Margo Dydek
This article needs additional citations for verification. (May 2011) |
![]() Dydek in September 2008 | |||||||||||||||
Personal information | |||||||||||||||
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Born | Warsaw, Poland | 28 April 1974||||||||||||||
Died | 27 May 2011 Brisbane, Australia | (aged 37)||||||||||||||
Listed height | 7 ft 2 in (2.18 m) | ||||||||||||||
Listed weight | 223 lb (101 kg) | ||||||||||||||
Career information | |||||||||||||||
WNBA draft | 1998: 1st round, 1st overall pick | ||||||||||||||
Selected by the Utah Starzz | |||||||||||||||
Playing career | 1998–2008 | ||||||||||||||
Position | Center | ||||||||||||||
Number | 12 | ||||||||||||||
Career history | |||||||||||||||
1998–2004 | Utah Starzz / San Antonio Silver Stars | ||||||||||||||
2005–2007 | Connecticut Sun | ||||||||||||||
2008 | Los Angeles Sparks | ||||||||||||||
Career highlights and awards | |||||||||||||||
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Stats at WNBA.com | |||||||||||||||
FIBA Hall of Fame as player | |||||||||||||||
Medals
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Małgorzata Teresa Dydek-Twigg, also known as Margo Dydek (28 April 1974 – 27 May 2011),[1] was a Polish professional basketball player. Standing 7 ft 2 in (2.18 m) tall, she was famous for being the tallest professional female basketball player in the world.[2] She played center position for multiple teams in the WNBA and was a coach for the Northside Wizards in the Queensland Basketball League.[3] She was awarded the Polish Gold Cross of Merit (1999).[4]
She was inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2019.
Early life
[edit]Margo Dydek was born 28 April 1974 in Warsaw, Poland, to a 6-foot-7-inch (2.01 m) father and a 6-foot-3-inch (1.91 m) mother.[5] She had two sisters; her elder sister, Katarzyna (6 ft 7 in [2.01 m]) had played for the Colorado Xplosion of the now-defunct ABL. Her younger sister,[6] Marta (6 ft 6 in [1.98 m]), graduated from the University of Texas–El Paso where she played basketball, and played professionally in Spain in the 2000s.[7]
WNBA career
[edit]Dydek made her first trip to the United States in May 1998 for WNBA pre-draft camp. Dydek was drafted 1st overall in the 1998 WNBA draft by the Utah Starzz (the franchise was subsequently transferred to San Antonio).
On 16 April 2005, during the 2005 WNBA draft, the San Antonio Silver Stars traded Dydek to the Connecticut Sun in exchange for the Sun's first-round draft pick, Katie Feenstra from Liberty University.
Records held:
- All-time leader in blocks (877), in 323 games
- Leader in season total blocks nine times (1998–2003, 2005–07)
- Leader in season blocks per game eight times (1998–2003, 2006, 2007)
- Most defensive rebounds (214) in 2001
On 3 June 2008, Dydek signed with the Los Angeles Sparks, following time away from basketball due to her pregnancy. She had given birth to her son, David, in April that year.
European career
[edit]Dydek played for Olimpia Poznań from 1992 to 1994, before playing for Valenciennes Orchies in France from 1994 to 1996, where she met her future husband, David. She then moved to Spain and played for Pool Getafe from 1996 to 1998, and moved back to Poland to play for Fota Porta Gdynia starting with the 1998–99 season. She continued to play with the club through several sponsorship changes; since then, the club has taken the names Polpharma and Lotos.
In 1999–2000 she averaged 18.5 points and 10.7 rebounds for Gdynia in FIBA EuroLeague play. She was named Most Valuable Player of the Polish League Finals of the 1999–2000 season. In 1999, she was also named the best female basketball player in Europe by the Italian sports magazine La Gazzetta dello Sport. Dydek was chosen as Poland's Sports Woman of the Year and was a member of the Poland women's national basketball team until 2007, winning the EuroBasket Women 1999. She helped lead Gdynia to runner-up finishes in the FIBA EuroLeague in 2002 and 2004.[8]
Career statistics
[edit]WNBA
[edit]Source:[9]
GP | Games played | GS | Games started | MPG | Minutes per game | RPG | Rebounds per game |
APG | Assists per game | SPG | Steals per game | BPG | Blocks per game | PPG | Points per game |
TO | Turnovers per game | FG% | Field-goal percentage | 3P% | 3-point field-goal percentage | FT% | Free-throw percentage |
Bold | Career best | ° | League leader |
Regular season
[edit]Year | Team | GP | GS | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | TO | PPG |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1998 | Utah | 30° | 30° | 28.0 | .482 | .143 | .732 | 7.8 | 1.8 | 0.5 | 3.8° | 3.6 | 12.9 |
1999 | Utah | 32° | 28 | 22.9 | .498 | .350 | .857 | 6.4 | 1.8 | 0.4 | 2.4° | 2.8 | 12.6 |
