and couldn’t believe my achievement.”
After the 1988 Olympics, Debbie continued to play in the Australian WNBL until her retirement from playing basketball in 1997. She played 199 WNBL games and was the all time 8th highest average WNBL points scorer per game at 17.0 points per game. Although only playing 199 games (others have played over 300) she is the second all time WNBL offense rebounder with a total of 961 and she is the 5th all time defensive rebounder with a total of 1,335 and 3rd all time rebounder with 2,296. Debbie averaged a staggering 11.5 rebounds per game to be the leading WNBL average all time leader (over 100 games). She scored 36 points in a single WNBL game for Bulleen.
In 1995 she travelled to Europe to play professional basketball in the European League for Wurzburg Club in Germany.
When she arrived in Wurzburg the Club was playing in Division 2 but with Debbie and a Finnish player on the team Wurzburg qualified for the German First Division.
Debbie relates that travelling overseas to play in Europe had a tremendous impact on her life. “Taking leave from work, leaving behind my family and friends to play professional basketball overseas certainly was one of the highlights of my career to this day and I remember it fondly! It was the coldest winter on record in Germany, it snowed for six months and was minus fifteen degrees most days! The European League was physical and a fast pace. We played several games a week and trained every day. Every weekend the team travelled throughout Europe. It was a wonderful experience to live in another country and play professional basketball throughout Europe.” Debbie played in Germany in the 1995 and 1996 seasons.
In terms of her Australian representation, after the 1988 Seoul Olympics Debbie played on the Australian Team that won the 1989 Oceania Championships which were held in New Zealand. Later in the year she played for Australia on what was to be her final tour. This was a thirteen match tour of the USA.
Debbie surprised many by her retirement from International Basketball in 1989 as she was only 22 years of age. She continued to play basketball at the elite domestic level until she was thirty years of age.
Debbie Slimmon was an outstanding player for her country and for her Clubs. She always gave her uppermost for the team, was a powerful rebounder, had a tremendous ability to run the floor and was a heavy scorer around the basket. She was above all a dedicated team player.
Debbie Slimmon had a short international career by her own choice. She was a member of the 1988 Australian Women’s Basketball Team that demonstrated in 1988 to the world that Australia was an elite nation in women’s world basketball. The breakthrough in 1988 by Debbie and the Australian Women’s Team laid the foundations for excellence for the National Women’s Team for the next thirty years.