New Zealand basketball lost one of its true stalwarts on Tuesday.

Just 18 days after guiding the Waikato Pistons to his first National Basketball League title, coach, assistant coach, video analyst and player Murray McMahon died at Waikato Hospital in Hamilton this morning.

“This is a sad loss for Murray’s family, his community and for the sport of basketball,” Basketball New Zealand CEO Dale Stephens said.
”The sport has lost an ambassador, a gentleman and a lifetime basketballer. He has given so much to the game at all levels. He can’t be replaced and our thoughts are with his whanau.”

McMahon was the unsung hero behind the biggest moment in New Zealand basketball, as video analyst for coach Tab Baldwin when the Tall Blacks reached the semifinals at the 2002 FIBA World Championships in Indianapolis.

But it was perhaps his grassroots work and long-time dedication McMahon was best known for.

He earned the Sir Lance Cross Award for outstanding contribution at the Basketball New Zealand AGM in March, giving a touching speech about the “money-can’t-buy” moments the game had given back to him.

In 50 years in basketball, McMahon was involved in almost every aspect of the game – from playing to coaching to assisting to development to managing to administration to supporting.

McMahon played for New Zealand in 1967, represented Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Auckland from 1961-1994 and became the oldest NBL player, while coaching, when he took to the floor for a short-handed Waikato Warriors team in the mid-1990s, playing his last game in 1996 at age 52.

He was assistant coach to Keith Mair with the Tall Blacks for three years in the 1990s and video analyst for three years, including the 2004 Athens Olympics, and served as head or assistant coach for the national under-21 team for seven years.

In 2006, the coach was honoured with the Service to Sport Award at the Waikato Regional Sports Awards, and had been the fulltime SportsForce basketball coach at Sport Waikato.

In a 10-year NBL coaching career that started in 1987, McMahon had four separate stints with Waikato and a one-year stint with Waitemata.

He passed 200 NBL games coached – a club that only includes Baldwin, Mair and current Tall Blacks coach Nenad Vucinic - in May and in what was now his final game on June 20, cut down the final piece of net following the Pistons 2-0 sweep of the Wellington Saints in the 2008 NBL Finals - his first championship.

The Pistons finished 16-5 in 2008, his most wins in a season, giving him a 71-139 coaching record.

McMahon is survived by his wife Anita, two sons and five grandchildren.

He was 64