Murphy, Tatham and Thorburn retire from national women’s basketball team
TORONTO — The “Happy Anniversary” messages have poured in every July 1 since 2012. On Canada Day that year, Shona Thorburn, Lizanne Murphy and Tamara Tatham helped the national women’s basketball team clinch the last available berth for the London Olympics.
The trio of two-time Olympians announced their retirement from the Canadian team Tuesday — and recalled that day, in particular, as one they’ll never forget.
“We call it our anniversary,” Murphy said. “What was so special about that was since we made the senior team from an open tryout (in 2007), we thought about the London Olympics every single day for five years. It just meant so much to get there.”
“You’ll get these messages: ‘Hey guys! Best day of our lives!’” added Thorburn. “Because we didn’t take the easy route to get anywhere. I’ll never forget those girls and what we accomplished. Without that 2012 summer, and what we were able to accomplish, we wouldn’t have made it to Rio either, in my opinion. Because that was when we realized our potential and at what level we could play at.”