Andrew Mitchell Vlahov (born 1 April 1969) is an Australian retired professional
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...
player. He played his entire eleven-year professional career for the
Perth Wildcats of the
National Basketball League (NBL), with whom he won three championships in 1991, 1995 and 2000.
Early life
Vlahov was born in
Perth
Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...
to
Eva (née Kampe) and
Len Vlahov. His mother had arrived in Australia as a post-war refugee from
Latvia
Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...
, while his father was the son of Croatian immigrants. Both his parents were athletes, and represented Australia at the
1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games which were held in Perth. Eva was a WA State
Long jump
The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...
champion while Len held the WA State
Discus record for 20 consecutive years.
Andrew Vlahov initially attended
Kent Street Senior High School
Kent Street Senior High School is a Public school (government funded), public Mixed-sex education, co-educational specialist school, specialist Secondary education#Australia, high day school, day and Boarding school, boarding school in the Town ...
in south Perth, but unfortunately Kent Street Senior did not have a basketball team, but he played in his local junior team the Perth Redbacks where he would meet long time friend and future Australian Boomers teammate
Luc Longley. Vlahov first came to the U.S. as an exchange student in
junior high school, and later returned for his final year of high school, enrolling at
South Eugene High School in
Eugene,
Oregon
Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...
, while his father (an academic as well as an athlete) worked at the
University of Oregon
The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a Public university, public research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1876, the university is organized into nine colleges and schools and offers 420 undergraduate and gra ...
.
Playing career
Australian Institute of Sport
He attended the
Australian Institute of Sport
The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the ...
in 1987. His sister Lisa attended between 1985 and 1986.
College
Vlahov attended college at
Stanford University
Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
in the US from 1987 to 1991 and was coached by
Mike Montgomery.
Vlahov was a key member of Stanford's 1991
National Invitational Tournament championship winning team, scoring 14 points and 11 rebounds in the championship game against Oklahoma.
Vlahov received the following awards at Stanford:
* Best Defensive Player – 3 times (1988–89, 1989–90, 1990–91)
* Most Inspirational Player (1989–90)
* Team Captain (1989–90, 1990–91)
* Pacific-10 Conference All-Academic Team (1989)
Vlahov holds four Stanford school basketball records:
* 5th in career steals (130)
* 7th in career assists (278)
* 9th in season steals (50)
* 10th in career fouls (286)
NBL
After playing at Stanford, Vlahov was signed by the Perth Wildcats where he played his entire NBL career. A stellar first season with the Wildcats saw Vlahov awarded with the
NBL's Rookie of the Year award. Vlahov replaced
Mike Ellis as the
captain
Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...
of the club in 1993 after only two seasons in the NBL and remained so until his retirement.
International
Vlahov was a four-time Olympian playing with the
Boomers at the
1988,
1992
1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations.
Events January
* January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General.
* January 6
** The Republ ...
,
1996
1996 was designated as:
* International Year for the Eradication of Poverty
Events January
* January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...
and
2000 Olympic Games
The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, officially branded as Sydney 2000, and also known as the Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event held from 15 September to 1 October ...
.
Post-playing career
While still on the playing roster with the Wildcats, Vlahov teamed up with ex-
NBA
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...
player and fellow Western Australian
Luc Longley to purchase the Wildcats franchise from owner
Kerry Stokes. Once Longley pulled out of the venture Vlahov was the majority shareholder of the club (with
Mack Hall holding a small minority of shares) until the completion of the 2005/2006 season when Western Australian
Jack Bendat took over the club.
In his time as owner of the Wildcats, Vlahov was instrumental in the NBL's push into the Asian market including match telecasts to Asian countries and the now discontinued "Singapore Spectacular" (a regular season match where the Wildcats played host to another NBL team in Singapore). The success of the spectacular actually led to the
Singapore Slingers (formerly the
Canberra Cannons (1979-2002) and
Hunter Pirates (2003–2006)) joining the NBL in 2006. Although the Slingers only lasted in the league until 2008, they remain the only Asian based team in NBL history.
Vlahov's nephew,
Griffin Logue, currently plays in the
AFL for
North Melbourne
North Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne Local government ar ...
, having previously played for
Fremantle
Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia located at the mouth of the Swan River (Western Australia), Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australi ...
.
Vlahov now leads RV Sport, a premium sports and event marketing company. Vlahov appeared in a television commercial for "King Size Big and Tall", an Australian clothing company that specialises in clothing for big men.
On 4 February 2013, Vlahov was named in the Perth Wildcats 30th Anniversary All-Star team.
On Australia Day 2016, Vlahov was awarded the
Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to basketball as an athlete and administrator.
In August 2021, Vlahov was inducted into the
Basketball WA Hall of Fame.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Vlahov, Andrew
1969 births
Living people
Australian men's basketball players
1990 FIBA World Championship players
Australian expatriate basketball people in the United States
Australian Institute of Sport basketball players
Australian people of Croatian descent
Australian people of Latvian descent
Basketball players at the 1988 Summer Olympics
Basketball players at the 1992 Summer Olympics
Basketball players at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Basketball players at the 2000 Summer Olympics
Olympic basketball players for Australia
People educated at Aquinas College, Perth
People educated at Kent Street Senior High School
Perth Wildcats players
Power forwards
Small forwards
Basketball players from Perth, Western Australia
Stanford Cardinal men's basketball players
1998 FIBA World Championship players
Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia
1994 FIBA World Championship players
Sportsmen from Western Australia
20th-century Australian sportsmen