Glen Denham was inducted into Basketball New Zealand’s hall of fame on Saturday at its awards night.
A former King’s High School pupil, Denham played 169 matches for the Tall Blacks — including 53 tests.
The now 57-year-old debuted for the national team in 1984.
He went to the 1986 World Cup, the only World Cup New Zealand attended before 2002, before captaining the side for 13 years.
On the domestic scene the 2.01m forward played his early national league years with the Waikato Pistons and Canterbury Rams, winning titles with the latter in 1989 and 1990.
However, he returned to Otago and played for the Nuggets when they entered the league’s top division in 1991 and spent a decade with the team.
He was part of a successful era for the franchise through the mid-1990s and his 50-point game in 1993 remains a Nuggets record.
Last month he was named the 10th greatest player in league history in the NBL’s 40-year anniversary list.
He retired from the game aged 36 and has since forged an equally impressive career in education.
Denham spent time in the United Kingdom, but has since returned.
He is now the principal of Massey High School in Auckland, his seventh year in the role.
While undertaking that career he battled cancer, after a tumour was discovered on his kidney.
He is now in remission.
On a more local level he was inducted into the King’s Wall of Fame in 2015, having captained the school’s team to a national final against Church College in 1982 and being a former head boy.
Joining Denham as hall of fame inductees were Sally McPhee, Barbara Wheadon, Burton Shipley and the 1978 Tall Blacks team which beat Australia for the first time.
The awards night was for the 2019 season, after last year’s awards night was postponed.
Timaru referee Reagan Ashley won young official of the year.
Ashley has refereed several Dunedin club games over the past two seasons, as well as the Nuggets this year.
Former Otago Daily Times basketball writer and Otago Nugget Marc Hinton won a contribution to basketball award.
Other notable awards were to Penina Davidson, who won overall Most Valuable Player and women’s player of the year, and Corey Webster, who won men’s player of the year.
