'I really owe it to the Canberra Cannons': Voice of basketball Phil Lynch joins ACT Sport Hall of Fame

Commentary simply wasn't something he set out to do. Lynch was a player, a veteran at Newcastle and Shoalhaven who decided his time was up at the dawn of the NBL.

But now he is poised to enter the ACT Sport Hall of Fame as an associate member, his name and picture hung on a wall forevermore - and he can trace it right back to a night spent as a guest speaker at the Kiama bowling club.

"Right at the end of the dinner, a guy came up to me and said 'have you ever thought about doing basketball commentary?' I hadn't ever thought about it really," Lynch said.

"He said 'would you be interested in giving it a go?' It turned out he was an executive from WIN TV in Wollongong."

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So Lynch had his start commentating Illawarra Hawks from the NBL's opening tip-off in 1979, splitting his time calling at basketball courts and local rugby league ovals.

Four years later his life would change dramatically when former teammate Bob Turner arrived to coach the Canberra Cannons.

"The Cannons talked Capital Seven into doing a TV show, and he said 'I've got the guy who can compere it'," Lynch said.

"I started commuting to Canberra from Bomaderry and I did for the next four years. They were the real glory years of the Cannons, because they won the league in 1983, 1984 and 1988.

"The people who were around in those days will tell you the Canberra Cannons were the biggest thing in town. They used to palace out and they had their own television show which I compered.

"It actually catapulted me into the media very quickly because it was a high-profile position, because the Cannons were high-profile. I really owe it to the Cannons, because they put me on the media map in Canberra."

It paved the way for Lynch to commentate four Olympic Games stretching from Los Angeles to Seoul, Atlanta and Sydney. Among the names he called was Michael Jordan; among the moments, the Opals' first Olympic appearance and both of Australia's teams reaching the final four in 1988.

Lynch knows the calibre of people he joins in ACT sporting history. He once chaired the selection panel for 20 years. It is a fitting reward for a pioneer who put the game on the map in this country, a man so many still hear as the voice of Australian basketball.

"They'd be the older people," Lynch grinned. "It's been a few years since I've done things at that level, but that is nice to hear.

"When you think of people in other sports and think of how people are synonymous with the game. To be mentioned in that kind of breath is nice. It's one to bounce the grandkids on the knee one day and talk to them about it."

The ACT Sport Hall of Fame's class of 2021 will be inducted at the CBR Sport Awards, which will be held as an online event on Thursday, December 2. Register to attend by clicking here.

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