Michael George McKay (born 15 October 1965) is an Australian former professional basketball player. He played most of his career with the

Adelaide 36ers The Adelaide 36ers, also known as the Sixers, are an Australian professional men's basketball team in the National Basketball League (NBL). The 36ers are the only team in the league representing the state of South Australia and are based in th ...

of the National Basketball League (NBL), winning the 1986 championship with the team. McKay also played in the NBL for the

West Adelaide Bearcats West Adelaide Bearcats is a NBL1 Central club based in Adelaide, South Australia. The club fields both a men's and women's team. The club is a division of the overarching West Adelaide Basketball Club (WABC), the major administrative basketball o ...

(with whom he started his NBL career in 1983),

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

Canberra Cannons The Canberra Cannons are a defunct basketball team that competed in Australia's National Basketball League (NBL). They went into financial administration in 2003 and were relocated to Newcastle, where they became the Hunter Pirates. After thi ...

and the

Wollongong Hawks The Illawarra Hawks (formerly the Wollongong Hawks and The Hawks) is an Australian professional basketball team based in Wollongong, New South Wales. The Illawarra Hawks compete in the National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home games ...

. He was a frequent member of the

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

during the late 1980s and early 1990s, including being part of the national team at the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

in Barcelona.

Professional career

Mike McKay started his professional career with the

in 1983. Along with fellow Bearcat players

Al Green Albert Leornes Greene (born April 13, 1946), better known as Al Green, is an American singer, songwriter, pastor and record producer best known for recording a series of soul hit singles in the early 1970s, including " Take Me to the River", ...

Peter Ali Peter Ali (born 22 May 1956) is an Australian basketball player who played for the Adelaide 36ers in the National Basketball League (NBL). He competed in the men's tournament at the 1980 Summer Olympics. Biography Ali was born in Adelaide in ...

and veteran guard Ray Wood, the then 19-year-old joined the Adelaide 36ers in 1985 after the Bearcats pulled out of the NBL at the end of 1984. Under the coaching of his former Bearcats coach Ken Cole, McKay helped the 36ers to its first Grand Final appearance where they lost to the

. McKay played in all 28 games in 1985, averaging 12.9 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.3 assists. McKay won the NBL's Rookie of the Year award despite already having played in the NBL for two previous seasons. The 36ers would win their first NBL championship in 1986. After compiling a 24–2 record during the regular season, including going 13–0 at

Apollo Stadium Apollo Stadium (officially called the Apollo Entertainment Centre) was a multi-purpose indoor arena located at 41 Kingston Avenue, Richmond, South Australia, just 5 minutes from the Adelaide city centre. The stadium had an original seating capac ...

(the first NBL side to go through a regular season unbeaten at home), the 36ers would reverse the 1985 GF result with a three-game series win over the Bullets. Game 2 of the series saw Adelaide's only defeat of the season at home with the Bullets pulling off an upset 104–83 win. McKay suffered a serious knee injury during the year and was forced to miss about 10 weeks. Early on, McKay earned the nickname "Mad Max" for sometimes not being able to control his emotions on the basketball court (he was labelled a 'hot head' by some commentators, most notably by

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

based television commentator Gary Fleet after his clashes with

Leroy Loggins Leroy Loggins (born 20 December 1957) is an Australian-American former professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball League (NBL) from 1981 until 2001. College career Born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, Loggins attended F ...

during the 1986 Grand Final series). McKay would continue to be a star performer for the 36ers until the end of the 1995 NBL season, playing in losing semi-finals in 1987 (

Perth Wildcats The Perth Wildcats are an Australian professional basketball team based in Perth, Western Australia. The Wildcats compete in the National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home games at RAC Arena, known colloquially as "The Jungle". Afte ...

), 1988 (

), 1989 (Perth) as well as 1991 and 1995 (Perth), as well as the losing 1994 GF Series against the

North Melbourne Giants The North Melbourne Giants, previously known as the Coburg Giants, were an Australian professional basketball team based in Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of ...

. With two years still left on his contract, McKay was released by the 36ers at the end of 1995 and he joined the Brisbane Bullets in 1996 where he would win the NBL's inaugural Best Sixth Man award in his first year away from Adelaide. He played two seasons with the Bullets before moving on to two years with the Canberra Cannons (1998–99). After the 1999–2000 NBL season with the

, McKay retired from the NBL having played 448 games and averaging 12.7 points during his career.

International career

Mike McKay first won selection for the

Australian Boomers The Australian men's national basketball team, known as the Boomers after the slang term for a male kangaroo, represents Australia in international basketball competition. Since the late 1980s, Australia has been placed among the world elite t ...

in 1989 and went on to represent his country at the

in Barcelona, Spain. He was also a member of the Boomers who reached the quarter-finals at both the

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

and

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

FIBA Basketball World Cup The FIBA Basketball World Cup, also known as the FIBA World Cup of Basketball or simply the FIBA World Cup, between 1950 and 2010 known as the FIBA World Championship, is an international basketball competition contested by the senior men's nat ...

, finishing 7th in 1990 in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

and 5th in 1994 in Canada.

Media

Starting in the 2012-13 NBL season, Mike McKay is an expert commentator for the NBL's online game streaming subscription service NBL.TV at Adelaide 36ers home games at the

Adelaide Arena Adelaide Arena (known commercially as Adelaide 36ers Arena) is a multipurpose indoor sports stadium located in Findon, an inner western suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. It is the former home arena for the Adelaide 36ers of the NBL and th ...

