Luc Longley
Luc Longley was born in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia on January 19th, 1969 and is the Basketball Player. At the age of 55, Luc Longley biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, and networth are available.
At 55 years old, Luc Longley has this physical status:
Lucien James Longley (born 19 January 1969) is an Australian professional basketball coach and former player.
He was the first Australian to play in the NBA, where he played for 10 seasons.
The first Australian to win an NBA championship in 1996 (with the Chicago Bulls), he went on to win a total of three championships in his career, all with the Bulls. Longley, playing under the coaching of Phil Jackson and alongside such players as Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Toni Kukoc, Ron Harper, Dennis Rodman and Steve Kerr, stands 7'2" (218 cm) tall and was the starting center during the Chicago Bulls' second "three-peat" championship seasons from 1996–1998, including the Bulls' 1995–96 season, in which they set what was at the time an NBA record by going 72–10 during the regular season. Longley represented Australia at the 1988, 1992 and 2000 Summer Olympics.
Personal life
Longley was married to an American, Kelly Yates, whom he met in New Mexico while he was attending college and they had two daughters. He married an Australian, Anna Gare, a former musician and current television presenter, in 2008.
The Longley family are well known in the Fremantle area, to the extent a 25-year-old, then Chicago Bulls player, Longley was present at the Fremantle Football Club's unveiling and launch at the Fremantle Port. He cited Fremantle at the time as "one of the world's great spots".
In 1996, Longley bought a house in Riverwoods, Illinois.
On 6 April 2007, Longley's $2 million home in Fremantle, Western Australia, was destroyed by a fire. It was initially believed much of Longley's memorabilia from his basketball career was lost, although he later stated he only lost his 1996 team photo. He then bought a warehouse on a nearby street which Gare's father, an architect, converted into a house for their needs. In 2015, the couple moved to a property near the coastal Western Australian town of Denmark.
In December 2009 Longley, who had previously participated in marine conservation efforts, named a newly discovered shrimp species Lebbeus clarehanna after his 15-year-old daughter.
His wife's sister Sophie is married to British comedian Ben Elton.
Early life and career
Longley was born in Melbourne, Victoria, on January 19, 1969, to Sue (née Hansen) and Richard Longley. Longley's father is an architect who competed for Australia at international level in basketball, as well as being a member of two Olympic squads. His mother, who is 6 foot 4 in (1.93 m), is an equestrian who has been divorced from Richard since 1984 and lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States. Sam, a writer and actor, and Griffin, also a journalist and photographer who played briefly for the Perth Wildcats, have two brothers.
Longley, Fremantle, Western Australia, grew up. He was a member of the Australian Under-19 club when he was 16 years old, 1986, he joined the Perth Wildcats, with whom he played two games.
Longley was recruited out of Scotch College in Perth by Gary Colson, the University of New Mexico's basketball coach, who went to Perth to recruit Longley's childhood friend Andrew Vlahov, who ended up attending Stanford University. Both Vlahov and Longley competed for the Perth Redbacks in junior basketball. Longley played basketball at the University of New Mexico from 1987 to 1991, where he averaged 19.1 points, 9.2 rebounds, and 3.6 assists in his senior year. In 1991, he helped New Mexico qualify for the NCAA Tournament. He was a member of the national team for the Seoul Olympics, where they finished fourth, the highest result an Australian senior men's basketball team had ever seen in Olympic competition.
Longley spent time at the Australian Institute of Sport in 1986 and 1987 (before heading to New Mexico) under the direction of Australian Boomers head coach Adrian Hurley, including Vlahov and another young basketball player from Adelaide, Mark Bradtke. The threesome would form the Australian Boomers front court's nucleus during the 1990s, with Longley at center, 6'10" (208 cm) Vlahov at small forward, and Longley at center.
He suited up for the Perth Redbacks during college breaks, helping the team win consecutive State Basketball League (SBL) championships in 1989 and 1990.
NBA career
In 1991, Longley was drafted 7th overall by the Minnesota Timberwolves. Longley made his NBA debut for the Timberwolves on November 30, 1991, following lengthy labor talks that were still underway when the 1991–92 NBA season began and effectively barred him from playing for the first month. He represented Australia again at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. The 7 ft 2 in (2.18 m) center was traded to the Chicago Bulls for Stacey King late in the 1993-94 season after two-plus poor seasons with the struggling franchise.
Longley became the Bulls' starting center. He dominated three straight championships with the Bulls from 1996 to 1998, becoming the first Australian player to win an NBA title and the first Australian player to win three titles.
Since Longley was playing 55 games from the bench from 1994-95, Chicago Bulls coach Phil Jackson made him the starting center in 1995-96. Longley's father, Simon Longley, suffered from ankle surgery in the fall and his subsequent recovery time, and he was forced to miss the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.
Longley stayed at almost two months of the 1996–97 season after dislocating his shoulder while body surfing at Hermosa Beach near the team's hotel after a game in Los Angeles. Longley joked that after receiving phone calls from Michael Jordan, he told him to return to court soon because he had no one to set screens for him in a 2014 interview on Australian television, he joked that after a month.
Chicago did a sign-and-trade with Longley, sending him to the Phoenix Suns for Mark Bryant, Martin Müürsepp, Bubba Wells, and a conditional first-round draft pick after the Bulls' breakup in the 1997-98 season.
Longley was traded to the New York Knicks prior to the 2000–01 NBA season, marking only the second time a team played in NBA history. The Suns acquired Chris Dudley as part of the offer alongside a first-round draft pick from New York and an undisclosed amount of cash, while New York selected Longley, Glen Rice, Travis Knight, Vladimir Stepania, Vladimir Stepania, Lazaro Borrell, Vernon Maxwell, two first-round draft picks from Seattle (from the Los Angeles Lakers and the Seattle SuperSonics), and two second-round draft picks from Seattle. Patrick Ewing and the Lakers were given Horace Grant, Greg Foster, Chuck Person, and Emanual Davis. Longley spent one year in New York before retiring due to a degenerative disease in his left ankle.
National team career
Luc Longley made his international debut with the Australian national basketball team in 1988 and he will be, if possible, the preferred starting center for the next 12 years. He appeared in three Summer Olympics (1988, 1992, and 2000), as well as the 1990 FIBA World Championships. Unfortunately, he was unable to participate for Australia at the 1996 Olympic games, as well as the 1994 and 1998 FIBA World Championships.
Longley worked with some of Australia's best players, including Andrew Gaze, Phil Smyth, Mark Bradtke, Andrew Vlahov, Ray Borner, Brett Maher, and Larry Sengstock throughout his career.
Longley has made it clear that although some people are focusing on his three championships with the Chicago Bulls, he believes that his time with the Australian Boomers is just as important. Longley reflected on how significant the Australian Boomers had been to his development as an actor, mentioning this as the reason he wants to give back to the national program as an assistant coach on the Aussie Hoopla podcast.
Coaching career
Longley served as an assistant coach for Australia's national basketball team from 2013 to 2019.