Tony Ronaldson

Anthony Dean Ronaldson (born 25 May 1972 in Adelaide, South Australia) is an Australian former professional basketball player who played the majority of his career in the Australian National Basketball League (NBL). Known as "The Bear", Ronaldson, a 6'8" (203 cm) Power forward, played for the Eastside Spectres, South East Melbourne Magic, Victoria Titans, Perth Wildcats and New Zealand Breakers in the NBL, winning the NBL championship with the Magic in 1992 and 1996. He also represented Australia at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and again in 2004 in Athens

Ronaldson attended the Australian Institute of Sport on a basketball scholarship in 1989. In 1991 and 1992 during the NBL off-season, he also attended Arizona State University

Tony Ronaldson made his NBL debut in 1990 with the now-defunct Eastside Spectres under the coaching of Brian Goorjian (who would remain his coach for 342 games through various clubs until 2002), and was a member of the Spectres Grand Final team that lost to the Perth Wildcats in 1991.

When the Spectres merged with the Southern Melbourne Saints in 1992, Ronaldson was one of the players to be signed to the newly created South East Melbourne Magic who played out of the NBL's then largest venue, the 15,300 capacity National Tennis Centre. During his time with the Magic, Ronaldson competed in another four Grand Finals, winning two NBL championships in 1992 and 1996 (both times defeating cross-town rivals the Melbourne Tigers who also used the Tennis Centre as their home venue) and being runner up in 1997 to the Tigers and 1998 to the Adelaide 36ers.

When the Magic also merged with another club in 1998–99, this time with cross-town rivals the North Melbourne Giants, Ronaldson once again signed with the resulting team: the Victoria Titans. The Titans would reach the Grand Final in their first season, but would be beaten 2–1 in the series by the defending champion 36ers.

Ronaldson eventually left the Titans at the end of the 2001–02 NBL season, signing with the Perth Wildcats for 2002–03 season. Following the retirement of Ricky Grace, Ronaldson captained the club in 2005–06, but was replaced by the clubs 7'0" (213 cm) centre (and another born in Adelaide), Paul Rogers the following season.

Ronaldson left the Wildcats after the 2006–07 season and signed with the New Zealand Breakers. Ronaldson ended his NBL career following the 2009–10 season, finishing with 665 games and averages of 15.3 points, 5.2 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game. Ronaldson has more wins than anyone else in NBL history with 430 victories from his 665 game career at a success rate of 64.66%.

NBL records

Ronaldson's 665 games leads the NBL for most games played all-time. He is also the fifth-highest scorer in the NBL with 12,486 points, and also holds the sixth-highest record for defensive rebounds with 2,642. He has also made the most appearances in the NBL Finals, playing in a league record 20 consecutive Finals series from 1990–2009. The only time in his NBL career that his team did not make the playoffs was his final season in 2009–10 when the Breakers finished one game short in 5th place (2009–10 was the first time the NBL used their current 4 team finals format).

In addition to his NBL career, Ronaldson represented Australia at international level on numerous occasions, making his debut for the Boomers at the 1994 FIBA World Championship in Toronto, Canada. He was also a member of the Boomers for the 1996 Olympic Games (in which he made a spectacular four-point play in the dying seconds against Croatia to give the Boomers a 73–71 win and a berth in the Bronze medal game against Lithuania where they lost 80–74), the 1998 FIBA World Championship in Greece, the 2004 Olympic Games and the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne where he won a Gold Medal with the Boomers after they easily defeated their Trans-Tasman rivals New Zealand 77–39 in the Final.