Chris McGraw

Chris McGraw started playing basketball in high school when he attended Balmoral State High School and competed within the Brisbane competition. Chris played for Brisbane in the 1976 U16 Queensland State Championships before moving to Rockhampton and representing Central Queensland in 1978.

His appearances at State Championships led to his selection in the Queensland State Team starting in 1976 at U16 Australian championships. He then went on to play for Queensland in the U18 and U20 Australian Junior Championships.

In 1979 Chris was selected as a member of the 1979 Australian U20 team to compete at the World Championships in Brazil, the inaugural junior World Basketball Championships for men or women.

In 1980 Chris joined Brisbane’s Lang Park Club for whom he played in the Australian American Amateur Basketball League. At that time, the AAABL was the premier basketball league in Queensland and was recognised as one of Australia’s premier leagues. Chris’s exceptional performances in the AAABL, contributed to his being selected the Australian senior men’s team that toured China in 1980.

In the same year, he joined the Brisbane Bullets and played for them from 1980 to 1985 and again from 1990 to 1991. A one-club player, Chris played 187 games for the Bullets, scoring 955 points, 235 offensive rebounds, 329 defensive rebounds and totalling 564 rebounds. In 1985 Chris played in the first grand final win for the Brisbane Bullets when they beat Adelaide 36ers 121- 95 at the Chandler Arena.

Chris also played 54 games for the Maroochydore Clippers in the Queensland Basketball League during four years from 1986, the league’s foundation year, until 1989 and was selected as a member of the league’s All-Star 5 team in 1988.

Chris McGraw’s contribution to basketball in Queensland as a player has been outstanding and he is a worthy inductee to the Queensland Basketball Hall of Fame in the Class of 2021.