2024 Hall of Fame Class: Kirk Penney

MIES (Switzerland) - Great shooter. Leader. Fierce competitor. New Zealand Tall Blacks legend. Those are undisputed facts about Kirk Penney, a member of the 2024 Class of the FIBA Hall of Fame.

Penney put himself firmly on the basketball map in his own country when at 18 he was named New Zealand NBL Rookie of the Year after excelling with the North Harbour Kings.

He quickly set about making a name for himself away from The Land of the Long White Cloud and specifically in the United States, where he played college basketball for the Wisconsin Badgers beginning in 1999 and continuing through the 2002-03 campaign.

In Madison, Penney was a linchpin in the Badgers’ conference championship winning teams of 2002 and 2003, when he was named First Team All-Big Ten.

Penney won the Big Ten championship in 2003 with Wisconsin (Photo courtesy Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison)

Every one of his years there was important, including his first season when the Badgers made it to the NCAA Final Four. That was an unforgettable season, which he talked about after entering the Wisconsin Badgers Hall of Fame in 2016.

"I was so lucky to have older players who were good leaders," Penney said, "and to be a part of a hard-working, honest culture that was growing in success."

During his college career, Penney had a couple of memorable summers as a key player for the Tall Blacks, New Zealand's national team.

Following his freshman season at Wisconsin, Penny made his Olympic bow in Sydney in 2000.

Penney (bottom left) was 19 when he represented New Zealand at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney

A couple of years later, he was in the Tall Blacks team that went on an expected run to the Semi-Finals of the FIBA Basketball World Cup in Indianapolis. Penney averaged 16.9 points while shooting a scalding 45.5 percent (20 of 44) from three-point range.

He had his best scoring performance against Yugoslavia in the Semi-Finals, pouring in a game-high 24 points. Yugoslavia came from behind in the second half to win and deny New Zealand a spot in the Final.

Two years after that, and after launching his professional career, Penney and New Zealand won just one of their five Preliminary Round games at the 2004 Olympics in Athens yet the four defeats were by an average of just over four points a game.

"We played the silver medalists Italy in the first game, lose by two (71-69)," Penney said in an interview with FIBA.basketball. "We played Serbia (Serbia and Montenegro), beat Serbia (90-87). We played another game, just kept losing close games and it was the same (New Zealand) team, and we felt like we were better than before."

Also in the Athens Preliminary Round, New Zealand lost 69-62 to China, 98-94 to eventual gold medal winners Argentina and 88-84 to Spain.

"In a tournament, anything can happen," Penney said. "I think the '04 Olympics, all of us would like to have another crack at that with the team that we had. That's sports."

Penny played at his second Olympics in 2004, in Athens

Penney played at four World Cups. His Tall Blacks didn't make it as far as they did in his first World Cup appearance, yet in 2006, 2010 and 2014, they were ninth-, 12- and 15th-placed, respectively in the 24-team tournaments held in 2006, 2010 and 2014.

"We were able to put New Zealand on the map, getting to the Semi-Finals of a World Cup was big," he said. "In four straight World Cups, we got through pool stages and were able to compete against European teams, which was big for us, too."

He was in the 2009 FIBA Oceania team that won that title, and six times he was in Tall Blacks teams that was runners-up, from 2003 to 2007 and from 2011 to 2015.

His club career was an odyssey. Penney played in the USA, including briefly in the NBA, and for numerous clubs in different European countries, and also in Australia’s NBL, where he was named MVP of the league in 2009 with the New Zealand Breakers.

While with the Breakers, he was an All Australian NBL First Team selection from 2008 to 2011.

Penney was the NBL's top scorer from 2009 to 2011.

He is being enshrined in the Class of 2024 which includes Miao Lijie (China), Reggie Miller (USA), Danira Nakic-Bilic (Croatia), Romain Sato (Central African Republic), Skaidrite Smildzina-Budovska (Latvia), Predrag Stojakovic (Serbia), and Daniel Lowell Peterson (USA).

Name	Kirk Samuel Penney
Category of inductee	Player (Guard)
Date of birth	23rd November 1980
Place of birth	Auckland, New Zealand
Nationality	New Zealander
Height	1.96 m, 6 ft 5 in
Teams	North Harbour Kings (1998-2000) University of Wisconsin (2000-2003)        Miami Heat (2003) Gran Canaria (2003-2004) Asheville Altitude (2004) Los Angeles Clippers (2004-2005) Asheville Altitude (2005) Maccabi Tel Aviv (2005-2006) Žalgiris Kaunas (2006-2007) ALBA Berlin (2007) New Zealand Breakers (2007-2010) Sioux Falls Skyforce (2010) New Zealand Breakers (2010-2011) Baloncesto Fuenlabrada (2011-2012) TED Ankara Kolejliler (2012-2013) Trabzonspor (2013-2014) Baloncesto Sevilla (2015) Illawarra Hawks (2015-2016) New Zealand Breakers (2016-2018) Auckland Tuatara (2022) [/unordered]
Club highlights	NCAA Two-time Big Ten champion (2002, 2003) NBA D-League champion (2005) Israeli League champion (2006) Israeli Cup winner (2006) Lithuanian LKF League champion (2007) Lithuanian LKF Cup winner (2007) Australian NBL League champion (2011) [/unordered]
National team highlights	Oceania Championship gold medallist (2009) Six-time Oceania Championship silver medallist (2003-2007, 2011-2015) [/unordered]
Individual highlights	New Zealand NBL Rookie of the Year (1998) New Zealand NBL Most Outstanding Kiwi Guard (1999) Played in two Olympic Games (2000, 2004) Played in four World Cups (2002, 2006, 2010, 2014) Played in seven consecutive Oceania Championships (2003-2015) Second New Zealander to play in the NBA (2003)  NCAA AP honourable mention All-American (2003) Two-time First-team All-Big Ten (2002, 2003) Baltic League All-Star (2007) Four-time All Australian NBL League First Team (2008–2011) Australian NBL League MVP (2009) Three-time Australian NBL League Top Scorer (2009–2011) Two-time Turkish TBL League All-Star (2013, 2014) Two-time Turkish TBL League Three-Point Top Scorer (2013, 2014) [/unordered]

 

 

FIBA