Danny Morseu (born 1 January 1958) is an Australian

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 who played on the

Australian national basketball team The Australia men's national basketball team, nicknamed the Boomers after the slang term for a male kangaroo, represents Australia in international basketball competition. Since the late 1980s, Australia has placed among the world elite teams, ...

in the

1980 Summer Olympics The 1980 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad () and officially branded as Moscow 1980 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 19 July to 3 August 1980 in Moscow, Soviet Union, in present-day Russ ...

and

1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and commonly known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the ...

International career

Morseu played for the Australian team at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, where Australia finished eighth, and at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, where Australia finished seventh, their best Olympic result to that date. The Australian team has since finished fourth on two occasions; Seoul in 1988 and Sydney in 2000 He also played twelve world cup matches for Australia.

Club career

Torres Strait Islander Torres Strait Islanders ( ) are the Indigenous Melanesians, Melanesian people of the Torres Strait Islands, which are part of the state of Queensland, Australia. Ethnically distinct from the Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal peoples of the res ...

, Morseu was born in 1958 on

Thursday Island Thursday Island, colloquially known as TI, or in the Kalaw Lagaw Ya, Kawrareg dialect, Waiben or Waibene, is an island of the Torres Strait Islands, an archipelago of at least 274 small islands in the Torres Strait. TI is located approximately ...

Far North Queensland Far North Queensland (FNQ) is the northernmost part of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland. Its largest city is Cairns, Queensland, Cairns and it is dominated geographically by Cape York Peninsula, which stret ...

. He spent his childhood in Tamwoy, a mission on Thursday Island, where he grew up without running water or electricity. He started playing basketball at school and despite being cut from his primary school team, he developed into a tall talented teenage athlete. After completing school he moved to

Cairns Cairns (; ) is a city in the Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. In the , Cairns had a population of 153,181 people. The city was founded in 1876 and named after William Cairns, Sir W ...

where he played basketball and

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

for local teams. Morseu attracted the attention of National Basketball League coach Brian Kerle after playing a match against Kerle's club, the Melbourne-based St Kilda Saints – on tour of North Queensland. Kerle convinced Morseu to move to Melbourne in 1978, where he played in St Kilda's championship winning teams of 1979 and 1980. He played 217 NBL games in total, winning another NBL championship with the

Brisbane Bullets The Brisbane Bullets are an Australian professional men's basketball team in the National Basketball League (NBL) based in Brisbane, Queensland. They competed from 1979 to 2008, and returned to the league in 2016. Brisbane were one of ten NBL ...

in 1987. In December 2017, Morseu was appointed head coach of the Toowoomba Mountaineers QBL men's side, the team he won a championship with in 1991.

Later biography

In 1984, he completed a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

majoring in recreation from Footscray Institute of Technology. He was employed in a range of activities for state and federal governments in Victoria and Queensland, including working in indigenous health. He has acted as a mentor for other indigenous basketball players such as Nathan Jawai and Patty Mills. In May 2024, a jury found Morseu guilty of one count of bodily harm after punching a woman in the head eight times. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison, suspended after four months. However, Morseu was found not guilty of charges relating to common assault and deprivation of liberty.

Awards

Inducted into the NBL Hall of Fame in 2002, Morseu was the first indigenous basketballer so honoured. He was inducted into the ''Victoria University Sport Hall of Fame'' in 2007.

Personal

Morseu is the uncle of Australian Boomers players Patty Mills and Nathan Jawai.Indigenous basketballer Nathan Jawai shoots for top
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References

External links

NBL statsDanny Morseu: Our Sporting Greats Digital Story and Oral History

State Library of Queensland State Library of Queensland (State Library) is the state public reference and research library of Queensland, Australia, operated by the Government of Queensland, state government. The Library is governed by the Library Board of Queensland, whi ...

as a part of th
Our Sporting Greats Digital Stories and Oral Histories: Murri and Ailan Athletes in the Spotlight Collection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morseu, Danny 1958 births Living people Australian men's basketball coaches Australian men's basketball players 1978 FIBA World Championship players Basketball players at the 1980 Summer Olympics Basketball players at the 1984 Summer Olympics Brisbane Bullets players Forwards (basketball) Geelong Supercats players Indigenous Australian Olympians Indigenous Australian basketball players Olympic basketball players for Australia Sportsmen from Queensland Torres Strait Islanders Victoria University, Melbourne alumni 20th-century Australian sportsmen