Michael Kingma (born 9 August 1979) is an Australian former 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.

Professional career

Kingma was born in

Manly, New South Wales Manly is a beach-side suburb of northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is north-east of the Sydney central business district and is currently one of the three administrative centres of the Local government in Australia ...

, where he started his basketball playing as a junior. Kingma played seven seasons in Australia's National Basketball League, including six seasons 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 ...

. He was a member of the Kings' 2003 NBL championship team, averaging 2.8 points and 1.8 rebounds that year. For the 2003–04 season, Kingma joined the Hunter Pirates, before leaving Australia. He briefly played in

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

and in

Leeuwarden Leeuwarden (; ; ; ) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in Friesland, Netherlands, with a population of 127,073 (2023). It is the provincial capital and seat of the Provin ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. In 2006 he moved to

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

to play for Sundsvall Dragons. In 2007 and 2008 he played for

Borås Basket Borås Basket is a professional basketball club based in the Swedish town of Borås. The club was founded in 1952 and currently compete in the Swedish Basketball League (SBL), the country's premier league. Borås has played in European competition ...

, returning to Sundsvall for the 2009–10 season. Kingma played in the

Queensland Basketball League NBL1 North, formerly the Queensland Basketball League (QBL), is a semi-professional basketball league in Queensland and Northern Territory, Australia, comprising both a men's and women's competition. In 2020, Basketball Queensland partnered wit ...

(QBL) for the Rockhampton Rockets and the Mackay Meteors winning championships in 2010 (Rockets) and 2011 (Meteors). For the 2010–11 season, Kingma played for the British Basketball League team Glasgow Rocks. For the 2012–13 season, Kingma played in the Netherlands for the GasTerra Flames (also known as Donar) in the Dutch Basketball League. He had already tried out for the team in 2004. In

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

and

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

. He played for the Rockhampton Rockets, winning championships in both years. He returned to the Rockets for the 2015 season.

National team career

Kingma played in 25 games for the Netherlands national team, after making his debut on 20 August 2004 against

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

Acting career

Outside of basketball, Kingma, along with fellow Australian basketballers Axel Dench, David Stiff and Julian Khazzouh, played a part in '' Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith''. Kingma played a Wookiee named Tarfful. The players were chosen as Wookiees for their height.

Personal

Kingma has Dutch ancestors, which is why he holds a Dutch passport.

References

External links

Australiabasket.com profileQBL profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kingma, Michael 1979 births Living people Aris Leeuwarden players Australian expatriate basketball people in New Zealand Australian expatriate basketball people in the United Kingdom Australian expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Australian expatriate basketball people in Sweden Australian expatriate basketball people in the Netherlands Australian men's basketball players Basketball players from New South Wales Borås Basket players Centers (basketball) Donar (basketball club) players Caledonia Gladiators players Hunter Pirates players Sydney Kings players Otago Nuggets players People from Manly, New South Wales Sportsmen from New South Wales