Basketball was the big winner at Thursday night’s 2008 Deadly Awards at the Sydney Opera House with Rohanee Cox and Patrick Mills awarded the Male and Female Sportsperson of the Year awards.

A who’s who of black Australia dazzled on the red carpet before joining hundreds of excited audience members in the Concert Hall for a celebration of Indigenous excellence in music, sport, entertainment and community achievement.

Hosted by AFI award-winning actor Luke Carroll, the Deadlys 2008 was an unforgettable night of entertainment featuring the angelic voice of internationally acclaimed singer/songwriter Gurrumul Yunupingu, while the legendary Jimmy Little also showed Australia he’s still got it with an impressive performance of his original hit, Royal Telephone.

In the Male Sportsperson of the Year Award category won by Australian Boomer Patrick Mills, nominees included Beijing Olympics shot putter Benn Harradine, Boomers squad member and Toronto Raptor Nathan Jawai and Socceroos Captain Jade North.

It was Mills’ second Deadly gong after the young point guard with electric speed was recognised at the 2006 Deadly Awards as the Most Promising New Talent in Sport.

In the Female Sportsperson of the Year Award category taken out by Rohanee Cox for the second consecutive year, nominees included netballer Bianca Franklin, cricketing sensation Samantha Hinton and Beijing Olympic softballer Stacey Porter.

The "double" acheived by Mills and Cox reimforces the importance of Basketball Australia's and the Australian Sports Commission's joint initiative, 'Finding Deadly Basketballers', where indigenous talent identification programs uncover and nurture athletes displaying great potential.

Pat and Rohanee are both graduates of the successful Australian Institute of Sport Basketball Program. Rohanee Cox attended the Australian Institute of Sport from 1996 graduating in 1998, while Patrick Mills commenced in 2005 graduating in August 2007.

This year's Deadly's reached more Australians than ever before, with the ceremony being broadcast live on National Indigenous Television (NITV), the National Indigenous Radio Service (NIRS) and the Community Radio Network (CRN). The show will also be broadcast on SBS Television on Sunday, October 12 at 9.55pm EST.

Viewers of the SBS presentation will see Rohanee receive her award in person while Patty accepted his award via a recorded video message from Moraga, California, where he plays NCAA basketball for St Mary's College Gaels.

Contribution by Bill Baxter, BA Media and AIS Basketball

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Australia is one of only two nations to have competed in every modern Summer Olympic Games

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