BASKETBALL great Damian Martin will be inducted into the Gloucester Sporting Hall of Fame at the annual sport awards night on Saturday at Gloucester Bowling Club.
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In 2020 Gloucester's own, Damian Martin, announced his retirement after 13 seasons in the National Basketball League and professional basketball.
Son of local couple, Anne and Ray Martin, and a product of St Joseph's Primary School, Gloucester and Gloucester High School, Damian's original focus was rugby league. However, as a 15-year-old at the NSW Institute of Sport, he was encouraged by Rob Beveridge to concentrate on basketball rather than rugby league.
This decision made, Damian moved to Canberra to attend the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) and Lake Ginninderra Secondary College. In 2002 and 2003, he played for the AIS in the South East Australian Basketball League (SEABL). He subsequently went on to play for the Australian national junior team at the 2003 FIBA U19 World Championship, where he won a gold medal.
Between 2003 and 2007, Damian played college basketball in the United States for the Loyola Marymount Lions where he earned WCC All-Freshman Team honours in 2003-2004 and was named the WCC Defensive Player of the Year in the 2006-2007 season following his return from an Achilles tendon injury.
Damian began his professional basketball career with the West Sydney Razorbacks in the National Basketball League, but suffered a season-ending knee injury 10 games into the 2007-08 NBL season.
Following the Sydney Kings' withdrawal from the NBL, the Razorbacks re-branded as the Sydney Spirit for the 2008-09 season.
Damian joined the Perth Wildcats for the 2009-2010 NBL season and so began his record-breaking career, with 342 NBL games to his name, NBL championships in 2010, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2020 and six NBL Best Defensive Player titles.
Damian's 13-season stint with the Wildcats was interrupted by a series of injuries which saw him sidelined for many matches.
Damian returned for the final two regular games of the 2019-2020 season, after which he was crowned an NBL champion for the sixth time, becoming one of just four players in NBL history to win six titles, with he and teammate Jesse Wagstaff the only two to do it at one club. Following this season, it was revealed that Damian had played throughout the year with an Achilles injury.
On July 21, 2020, Damian announced his retirement from basketball. Upon retiring, the league named its Best Defensive Player trophy in his honour.
And in November 2023, the Wildcats announced that Damian's number 53 jersey would be retired in February 2024. During his time with the Wildcats, Damian was selected as a member of the Boomers team for the 2016 Rio Olympics campaign that saw the team finish fourth, before he secured a gold medal with the Boomers at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.
