Brock Motum

Brock Motum moved to the US in 2009 where he began a four-year college career with Washington State University. His first and last seasons were his most prolific averaging 18.0 and 18.7 points per game but he wasn’t picked up in the 2013 NBA draft. He began playing for Granarolo Bolgna in Italy and played in his first major tournament for Australia at the 2014 World Cup where the side finished 12^th.

After a season in the NBL with the Adelaide 36ers, Motum lined up for Lithuanian side Zalgiris Kaunas where he played a key role for the side who won the 2015 and 2016 Championships. He helped Australia qualify for Rio 2016 by winning the 2015 Oceania Championships and would be given his chance to shine on the Olympic stage after being selected to make his Olympic debut.

The Australian side, who were looking to win a historic first Olympic men’s basketball medal in Rio, began the competition with wins over medal contenders France and Serbia. A close loss to the USA was backed up by strong wins over China, a game in which scored 15 points in, and Venezuela to see the side finish their group in second. They eased past Lithuania in the quarter-finals before going down to Serbia 87-61 in the semi-finals. The result set up a bronze medal clash with Spain which went down to the wire. Australia again missed a medal by the barest of margins as the Spanish scored two free throws with just over 5 seconds remaining to take the final position on the Rio podium.

The bronze medal match was arguably Motum’s best, with the 6’10” big man stepping up to score 12 points and grab six rebounds after Andrew Bogut fouled out just after halftime.