Personal life

As of 2016 Mike McKay still lives in Adelaide where he is the Accounts Manager for the Workwear Group.Adelaide 36ers’ 1986 NBL ‘Invincibles’ sewed the seeds with a future foundation
/ref>

NBL career stats

, - , style="text-align:left",

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

, style="text-align:left;",

, 20 , , 0 , , ''NA'' , , .390 , , ''NA'' , , .600 , , 0.6 , , 0.1 , , 0.1 , , 0.0 , , 1.9 , - , style="text-align:left",

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 Southeast A ...

, style="text-align:left;",

, 18 , , 0 , , ''NA'' , , .391 , , .188 , , .733 , , 2.7 , , 1.2 , , 0.3 , , 0.3 , , 6.8 , - , style="text-align:left",

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

, style="text-align:left;",

, 28 , , 0 , , ''NA'' , , .492 , , .472 , , .590 , , 3.4 , , 1.3 , , 0.9 , , 0.1 , , 12.9 , - , style="text-align:left; background:#afe6ba;",

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal ente ...

† , style="text-align:left;",

, 30 , , 1 , , ''NA'' , , .465 , , .447 , , .750 , , 2.3 , , 1.2 , , 0.6 , , 0.4 , , 13.6 , - , style="text-align:left",

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...

, style="text-align:left;",

, 26 , , ''NA'' , , 27.3 , , .422 , , .363 , , .709 , , 3.1 , , 1.6 , , 1.0 , , 0.2 , , 14.9 , - , style="text-align:left",

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

, style="text-align:left;",

, 20 , , ''NA'' , , 16.8 , , .398 , , .356 , , .838 , , 1.9 , , 1.4 , , 0.8 , , 0.1 , , 9.4 , - , style="text-align:left",

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

, style="text-align:left;",

, 26 , , ''NA'' , , 28.4 , , .396 , , .321 , , .753 , , 2.9 , , 2.9 , , 1.2 , , 0.4 , , 13.5 , - , style="text-align:left",

, style="text-align:left;",

, 24 , , ''NA'' , , ''NA'' , , .457 , , .470 , , .686 , , 2.5 , , 3.2 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 13.7 , - , style="text-align:left",

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

, style="text-align:left;",

, 28 , , ''NA'' , , 31.8 , , .498 , , .457 , , .840 , , 3.0 , , 3.4 , , 1.3 , , 0.2 , , 19.6 , - , style="text-align:left",

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

, style="text-align:left;",

, 24 , , 24 , , 38.1 , , .390 , , .373 , , .800 , , 4.3 , , 3.0 , , 1.3 , , 0.1 , , 18.5 , - , style="text-align:left",

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

, style="text-align:left;",

, 28 , , 28 , , 41.0 , , .397 , , .389 , , .789 , , 6.0 , , 3.5 , , 1.3 , , 0.1 , , 13.8 , - , style="text-align:left",

, style="text-align:left;",

, 31 , , ''NA'' , , 23.8 , , .398 , , .356 , , .742 , , 3.5 , , 2.4 , , 0.9 , , 0.1 , , 8.2 , - , style="text-align:left",

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

, style="text-align:left;",

, 25 , , 0 , , 23.2 , , .373 , , .347 , , .762 , , 2.0 , , 1.8 , , 0.6 , , 0.1 , , 7.1 , - , style="text-align:left",

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

, style="text-align:left;",

, 29 , , ''NA'' , , 36.0 , , .433 , , .379 , , .821 , , 4.1 , , 2.8 , , 0.9 , , 0.1 , , 17.6 , - , style="text-align:left",

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

, style="text-align:left;",

, 7 , , ''NA'' , , 35.2 , , .439 , , .281 , , 1.000 , , 5.0 , , 2.7 , , 0.9 , , 0.9 , , 18.6 , - , style="text-align:left",

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

, style="text-align:left;",

, 30 , , 30 , , 38.9 , , .458 , , .476 , , .904 , , 3.7 , , 2.4 , , 0.9 , , 0.1 , , 15.0 , - , style="text-align:left", 1998–99 , style="text-align:left;",

, 26 , , 26 , , 41.9 , , .414 , , .373 , , .803 , , 4.3 , , 3.3 , , 0.8 , , 0.2 , , 17.2 , - , style="text-align:left", 1999–2000 , style="text-align:left;",

, 28 , , ''NA'' , , 20.4 , , .346 , , .317 , , .955 , , 1.9 , , 1.5 , , 0.4 , , 0.0 , , 5.5 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2" , Career , 448 , , ''NA'' , , ''NA'' , , .428 , , .389 , , .788 , , 3.2 , , 2.2 , , 0.9 , , 0.2 , , 12.7

References

External links

Profile
at Eurobasket.com {{DEFAULTSORT:McKay, Mike 1965 births Living people Adelaide 36ers players Australian men's basketball players 1990 FIBA World Championship players Basketball players at the 1992 Summer Olympics Brisbane Bullets players Canberra Cannons players Olympic basketball players for Australia Shooting guards Small forwards Basketball players from Adelaide Wollongong Hawks players 1994 FIBA World Championship players Sportsmen from South Australia