2000 | Utah | 32° | 32° | 24.2 | .445 | .143 | .796 | 5.5 | 1.6 | 0.6 | 3.0° | 2.6 | 9.2 |
2001 | Utah | 32° | 32° | 30.3 | .440 | .400 | .798 | 7.6 | 2.0 | 0.8 | 3.5° | 2.8 | 10.9 |
2002 | Utah | 30 | 27 | 29.2 | .436 | .250 | .844 | 8.7 | 2.4 | 0.8 | 3.6° | 3.2 | 13.1 |
2003 | San Antonio | 34° | 34° | 27.2 | .451 | .000 | .723 | 7.4 | 1.7 | 0.6 | 2.9° | 2.4 | 11.9 |
2004 | San Antonio | 34° | 24 | 20.1 | .433 | .500 | .759 | 4.9 | 1.8 | 0.6 | 1.4 | 1.9 | 6.6 |
2005 | Connecticut | 31 | 30 | 21.6 | .537 | .500 | .769 | 6.3 | 1.2 | 0.3 | 2.3 | 1.5 | 7.3 |
2006 | Connecticut | 34° | 34° | 21.9 | .494 | .250 | .821 | 6.1 | 1.2 | 0.6 | 2.5° | 1.5 | 9.4 |
2007 | Connecticut | 32 | 30 | 20.1 | .487 | .400 | .789 | 6.5 | 1.0 | 0.4 | 2.1° | 1.6 | 6.7 |
2008 | Los Angeles | 2 | 0 | 7.0 | .400 | – | – | 1.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 2.0 |
Career | 11 years, 3 teams | 323 | 301 | 24.4 | .467 | .295 | .791 | 6.6 | 1.6 | 0.5 | 2.7 | 2.3 | 10.0 |
Playoffs
[edit]Year | Team | GP | GS | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | TO | PPG |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2001 | Utah | 2 | 2 | 34.5 | .429 | – | .769 | 7.0 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 3.5 | 2.0 | 14.0 |
2002 | Utah | 5 | 5 | 34.2 | .400 | .600 | .867 | 8.8 | 2.4 | 0.2 | 3.4 | 3.2 | 12.0 |
2005 | Connecticut | 8 | 8 | 18.3 | .376 | 1.000 | .636 | 5.3 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 1.6 | 2.0 | 4.5 |
2006 | Connecticut | 5 | 5 | 26.6 | .458 | .000 | .846 | 7.2 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 2.8 | 1.6 | 11.0 |
2007 | Connecticut | 3 | 3 | 26.7 | .400 | .500 | .000 | 6.3 | 0.7 | 0.0 | 2.7 | 1.0 | 7.0 |
2008 | Los Angeles | 1 | 0 | 1.0 | – | – | – | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
Career | 6 years, 3 teams | 24 | 23 | 25.0 | .412 | .556 | .759 | 6.5 | 1.0 | 0.4 | 2.5 | 2.0 | 8.3 |
Personal life
[edit]Dydek was married and had two sons.[10][11]
Death
[edit]On 19 May 2011, Dydek, at the time pregnant with her third child, collapsed at her home in Brisbane due to cardiac arrest. She was taken by ambulance to a hospital and placed in a medically induced coma. She had been working as a coach for the Northside Wizards in the Queensland Basketball League. She never regained consciousness and died eight days later on 27 May 2011.[12]
References
[edit]- ^ Fox, Margalit (27 May 2011). "Margo Dydek, Towering Women's Basketball Center, Dies at 37". The New York Times.
- ^ "Tallest WNBA player (ever)". Guinness World Records. 24 July 2020. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
- ^ "WNBA.com: 2008 WNBA Transactions". wnba.com. Retrieved 15 August 2015.
- ^ Kancelaria Sejmu RP. "Internetowy System Aktów Prawnych". sejm.gov.pl. Retrieved 15 August 2015.
- ^ "Most Popular". CNN. 19 August 2002. Archived from the original on 4 November 2012. Retrieved 20 May 2011.
- ^ "Rodzina zmarłej Małgorzaty Dydek - koszykarka OSIEROCIŁA dwóch synów, była w ciąży". se.pl. 27 May 2011. Archived from the original on 22 December 2014. Retrieved 15 August 2015.
- ^ "Marta Dydek". polskikosz.pl. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 15 August 2015.
- ^ FIBA Europe Mourn Loss Of Dydek
- ^ "Margo Dydek WNBA Stats". Basketball Reference. Sports Reference. Retrieved 11 October 2021.
- ^ Griffen, Ned (28 May 2011). "The Day - Margo Dydek: A personality to match her 7-foot-2 height - News from southeastern Connecticut". The Day. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
- ^ Evans, Jayda (27 May 2011). "Storm mourns loss of former WNBA player Margo Dydek". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
- ^ "Margo Dydek suffers heart attack". ESPN. 20 May 2011. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
External links
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- Career statistics and player information from WNBA.com and Basketball-Reference.com
- Margo Dydek at Interbasket.net
- Margo Dydek at the FIBA Hall of Fame
- Margo Dydek at FIBA
- Margo Dydek at Olympedia
- Margo Dydek at Olympics.com
- 1974 births
- 2011 deaths
- Basketball players at the 2000 Summer Olympics
- Basketball players from Warsaw
- Centers (basketball)
- Connecticut Sun players
- FIBA Hall of Fame inductees
- Los Angeles Sparks players
- Olympic basketball players for Poland
- Polish expatriate basketball people in the United States
- Polish expatriate basketball people in France
- Polish expatriate basketball people in Spain
- Polish expatriate sportspeople in Australia
- Polish women's basketball players
- Recipients of the Cross of Merit (Poland)
- Recipients of the Order of Polonia Restituta
- San Antonio Stars players
- Sportspeople from Poznań
- Utah Starzz draft picks
- Utah Starzz players
- WNBA All-Stars
- First overall WNBA draft picks