Ezi Magbegor

It’s fitting Ezi Magbegor is a Coburg Giants junior as she’s taken some big steps in her basketball career.

Then again, she wasn’t hard to miss with her athletic skills and composure – she was already 193cm tall in her early teens.

Ezi caught the eye of Basketball Australia officials at the U18s Australian Junior Championships in 2015, reaching double figures in six of her nine games.

She made her international debut at the 2015 FIBA U19s World Championship where the Australians took bronze. She then represented the U17s Sapphires at the Oceania Championships later that year.

At that tournament the Sapphires booked their place in the 2016 World Cup, with Ezi helping the team to an inaugural gold medal – beating USA in the semis and Italy in the final.

It was gold again at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and that led to a spot in the Opals FIBA World Cup side that same year, where the Opals won silver. It was their best finish at a World Cup since winning the gold in 2006.

In March 2018, Ezi signed a three-year deal with the Melbourne Boomers in the WNBL, ignoring the advances of a string of US colleges. She was named Rookie of the Year.

But the lure of overseas experience led to WNBA team Seattle Storm – the former home of Ezi’s idol Lauren Jackson – picking her in the 2019 draft. Then she helped Seattle to their fourth WNBA title in 2020, over the Las Vegas Aces.

At the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics – in 2021 – the Opals played Belgium (L 85-70), China (L 76-74) and Puerto Rico (W 96-69) in the group phase. In the quarter-finals they squared off against the USA, losing to the eventual Olympic champions 79-55 and finishing eighth in the tournament.

Ezi played in all four matches, averaging 12.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 1.0 steal in 23.6 minutes per game.

In 2022, Ezi played a key defensive role as the Opals claimed bronze at the FIBA World Cup played in Sydney, defeating Canada 95-65 in the play-off for third.

The following year she completed her first professional contract in Europe, playing with Sopron in Hungary.

Returning to the Seattle Storm, where she has signed a long-term deal, Ezi had a breakout 2023 season, averaging 14.4 points, 8.9 rebounds, 2.6 blocks, 1.9 assists and 1.6 steals in 34 minutes per game.

Ezi started 2024 with a bang, named MVP as the Opals punched their tickets to Paris at an Olympic qualifying tournament in Belem, Brazil.

She averaged 12.7 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 3 blocks per game while leading Australia to an undefeated record in matches against Brazil, Germany and Serbia, shooting at 63.6 percent from the field.

At the Paris 2024 Olympics Ezi and the Opals recovered from a first up loss to a physical Nigeria team (75-62) to beat Canada (70-65) and the host nation France (79-72), which meant they automatically progressed to the knockout rounds.

A big win over Serbia in the quarter-finals (85-67) put them in a semis showdown against the USA, with the Americans' victory (85-64) sending the Opals to the bronze medal match against Belgium.

Ezi, who entered the bronze medal match yet to stamp her mark on the Paris Olympics, produced the best game of her career to date when the most was at stake.

She scored a career-high 30 points to go with 13 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, 3 blocks and the Opals followed Ezi to 85-81 win over Belgium for the team's first Olympic medal since London 2012.

Ezi, a psychology student at Deakin University, believes focussing on her mental game is the key to her success.

“Playing year around, the mental side of your game is really important – both on and off the court,” she said.

“I try not to get too low or high. I try to just remain steady. Games can be very intense … You don’t want to focus on something that if you don’t have it or if something goes wrong, it ruins your mindset.”