The Melbourne Tigers are thrilled to announce the return of Jade Melbourne for the beginning of the NBL1 South Season.
Jade will once again suit up for the Tigers before jetting off to join her Seattle Storm teammates for the WNBA season. Jade is one of the brightest young stars in the Basketball Australia landscape, she is coming off a great WNBA rookie season where she was the youngest player in the league. Jade then returned to WNBL by showing her development in the WNBA for the Canberra Capitals this season averaging 16ppg 5rpg 8apg to win the fans MVP. Jade returning for the Tigers will bring a lot of excitement to the fans especially with her fast pace and spectacular passes.
Coach Kaleb Sclater said, “It’s great for the club that Jade is returning for the first part of the season. Not just the fact she’s an unbelievable player but also an unbelievable role model for the young junior girls at the club. Jade brings an attitude and energy that rubs off on everyone and it showed the first practice she came to, the intensity really lifted. I’m excited to see her out there, the way she can get on the rim and run the floor will open up chances for the shooters we have and fits into our style of play”.
Jade said “I’m excited to be playing for the Melbourne Tigers for the first few games before I head back over to Seattle. I really enjoyed playing there last year and it really helped me get prepared for WNBA training camp. I love the group of girls; I think Kaleb has done an excellent job of recruiting a really good team, so I’m looking forward to playing with them all.”.
Jade will suit up for the Tigers for round 1 when they take on the Dandenong Rangers at MSAC for our first home game on Thursday 4th of April at 6:00pm.