{"id":137468,"date":"2025-09-12T10:23:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T10:23:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/137468\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T10:23:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T10:23:06","slug":"australian-basketballer-tiana-mangakahia-dies-of-cancer-aged-30","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/137468\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian basketballer Tiana Mangakahia dies of cancer aged 30"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian basketball is in mourning after the death of former Opals and Sydney Flames player Tiana Mangakahia from cancer at the age of 30.<\/p>\n

She first played for the AIS and Townsville Fire before heading to the United States in 2017 to play college basketball for Syracuse University.<\/p>\n

Mangakahia was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2019, while playing for Syracuse.<\/p>\n

She recovered, returned to the court for Syracuse University and broke into the Opals, being part of the bronze medal-winning squad at the 2021 FIBA Asian Cup.<\/p>\n

She returned to the WNBL in 2022\/23 with the Sydney Flames.<\/p>\n

Former pro basketballer Tiana Mangakahia has found her purpose as she fights breast cancer again <\/a><\/p>\n

After being re-diagnosed with breast cancer last year, Tiana Mangakahia was lost, but she’s now embracing her new role as an assistant coach with the Sydney Flames in the WNBL.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However at the end of that season she was found to have stage 4 cancer, meaning the cancer had spread to other parts of her body, forcing her retirement.<\/p>\n

She transitioned into coaching, as an assistant coach for the Flames.<\/p>\n

Mangakahia helped organise a Pink Game in the WNBL to raise funds for the McGrath Foundation.<\/p>\n

“When I look at myself in the mirror, what I’m going through, I think I continue to be brave, strong and tough, and keep moving forward,” the 28-year-old told ABC Sport in January last year.<\/p>\n

“And I believe I got that from my family, my parents, and I’m so grateful for them.”<\/p>\n

In April 2025, Mangakahia came out of retirement to join the Southern Districts Spartans for the 2025 NBL1 North season.<\/p>\n

Loading Instagram content<\/p>\n

However, her health deteriorated soon after the end of the season and she died on Thursday night, surrounded by friends and family.<\/p>\n

Her family posted on her Instagram account.<\/p>\n

“Tiana was a shining light who touched the lives of everyone she met with her kindness, strength, and warmth. She fought right till the very end, showing courage and grace beyond words,” they said.<\/p>\n

“Though our hearts ache without her, her legacy and the love she gave will stay with us forever. We will continue to honour her in everything we do.”<\/p>\n

Basketball Australia (BA) put out a statement, saying Mangakahia’s “impact on basketball and beyond will not be forgotten.”<\/p>\n

“Tiana inspired us all with her courage and resilience as she faced a second battle with breast cancer. Her return to the court in the NBL1 earlier this year with the Southern Districts Spartans was a powerful reflection of her strength, determination, and enduring love for the game,” BA said in the statement.<\/p>\n

“We were fortunate to have her join us for the Opals vs Tall Ferns fixture on the Sunshine Coast in May, where her presence was a reminder of the impact she made on teammates, fans, and the wider basketball community.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian basketball is in mourning after the death of former Opals and Sydney Flames player Tiana Mangakahia from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[726,1617,1300,43,44,11261,588,94564,94565,94563,41,39,42,40,69276],"class_list":["post-137468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-basketball","tag-cancer","tag-death","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-opals","tag-sport","tag-sydney-flames","tag-syracuse-university","tag-tiana-mangakahia","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-wnbl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}