Mark Worthington (born 8 June 1983) 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 for the Willetton Tigers of the

NBL1 West NBL1 West, formerly the State Basketball League (SBL), is a semi-professional basketball league in Western Australia, comprising both a men's and women's competition. In 2020, Basketball Western Australia partnered with the National Basketball L ...

. He played 11 seasons in the National Basketball League (NBL).

Early life and career

Born in

Bunbury, Western Australia Bunbury () is a coastal city in the Australian state of Western Australia, approximately south of the state capital, Perth. It is the state's third most populous city after Perth and Mandurah, with a population of approximately 75,000. Loca ...

, Worthington grew up in the nearby town of

Australind Australind is a town in Western Australia, located 12 km north-east of Bunbury, Western Australia, Bunbury's central business district. Its Local government areas of Western Australia, local government area is the Shire of Harvey. At the 20 ...

, where he attended Australind Primary School and Australind Senior High School. He played for the Bunbury Slammers as a youth and started his career as a development player for the

Cairns Taipans The Cairns Taipans are an Australian professional basketball team based in Cairns, Queensland. The Taipans compete in the National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home games at the Cairns Convention Centre, known colloquially as "The S ...

College career

Worthington played

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

in the United States at

Metropolitan State University of Denver Metropolitan State University of Denver (MSU Denver or Metro State) is a public university in Denver, Colorado, United States. It is located on the Auraria Campus, along with the University of Colorado Denver and the Community College of Denver ...

under coach Mike Dunlap from 2001 to 2005. He won the NABC Division II Player of the Year award in 2004–05.

Professional career

After a standout career at Metro State, Worthington made his debut with the

Sydney Kings The Sydney Kings are an Australian men's professional basketball team competing in the National Basketball League (Australia), National Basketball League (NBL). The team is based in Sydney, New South Wales, and play their home games at Qudos Ba ...

of the National Basketball League, winning the NBL Rookie of the Year Award in 2005–06. He played three seasons with the Kings, before signing with the South Dragons for the 2008–09 season. He helped the Dragons win the NBL championship before they folded in 2009. He subsequently signed with the

Melbourne Tigers Melbourne United is an Australian professional basketball team based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria. United compete in the National Basketball League (Australia), National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home games at Joh ...

for the 2009–10 season. In 2010, he had a stint with German team

Brose Baskets Bamberg Baskets is a German professional basketball team from Bamberg, Franconia/North Bavaria. The club has won the German Championship title nine times and the German Cup six times. The club currently plays in the German top tier Basketball ...

. For the 2010–11 season, Worthington joined the

Gold Coast Blaze The Gold Coast Blaze were an Australian men's professional basketball team which competed in the National Basketball League (NBL). The Blaze played five seasons in the NBL between 2007 and 2012, and played their home games at the Gold Coast C ...

. In 2011, he had stints with Puerto Rican teams Mets de Guaynabo and

Piratas de Quebradillas ''Piratas'' () is a Spanish adventure drama television series with comedy elements created by Carlos Portela and which stars Óscar Jaenada, Pilar Rubio and Silvia Abascal. It aired on Telecinco in 2011. Premise Set in the 18th century, the fi ...

, before returning to the Blaze for the 2011–12 season. In July 2012, Worthington signed with Serbian team Radnički Kragujevac. He suffered a season-ending injury in December 2012, forcing him to eventually leave Kragujevac in February 2013. He played 14 games, averaging 10.2 points and 3.6 rebounds per game. On 18 July 2013, Worthington signed with the Melbourne Tigers, returning to the club for a second stint. In May 2014, the Tigers changed their name to United. On 7 July 2015, Worthington signed a two-year deal with the

. On 13 January 2016, he played his 300th NBL game. On 22 January 2017, Worthington announced his decision to retire at the end of the 2016–17 season. His 335th and final NBL game came in the Taipans' game two semi-final loss to the Perth Wildcats on 20 February 2017 at

Perth Arena Perth Arena (known Naming rights, commercially as ) is an entertainment and sporting arena in the city centre of Perth, Western Australia, used mostly for basketball matches. It is located on Wellington Street, Perth, Wellington Street near the ...

. Worthington was named in the

25th Anniversary Team in 2013 and the Basketball WA Hall of Fame in 2022. On 2 March 2023, Worthington came out of retirement as a 39-year-old and signed with the Willetton Tigers of the

for the 2023 season.

National team career

Worthington made his debut for the Australian national team in 2005 at the

FIBA Oceania Championship FIBA Oceania Championship was the Oceania basketball championships that took place every two years between national teams of the continent. It was also the qualifying tournament for the Basketball World Cups and Olympic Games. The first editio ...

. He has since played for them at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

, and four years later in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, as well as at the

FIBA World Championship The FIBA Basketball World Cup is an international basketball competition between the senior men's national teams of the members of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), the sport's global governing body. It takes place every four ye ...

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

and

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

Coaching career

In February 2016, Worthington was appointed head coach of QBL women's side, the Cairns Dolphins. After two seasons with the Dolphins, Worthington spent the 2017–18 U.S. college season as an assistant coach with the Loyola Marymount Lions men's basketball team. In October 2019, Worthington was appointed head coach of SBL men's side, the South West Slammers, for the 2020 season. He coached them in the inaugural season of the

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

Personal life

Worthington's father, Greg, is a basketball coach who has been involved with the South West Slammers. His brother, Trent, played for many years with the Slammers' SBL team. Worthington and his ex-wife, Andrea, have two sons, Taz and Axel. In May 2023 he announced his engagement to AFLW player Dana Hooker. They married in December 2023 and announced in June 2024 they were pregnant with their first child together to be born in December 2024. In August 2012, it was announced that Worthington was considering a switch to play

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

for the

West Coast Eagles The West Coast Eagles are a professional Australian rules football club based in Perth, Western Australia. The club was founded in 1986 and first competed in 1987 as one of two expansion teams in the Australian Football League (AFL), then known ...

. His uncle, Kevin Worthington played for the Collingwood, Claremont and

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 ...

football clubs in the 1970s and 1980s.

References

External links

Mark Worthington
at taipans.com
Mark Worthington
at eurocupbasketball.com
Mark Worthington
at olympics.com.au
"Coming Home"
at nbl.com.au

at laloyolan.com
"Winning, helping next generation drives Wortho's return"
at nbl1.com.au
2022 Basketball WA Hall of Fame Inductee interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Worthington, Mark 1983 births Living people 2006 FIBA World Championship players 2010 FIBA World Championship players ABA League players Australian expatriate basketball people in Germany Australian expatriate basketball people in Serbia Australian expatriate basketball people in the United States Australian men's basketball players Basketball players at the 2006 Commonwealth Games Basketball players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Basketball players at the 2012 Summer Olympics Bamberg Baskets players Cairns Taipans players Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Australia Commonwealth Games gold medallists in basketball Gold Coast Blaze players KK Radnički Kragujevac (2009–2014) players Loyola Marymount Lions men's basketball coaches Medallists at the 2006 Commonwealth Games Melbourne Tigers players Melbourne United players Metro State Roadrunners men's basketball players Olympic basketball players for Australia Sportspeople from Bunbury, Western Australia Piratas de Quebradillas players Power forwards Small forwards South Dragons players Sydney Kings players Sportsmen from Western Australia Mets de Guaynabo basketball players 21st-century Australian sportsmen