Erin Phillips

Erin Phillips

WNBA's Indiana Fever  – No. 13
Guard
Born	(1985-05-19) 19 May 1985 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Nationality	Australian
Height	5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Weight	165 lb (75 kg)
Draft	21st overall, 2005 Connecticut Sun
WNBA career	2006–present
Profile	WNBA player profile
WNBA teams
Connecticut Sun (2006, 2008–2009) Indiana Fever (2011–present)
Non-WNBA teams
Adelaide Lightning (2002–2008) Electra Ramat Hasharon (2008–2009) Lotos Gdynia (2009–2010) TS Wisła Can-Pack Kraków (2010–)
Awards and honors
1× WNBA Champion (2012)
Medal record Women's Basketball Competitor for  Australia Olympic Games Silver 2008 Beijing National team World Championship Gold 2006 Brazil National team

Erin Victoria Phillips (born 19 May 1985) is an Australian professional women's basketball player. She has played basketball in Australia's WNBL for the Australian Institute of Sport and the Adelaide Lightning. She has played in the USA's WNBA for Connecticut and the Indiana Fever. She has also played professionally for European club sides for teams in Israel and Poland. She is a member of the Australia women's national basketball team, and as a member of the team, has won a silver medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics and a gold medal at the 2006 FIBA World Championship for Women.

Personal

Phillips was born on 19 May 1985^[1][2][3] in Carlton, Victoria.^[2][3] She is from South Australia.^[4] When not playing basketball, she is a community youth worker.^[3]

Phillips is 173 centimetres (68 in) tall.^[1][2][3] In 2006, she weighed 73 kilograms (161 lb).^[3] She has had a knee reconstruction prior to March 2007.^[5]

In April 2008, Phillips created controversy when she did a photo shoot for men's magazine Alpha wearing skimpy SpencerLacy lingerie.^[6]

In June 2012, Phillips bought a house in Dallas, Texas. She explained to reporter Jayda Evans that she has friends in the area and likes the fact that there are direct flights from Dallas to Brisbane and Sydney Australia. "Obviously I won't live in it a lot, but it'll be a base for me."^[7]

Basketball

Phillips is a guard.^[1][2] In 2003, she had a scholarship with the Australian Institute of Sport.^[8] As a competitor at the 2004 Australian Under-20 national championships, she won the Bob Staunton Award.^[9] In March 2007, she was recovering from a knee reconstruction.^[5] In 2008, she was featured as a basketball star on myFiba.^[10]

WNBL

Phillips had a scholarship with and played for the Australian Institute of Sport in 2003 in the WNBL.^[11]

In 2005, Phillips was named to the WNBL's All-Star Five.^[3] She played for Adelaide Fellas in 2005/2006^[12] and 2006/2007 where she was coached by Chris Lucas.^[3] In 2007/2008, she played for the Adelaide Lightning.^[13]

WNBA

In 2006, she was playing for Connecticut.^[14] It was her first season in the league.^[14] In 2008, she was playing in the WNBA, taking leave from the early part of the season in order to prepare for the Olympics.^[15] Prior to the start of the 2011 WNBA season, she had signed a training camp contract with the Seattle Storm.^[16] However, before the season started, Seattle traded her to the Indiana Fever to make room for Katie Smith who had demanded a trade to the Storm from the Washington Mystics.^[17] She helped the Fever win the WNBA Championship in 2012, averaging 13.5 points per game in the finals after an injury to Katie Douglas.^[18]

Europe

Phillips was playing for Ramat Hasharon (Israel) during the 2008/2009 WNBA off-season.^[19] She played for Lotos Gdynia in Poland in 2009/2010.^[20][21]

Phillips played for the Polish team again during the 2011/2012 season.^[1][2][22] The Polish fans have been very supportive of her in the 2012 season, despite having missed a month of play.^[23] They applauded loudly for her upon her return.^[23] She was playing for the team as a 27 year old and was older than many of her team mates.^[23] In the 2012 season, she ranked fifth with 3.7 free throws made per game, ranked sixth in the league with an average of 4.6 fouls drawn per game, ranked eighth with 4.8 free throw attempts a game, ranked thirteenth with 32.3 minutes per game, ranked sixteenth with a free throw percentage of 77.6%, ranked sixteenth with an average of 3.3 assists per game, and ranked twentieth with a 3 point field goal percentage of 39.5%.^[2]

National team

Phillips is a member of the Australia women's national basketball team.^[24] In 2006, she was a member of the Australian women's senior team that won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games.^[25] She wore number 10.^[4] In 2006, she was a member of the Australian women's senior team that won a gold medal at the World Championships in Brazil.^[25] In March 2007, she was named to the national team what would prepare for the 2008 Summer Olympics.^[5] In 2008, she participated in the Good Luck Beijing 2008 held in China in the lead up to the Olympics. Her team was joined by national teams from United States, Cuba, Korea, New Zealand and China.^[13] She was a member of the 2008 Summer Olympics Australian women's team that won a silver medal at the Olympics.^[26] In mid-2010, she participated in a tour of China, USA and Hungary.^[27] In 2010, she was a member of the senior women's national team that competed at the World Championships in the Czech Republic.^[28] She was named to the 2012 Australia women's national basketball team.^[24] She was scheduled to participate in the national team training camp held from 14 to 18 May 2012 at the Australian Institute of Sport.^[29] Phillips was not selected to the 2012 Australian Women's Basketball Olympic team and said in an interview with reporter Jayda Evans that she was devastated by the news, but knew that she was taking a risk by not staying in Australia up until the Olympic games to practice full-time with the team (unlike Lauren Jackson who did not play for the Seattle Storm in 2012 until after the Olympics).^[7]

References