Tallest female basketball player in the world posthumously inducted into FBIA Hall of Fame
A Polish basketball player who held the record for being the tallest woman in the game has been posthumously awarded with a place in the International Basketball Federation’s (FIBA) Hall of Fame.
Warsaw-born Małgorzata Dydek, who died of a heart attack in 2011 at the age of 37, was 2.18 metres tall and during her time playing in her home country won the title of Champions of Poland a staggering nine times.
At 2.18m, Dydek was the tallest female basketball player in history.
After winning the European Women’s Basketball Championships in 1999, Dydek was awarded the title of Best Player in Europe by the Italian sports newspaper La Gazzetta Dello Sport.
Moving to the United States in 1998, where she was known as Margo Dydek, she joined the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and continued her career by playing for the Utah Starzz, Connecticut Suns and Los Angeles Sparks.
To this day, she still leads the WNBA all-time table of blocked shots, having blocked opponents a total of 877 times.
To this day, she still leads the WNBA all-time table of blocked shots, having blocked opponents a total of 877 times.
After retiring from her playing career in 2008, she moved to Australia and took over the role of coach for the Northside Wizards in the Queensland Basketball League.
She died after suffering a heart attack in Brisbane on May 27, 2011.
After Marian Kozłowski, the former head of Poland’s Basketball Association and former vice-president of FIBA, Dydek will be the second Polish person to be inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame.
A funeral service for one of the best Polish basketball players in the history of Małgorzata Dydek in the church Divine Mercy in Ząbki near Warsaw.
The ceremony of accepting Dydek into the FIBA Hall of Fame will take place on August 30 in Beijing, China, at the start of this year’s FIBA Basketball World Cup competition.
Along with her, 10 other sportspeople from the basketball world will also be inducted.
