La Fleur props up PNG b’ball

DRIVING through Hohola always triggers fond childhood memories for Australian women’s basketball star Annie La Fleur.
“I can remember climbing up mango trees with my brother and cousins and being outside playing until it was dark,” La Fleur recalled.
The Papua New Guinean-born Australian Olympian is currently visiting Port Moresby to help facilitate a Hoops for Health coaching course as part of her role as FIBA Oceania development manager.
Following an outstanding 15-year basketball playing career that saw the point-guard compete for Australia in two FIBA World Championships (1994, 1998) and the Sydney Olympics in 2000, La Fleur kept her love for the sport going via a successful transition into a development role with FIBA Oceania, the sport’s governing body in the Pacific.
“Helping grow the game at the grassroots level is my passion and as a Pacific Islander myself, I feel very lucky that I get to travel to countries all over Oceania and assist national federations with developing the code.”
While she acknowledged that she has seen some pretty amazing things on her travels, the 47-year-old still gets emotional when visiting her native motherland, PNG.
La Fleur’s mother hails from Lese Oalai in the Gulf and her biological father, who passed away recently, is from Netherlands but she was brought to Australia when she was nine-years-old by her Australian step-father, who passed away when she was 14.
“I really do love coming home. The people, the culture, it’s all pretty special for me and I am proud to be Papua New Guinean.”
La Fleur also has a strong desire to see the sport evolve in her homeland.
“Part of my role with FIBA Oceania is to make sure that the sport keeps moving in a positive direction. BFPNG has formulated a very extensive strategic plan which FIBA  will support,” she said.