Golden Soft Sombrero Moment with Andrew Gaze

Four Diegos profile:               

Legendary Australian Basketballer

Achievements:                       

Check this out…

• Played in a record five Olympic games.

• He is the highest points scorer in Olympic history

• Played in four World Championships

• He is the second highest point scorer in World Championship history

• Named NBL’s Most Valuable Player on seven occasions

• He has scored more points (16,000) than any player in NBL history

• Selected as a member of the NBL All – Star team on a record 12 consecutive years

• A member of the NBA team San Antonio Spurs

• A member of NCAA finalists, Seton Hall

• Played over 280 matches for Australia

• Was Olympic Flag Bearer for the Australian team for the opening ceremony at Sydney 2000

• Not bad huh…oh yeh he was also a guest on the Four Diegos.

Diegos Verdict:                                   

Ahhh… what the Diegos would give to see a three-pronged Socceroo attack of Harry Kewell, Mark Viduka and Andrew Gaze going the ‘back door’ and scoring from ‘downtown’.

Some Golden Soft Sombrero Moments with Andrew Gaze

Gaze on Diegos basketball jargon…

Diegos: “The Diegos love to watch you play ‘Jungle ball’ and hitting the long one’s from ‘Downtown’.

How’s the form going”

Gaze: “Yes the form isn’t bad. Lately I’ve been able to knock a few down.

I don’t know about the ‘jungle ball’ and ‘downtown’. That must be Diegos talk for ‘basketball’ and ‘far out’.”

Soft Sombrero Moment 1996

Gaze on dad the coach…

Diegos: “Your dad Lindsay coaches your team the Melbourne Tigers.

You and he have formed a great partnership over the years for the Tigers and the Boomers but the Diegos can’t help wondering about your poor mum.

What was it like growing up at home with your dad who was your coach? Did you get a lot of, ‘look that’s your fifth foul now go to your bedroom’?”

Gaze: “No not really. My dad never really started coaching me in a team environment until I was about sixteen. He never really had anything to do with me in a team sense when I was in the juniors.

So I guess I never had to endure the punishment routine for not conforming to team rules or anything like that especially at home so mum was fine in that respect.”

Soft Sombrero Moment 1996

Gaze on his most important basket ever…

Diegos: “You’ve scored over 12,000 points in your career.

Here’s a tough question for you…which two or three points stand out as the most important that you’ve scored?”

Gaze: “Well that is an extraordinarily hard question to answer.

I suppose when we won the title in 1993 I had a couple of very important free throws at the end of the game. They certainly stick out as some important ones.

Throughout every season there are a lot of shots that may not be right at the end of the game but could be at a crucial turning point that can affect the result. So I guess all those are important.’

Soft Sombrero Moment 1996

Gaze on Seton Hall…

Diegos: “Luc Longley went Chicago Bulls, Chris Anstey went to the Mavericks and Shane Heal went to the Timber Wolves. All these guys are making a lot of money over there in the United States.

When your agent came to you though for the big money signing overseas he said, ‘look mate, I want you to go to Seton Hall’.

Did you say, ‘Where the hell is that?”

Gaze: “Well kind of. Seton Hall is in the College ranks and not in the professional ranks.

At that stage it was more an opportunity for me to continue my education.

Because of the commitments I had with my club team and the national team program I was finding it extremely difficult to study.

So I thought this was an opportunity where I could use basketball to go over to the United States and spend a couple of semesters where they cater for your academic career as well.

It was a fantastic opportunity for me and of course we had a lot of luck and went right through to the championship game.” 

Soft Sombrero Moment 1996