Basketball ACT congratulates and recognises Marty Clarke OAM, one of three ACT sporting recipients who were named in the Australia Day 2026 Honours yesterday.

Marty was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia, for his lifelong service to basketball as both player and coach.

As a player, Marty Clarke spent three years on scholarship at the Australian Institute of Sport before linking up with the North Melbourne Giants in the NBL, where he played 120 games over five seasons, including the 1989 Championship where the Giants prevailed two games to one over the Canberra Cannons.

His storied coaching career began in his native Tasmania before returning to AIS, where he spent 12 years in various roles coaching Academy and Australian age group rep teams from 1998-2010, helping shape the careers of future stars Andrew Bogut, Patty Mills and Joe Ingles, among so many others.

Clarke spent three years as Head Coach of the Adelaide 36ers in the NBL, was an assistant coach for the Australian Boomers, had five years with St Mary’s College in California, before returning to Canberra in 2018 to head up the AIS-based NBA Global Academy until it ceased Australian operations in mid-2025.