Duggan mural paints a picture
BASKETBALL
TIMMY Duggan can look back on his impressive basketball career with nothing but pride.
He was the first Territorian to play in the NBL with Cairns back in 1996, and is only one of a handful of Aboriginal people to have played in the national competition.
He even held his own against former LA Lakers star and two-time NBA champion, Luke Walton – now the coach of Sacramento Kings.
A brilliant action photograph of Duggan scoring a layup on Walton – while playing for Cairns Marlins against the American drawcard’s touring Arizona Wildcats in the North Queensland city in 2002 – will now be remembered forever.
Palmerston recruit Jesse Bell – who starred for Duggan’s Razzle team on its way to winning the 2019 DBA Championship – has painted a mural of that moment.
And Duggan – the founder of Hoops 4 Health in the Territory, which inspires youth to pursue their dreams through basketball while maintaining a healthy lifestyle – wants to donate the highly-detailed painting to a hoops organisation.
He is doing it because – despite his respected career as a player – Duggan admits he lacked a good mentor when he was younger.
Turning down the offer of a lifetime to play with one of his inspirations Leroy Loggins at
Brisbane Bullets after a stellar 1998 season, instead returning to Darwin for a holiday and to play with the Cairns Taipans, was a decision Duggan – 21 at the time – now regrets.
And that has driven him to be a mentor in both his Hoops 4 Health initiative and work with at-risk youngsters at Don Dale Youth Detention Centre.
“Turning down that (Bullets) role was one of my biggest regrets, and I look back and wish I had someone to guide me then,” Duggan said.
“It’s important to have a mentor when you’re young. And since 2001 I’ve been trying to offer that mentorship.”
Duggan wants to donate Bell’s mural to a Territory basketball organisation to provide inspiration not just as a reminder that he did great things.
He wants to use the painting to show young players that they, too, can achieve.