Ray Borner OAM (born 27 May 1962) is an Australian former

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 competed in the National Basketball League. He was named as the NBL's Most Valuable Player for the 1985 season, becoming the first Australian born player to win the award.

College

After making his NBL debut for the

Coburg Giants The North Melbourne Giants, previously known as the Coburg Giants, were an Australian professional basketball team based in Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital ...

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Sys ...

at the age of 18, Borner spent the 1981–1982 off-season attending

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis ...

where he 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 ...

for the LSU Tigers.

Career

Borner played 518 NBL games over 22 seasons for four separate teams: Coburg / North Melbourne Giants, Illawarra Hawks, Geelong Supercats and Canberra Cannons. Borner won his only NBL Championship in 1989 as a member of the North Melbourne Giants who defeated the Canberra Cannons 2–0 in the best of 3 Grand Final series.

International

Borner also competed for the Boomers in four

Summer Olympic Games The Summer Olympic Games, also known as the Summer Olympics or the Games of the Olympiad, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The 1896 Summer Olympics, inaugural Games took place in 1896 in Athens, ...

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, 1988 in

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

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 ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, and

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 ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

. He also played for the Boomers at the

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C. ...

, 1986,

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

and

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

FIBA World Championships As a , Borner was the starting

Centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

during his early career with the Boomers. From around 1987 with the emergence of other players such as Mark Bradtke (208 cm), John Dorge (209 cm) and Luc Longley, while still playing centre in a number of games, Borner also began playing at

Power forward The power forward (PF), also known as the four, is one of the five traditional Basketball positions, positions in a regulation basketball game. Traditionally, power forwards have played a role similar to center (basketball), centers and are typi ...

for the national team. Borner was inducted into the Australian Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006 and was awarded the

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honours and awards system, Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarch ...

medal on

Australia Day Australia Day is the official national day of Australia. Observed annually on 26 January, it marks the 1788 landing of the First Fleet and raising of the Flag of Great Britain, Union Flag of Great Britain by Arthur Phillip at Sydney Cove, a ...

in 2009.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Borner, Ray 1962 births Living people Australian expatriate basketball people in the United States Australian men's basketball players 1982 FIBA World Championship players 1990 FIBA World Championship players Basketball players at the 1984 Summer Olympics Basketball players at the 1988 Summer Olympics Basketball players at the 1992 Summer Olympics Basketball players at the 1996 Summer Olympics Canberra Cannons players Centers (basketball) Geelong Supercats players LSU Tigers men's basketball players North Melbourne Giants players Olympic basketball players for Australia Illawarra Hawks players Wollongong Hawks players 1986 FIBA World Championship players 1994 FIBA World Championship players Sportspeople from Ballarat Sportsmen from Victoria (state) 20th-century Australian sportsmen