Gold Coast (Australia) - Outgoing FIBA Central Board Member, Scott Derwin was awarded as part of the FIBA Oceania Member of Honor during the 2019 FIBA Oceania Zone Assembly on 4 May in Gold Coast, Australia.

Derwin has held several positions in his basketball tenure dating back to 1999 as Basketball Australia's Chief Executive Officer.

Upon receiving his award, the Australian spoke to FIBA Oceania regarding his career with FIBA.

Congratulations on the FIBA Oceania Member of Honor award, what does this award mean to you?

I had no idea I was getting this honor and I am honored to receive the award. I would like to thank FIBA Oceania for this recognition, all of our colleagues from the FIBA Head Office and our National Federation members. I appreciate it and will treasure my experience with everyone.

Can you talk about your time with the FIBA Central Board in this cycle?

We had really good progress in the last five years. In 2014 a lot of work had to be done to reposition FIBA and to a larger extent, to unify FIBA. It was agreed in the 2014 Congress to implement the One FIBA vision with the regional offices and I believe it has worked wonders for everybody.

The World Cup was part of that vision from 2014-2019 and that's going really well with the successful qualifiers and the main tournament in China later this year.

Are you satisfied with the changes in the last five years?

I believe basketball is in a better position now that 5 years ago. Our relationship now with the NBA over the last 5 to7 years has really solidified. It helped a lot because people thought that FIBA and the NBA always do their separate things wherein the two communicate really well and has done a lot of collaborative efforts in the last few years.

I'm very proud in the 5 years I have served in the Central Board, we probably couldn't have done more than what we could have achieved. In 2014, 213 countries around the world all agreed to the One FIBA vision and that in itself was a remarkable thing. I guess the concern for some of us then was how the vision will be supported, a few bumps on the road but we are still on that road.

What are your thoughts on the FIBA Oceania's work in the last five years?

I am very happy with the progress we did in this Zone. One of the objectives to achieve was doubling the number of participants in Oceania and that has been well and truly achieved. Oceania has so much potential although there are challenges because of the geographical location, I think Oceania has done really well. David Crocker (FIBA Oceania Executive Director) has been a wonderful leader for Oceania has done a tremendous job.

Australia and New Zealand will always be big and strong countries in the basketball world and they will always probably be okay but the island countries need help and that is where FIBA comes in.

What do you want to see in the future for the Zone?

I want to see more Pacific nations playing in FIBA competitions and also for them to improve the business of running basketball in their countries. FIBA as an organization is very good at assisting National Federations with coaching, officiating and player development but I believe we can improve as an organization in helping the smaller Federations in the business side of basketball.

What's in store for you in the future?

It's been an interesting journey, I started basketball 20 years ago, I was the CEO of Basketball Australia and thought I would be doing that for 5 years. But here I am 20 years later still involved, but its time for me, it has been a good journey and I am proud of the various teams I've worked with and what we've achieved. I plan to play a bit more golf do a little bit more surfing that sort of kind of thing.

FIBA