Tiana Mangakahia, the former Opals guard who died from breast cancer last September, is being remembered by her family a year on from her death. Her mother said the family's tears continue, but now come equipped with a rally cause in her honour.
"She was a girl who loved life, she loved basketball – ever since a ball got in her hand, she knew that's what she wanted to do, and I think you need to have that kind of drive if you're going to be a professional sports person," Mangakahia's mother, Cynthia, said. "It has to be in your soul, and it was in T."
An Asia Cup bronze medallist, Mangakahia first received her diagnosis shortly after being included in the country's preliminary squad for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. She stayed in America for the first stages of her cancer treatment, sitting on the Syracuse bench, and eventually returned to the court to join the school's 1000-point club.
Her career extended across Australia and to Russia, France and America, before she lost her battle with breast cancer, leaving a gaping void in the basketball community.