Basketball On The Internet.

YOU might not know it but if you love basketball, you should. This is the 30-year anniversary of our very first FIBA World Championship Gold Medal, won in 1993 in Seoul, South Korea at the Under-19 Women's Worlds, by a team full of players who have continued on to greatness in sport and in life.

One of them, Sally Phillips, formerly Head of the WNBL, penned the following article which she kindly has allowed us to reproduce here.

This team, these days known as the Gems, played 76 matches in preparation for the Worlds, won 63 and never were beaten by a junior national team. 

It was an extraordinary achievement orchastrated by coach Ray Tomlinson and assistant Phil Brown, with a group of young women bound for greatness.Over to Sally ...

THE phrase teamwork makes the dream work "essentially means that dividing tasks and responsibilities among a team can lead to better outcomes than a single person doing the same task", says Sabrina Romanoff, PsyD, a clinical psychologist and professor at Yeshiva University.

I've learned that the saying was initially coined by American clergyman John C. Maxwell. Maxwell published a book in 2002, in which he wrote, “Teamwork makes the dream work, but a vision becomes a nightmare when the leader has a big dream and a bad team.”

In his book, Maxwell discusses the importance of working together collaboratively and shares some principles for building a strong team.

I was motivated to write about teamwork as I've just enjoyed a magical weekend in Canberra with my Australian Gems teammates at a reunion celebrating the 30-year anniversary of our historic gold medal win at the 1993 Under 19 FIBA Women's World Cup, played in Seoul, Korea.

We made history by becoming the first Australian basketball team, junior or senior, to win a gold medal at a World Cup event.

Through all our reminiscing this weekend, one theme was clear - our success came down to a sense of unity and the understanding each of us had about the selfless role we needed to play within the team environment and what we needed to do individually to ensure team success.

Basketball can be a strange game from a team aspect - whilst all playing for the same end result, which for us was to win gold, you can find yourself in competition with teammates for time on the court and who scores the most points. The sense of either camaraderie or competition can be what makes or breaks a team; camaraderie made us!

Simon Sinek talks beautifully about teamwork, with some powerful examples.

When discussing the Navy Seals recruitment process and who makes it and who doesn't; it was the person who when they were emotionally exhausted, physically exhausted, and somehow able to find a way to dig down deep inside themselves to find the energy to help the person next to them - they made it ahead of the tough guy, or the preening leader who delegates everything. We always dug deep and wrapped our arms around each other!

Sinek also talks about high-performing teams, the sense of service to one another and how having each other's backs makes high-performing teams' work. It's not strength, or intelligence, it's the willingness of each member of the team to be there for one another. We were always there for each other!

In another talk of Sinek's that I have listened to many times, he speaks about the importance of blended teams and why alternative styles and perspectives provide opportunities for creativity when problem solving. Teams are always going to experience moments when there are different points of view and blind spots; the great teams find strength in their differences.

The 12-players on our gold medal team - we were all completely different, both in personality and physical characteristics, but our trust in one another and the respect we had for each other ensured that we always felt like we were in a psychologically safe space and able to share ideas, thoughts and feelings, and that we would be listened to.

We were also able to create a set of standards for our team - where how we behaved as individuals outside the team unit was overridden by our team values and expectations whenever we landed back together. We created a circle of trust that Jack Byrnes from the movie Meet the Parents would be proud of!

In his Good Teamwork and Bad Teamwork video on YouTube, Tyler Waye speaks about Steve Jobs and his move to Pixar in 1986. Steve believed in the magic of connection and the important role it played in fostering exceptional team experiences. When Steve first arrived at Pixar there were talks of rebuilding the office space, with an idea to create three different spaces - one for the computer science team, one for the animators, and one for the executives.

Steve moved to scrap these plans and went on to create a shared office space with a meeting spot in the middle, knowing that great teamwork comes from connection.

Waye also speaks about how teams can be best defined by what happens when things get hard. We reflected about this a lot over the past weekend, recognising that when a young team travels the world together for three and half years, and for many of us we also lived together at the Australian Institute of Sport, we certainly faced many moments of adversity that tested our resilience to the limit.

Through all our tough times we found a way to remain unified - good times, bad times, we stayed connected.

Another learning from Waye's YouTube video that greatly resonated with me across this weekend with my former teammates was the findings that came from Google's Project Aristotle. In 2012, the company embarked on an initiative — code-named Project Aristotle — to study hundreds of Google’s teams and figure out why some stumbled while others soared. A couple of the top determinants to come out of the research were that well-performing teams experienced a sense of feeling safe, knowing that their colleagues were trustworthy and dependable.

The second was the camaraderie that came from feeling like you had a voice and that it will be heard and valued. Also, winning teams understand that there will be moments in the life of a team where you may find yourself on a different page, but at the end of the day when it's all said and done, "we'll get the work done!" This was our team!

Lastly, I reflect on the leadership and guidance that steered our team towards greatness, our Head Coach Ray Tomlinson and Assistant Coach Phil Brown. The bar was set high for our team and they made us work incredibly hard, but the work was always fulfilling (perhaps not the training camp beep tests)!

Ray and Phil were not responsible for the results we were going to produce as a team, they were responsible for the people who were responsible for the results - us - the 12 players that were going to get out on the court and play the game. What Ray and Phil did so brilliantly was provide us with an environment where we all understood our role, we trusted in the plans that they put in place, and we loved each other - they set up the environment and they got it right!

Ray and Phil never headed off to first class on long haul flights, or while on our 24-hour horror train ride from Moscow to Kiev, they lived through the experience with us. We always knew that when things were going to be tough we would rally; as other teams around us often unravelled.

"Leadership is a lifestyle, and the purpose of that lifestyle is to produce teams who take care of each other, who love each other, and feel valued and valuable in the organisation where they work." Simon Sinek

FIBA Under 19 Women's Basketball World Cups were instituted back in 1985. In the 15 World Cups to be held since the tournament's inception, our 1993 team remains the only Australian women's team to have won a Gold medal at this level.

There are so many tiny moments that upon reflection this weekend are anything but tiny, they are extraordinary. Going through my collections of research, talks and books that speak to what makes winning teams - our team encapsulates everything I've ever read about teams and greatness; we are the living proof! 30 years ago we made history, something to date has not been repliacted.

Someone might like to write a book about us one day.

The Team was: Kristi Harrower, Michelle Brogan, Jenny Whittle, Carla Boyd, Jo Hill, Sally Phillips (Crowe), Samantha Tomlinson, Gina Stevens, Michelle Cleary (Chandler), Maryanne Briggs (Di Francesco), Nerida Gray (Jeffrey) Laura Pokorny (Howlett).

Coach: Ray Tomlinson     Assistant Coach: Phil Brown    Team manager: Norma Connolly

Physio: Jill Cook

Gold Medal Playoff: Australia 72 d Russia 54

MVP: Michelle Brogan