Natalie Porter (born 16 December 1980) is an Australian basketball player who played for the Australian national team and became an Olympic medalist. In her home country, she has played for four different top-level teams including the

Dandenong Rangers The Dandenong Rangers were an Australian professional women's basketball team competing in the Women's National Basketball League ( WNBL). The club is based in Dandenong, Melbourne, Victoria. The team was founded as the Dandenong Rangers, howeve ...

Townsville Fire The Townsville Fire are an Australian professional female basketball team competing in the Women's National Basketball League (WNBL). They are the only female professional sporting team of any discipline in the northern half of Australia. The t ...

Sydney Uni Flames The Sydney Flames are an Australian professional basketball team based in Sydney, New South Wales. The Flames compete in the Women's National Basketball League The Women's National Basketball League (WNBL) is the pre-eminent professional wo ...

and

Canberra Capitals The University of Canberra Capitals are an Australian professional women's basketball team competing in the Women's National Basketball League (WNBL). The team is based in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. In 2014 the University of Canberr ...

. In 2000, she was drafted by the

Women's National Basketball Association The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is an American professional basketball league. It is composed of twelve teams, all based in the United States. The league was founded on April 22, 1996, as the women's counterpart to the Natio ...

. She has also played basketball in Italy. She has been a member of the

Australia women's national basketball team The Australian women's national basketball team is nicknamed the Opals, after the brightly coloured gemstone common to the country. From 1994 onwards, the Opals have been consistently competitive and successful having won nine medals at offic ...

(the Opals), and won a silver medal at the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

in Athens as a member of the team.

Personal life

Natalie Porter was born in

Melbourne, Victoria Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung–Taungurung language, Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the St ...

on 16 December 1980. She is tall.

Basketball

WNBL

Porter started playing basketball when she was five years old. In 1996, she was at the

Australian Institute of Sport The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The Institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the ...

as a basketball scholarship holder. In 1997, Porter joined the

, a team in the

Women's National Basketball League The Women's National Basketball League (WNBL) is the pre-eminent professional women's basketball league in Australia. It is currently composed of eight teams. The league was founded in 1981 and is the women's counterpart to the National Baske ...

(WNBL). In 2003, she moved to the

, where she was the team captain. That year, she was named the

Robyn Maher Robyn Maher (born 6 October 1959) is a retired female basketball player from Australia, who played for the Sydney Uni Flames. A three-time Olympian she was a member of the national women's team that won the bronze medal at the 1996 Summer Oly ...

Defensive Player of the Year, and a member of the WNBL All-Star Five. She was with the team again in 2004, remaining as captain. Porter played for the

in 2006, where she earned the Sydney Uni Players' Player award. In a February 2007 game against the

, she scored 19 points. In the season's Grand Final that her team lost, she scored 15 points against the Canberra Capitals. In 2007/2008, Porter played for the team again. The ''

Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper i ...

'' described her as one of the team's stars. In a December 2007 game, she scored 41 points against the Capitals. In a January 2008 game, she scored 25 points. She topped off the season by being named the

MVP In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

. In 2009, she was named the team's captain after returning from playing in Italy. In an October 2009 game for Sydney, she scored 21 points. In another game that month, she scored 19 points and had 10 rebounds. In 2011/2012, Porter played for the Canberra Capitals in the forward position wearing the number 40. In the fourth round loss to the

Adelaide Lightning The Adelaide Lightning is an Australian professional women's basketball team competing in the Women's National Basketball League ( WNBL). The club is based in the city of Adelaide, South Australia. The club was formed in 1993 and they play i ...

, she was largely responsible for guarding and shutting down

Suzy Batkovic Suzy Batkovic (born 17 December 1980 in Lambton, New South Wales, Australia) is an Australian professional basketball player and politician. Suzy played her junior basketball with the Port Hunter Basketball Club in Newcastle. She has played bas ...

. In late November, she left for a while and was scheduled to return in early 2012, because she had obligations related to her work that she could not back out of. The 13 November 2011 game against the

West Coast Waves The Perth Lynx are an Australian professional basketball team based in Perth, Western Australia. The Lynx compete in the Women's National Basketball League (WNBL) and play their home games at Bendat Basketball Centre. For sponsorship reasons, ...

was her final game before a break as a result of having to go to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

for work. She had seven assists in the game.

WNBA

In 2000, Porter was drafted in the fourth round of the WNBA draft and was the 61st pick. She was drafted by the

New York Liberty The New York Liberty are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The Liberty compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as part of the league's Eastern Conference. The team was f ...

Italian A1

In 2008, Porter signed a contract to play with Lavezzini Parma. She played for the team in 2009.

National team

Porter first played for Australia as a member of the Australian junior team. She played for the team in 1996 and 1997, was a member of the senior national team by 2002, and completed a tour of China with the team. In 2003, she was a member of the senior national team that toured Europe. She was a member of the women's national basketball team that won a silver medal at the

, and the 2005 and 2006 national teams. She was also a member of the 2007 national team, which lost in September to China after having gone undefeated for close to a year. She had seven rebounds in the game. In 2008, she was part of the national team, but in April of that year, she had an ankle injury.

References

External links

Natalie Porter

Australian Olympic Committee Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

Natalie Porter
WNBL {{DEFAULTSORT:Porter, Natalie 1980 births Living people Adelaide Lightning players Australian Institute of Sport basketball (WNBL) players Australian women's basketball players Basketball players at the 2004 Summer Olympics Canberra Capitals players Dandenong Rangers players Forwards (basketball) Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics New York Liberty draft picks Olympic basketball players of Australia Olympic medalists in basketball Olympic silver medalists for Australia Basketball players from Melbourne Sportswomen from Victoria (Australia) Townsville Fire players Articles containing video clips