Steph Gorman is just getting started

Steph Gorman has always held a genuine passion for basketball, but as she has navigates life, understanding why she does is helping her reach new heights.

Photo credit: Sports Imagery

Basketball was love at first sight.

“As a kid when I started it was just so fun, playing with my friends. Plus I picked it up really fast,” Steph Gorman remembers.

Gorman grew up on the Victorian side of Albury-Wodonga, a region known for a notable name or two (some of whom hail from the Jackson denomination).

“It was good growing up in Wodonga but it was hard being so far away from the city. There was a lot of travel so thanks mum and dad for that one. When I made the Vic Country team I think most of our camps were in Rosebud.”

Throughout the chat, Gorman comes across as someone who’s thoughtful, reflective and navigates through life at her own pace - characteristics that may have been formulated on those drives from the border of NSW to the Ninch.

“It was like four [to] five hour drives and it was most weekends. We’d leave around 4am to get there by nine and then go home that day. We'd do it all in one day.”

She didn’t quite take the beaten path to the WNBL, one that would have been laden with dominance through juniors that made way for a cushy college career.

“I made 16s when I was top age and I thought I was pretty lucky to make that team. I was one of the players on the cusp that could have gone either way. And I was lucky to have good coaches that helped my development so much, plus the experience going against such great competition. It really helped me learn and grow. The more experience I got, the better I got, I guess.”

It wasn’t just about basketball for Steph; there was meaning and growth that she assigned to this journey. “It was such a big challenge and it was something to look forward to as well. And work towards.”

She would then make Vic Country in both Under 18s years, before heading to the United States for college.

“I was really good at dribbling as a kid. I was short, I grew late, so I was point guard," Gorman remembers. She then joked, “I was better at dribbling when I was young, then I went straight to three-and-D, so trying to get back to the dribbling. [Entering college] I was average for a good shooter. Not a really good shooter.”

Her defensive basics, which she refined through college still serves her today. Three of her four seasons saw her average two or more steals per game, finishing top five in her conference in each of these seasons, and one first-place finish.

Her time in the US proved to be the most turbulent of her basketball life. “I just got overwhelmed. There's a lot of time, energy and effort that you had to give to the life of it. It was full time uni, full time basketball. There were three-hour trainings every day. We didn't go a whole lot lighter the day before games.”

The lifestyle was gruelling and a major in psychology occupied as much attention as playing basketball at an elite level. Compound this with travel, a profile on campus, playing in front of packed out arenas and being so far away from home and it will start affecting anyone, especially someone as inquisitive as Steph.

“It was just a matter of getting on with it. If you’re sore or your body is in pain, find a way to get through that. Whereas I'm more about if my body's in pain, it's telling me something and I need to listen to it, but it didn't work that way over there.”

Regardless of her struggles, Gorman always found a way to be an effective basketball player. She would have a stellar game during March Madness in 2020, tallying 17 points, five rebounds, seven assists and a block, including the game-winning assist.

“It was really cool, especially that year. I wasn’t having a good season but managing to finish on a high was really fun. I really love finals basketball, you get to lock in that little bit more and it's really cool. It's so fun.”

Gorman transferred from Utah State to San Diego in April 2020, one month after the world had turned upside-down from COVID-19. College basketball, like everything else, had no clue whether it would be operating, so heading back over was already getting off on the wrong footing.

“I struggled the most my senior year. Up until then, [basketball] was just what I did. I’d push through it and didn't really get a say. That year, I don't really know why, but that year something inside me said why am I doing this? I'm not having fun. This is exhausting. Burnt out, I would say is the word. Why am I training when I'm so tired? My body hurts, how is this benefiting me? We're doing the same drills we've done every day for the last… however many days. I would much rather rest, I think that would help me a lot more.

“A lot of it also was realising that a big part of my drive was external motivation, other people’s approval and validation from outside sources. I think that was a turning point for me in life as well ‘cause I thought, what's the point of doing it for anyone else? And then growing that internal motivation. It didn't happen straight away so during that in between of hey, why am I doing this? Everything became a little bit harder because my “why” wasn’t there as much.”

Getting to college is enough for most young basketballers. Having a good college career is even better, but Steph needed to understand the why. She didn’t, so that eventuated in her heading back home with a year of eligibility in hand.

“And then I thought I’ll go play NBL1. It'll be nice to be home. I thought it’ll fix most of my problems. I did that but I was still struggling with the mental side of things. It didn't help that I moved to Ballarat, which is so cold.”

Ballarat - home to the gold rush (circa 170 years ago), Sovereign Hill (an interactive village based on the gold rush) and the Ballarat tournament. It’s a calm, quaint place that’s symmetrical with Steph’s approach to life, but far from her ideal climate.

“So I went home, got a proper job and that, was terrible. I was doing disability support work. It was really hard and I don't think I knew myself quite as well then, so it wasn't as if I was super passionate about it. It was just a job. So then I was like what is going on? What am I doing?”

The existential and philosophical questions Steph asks herself open the door to the depth of her thinking. Her pursuit to understand herself left her facing massive crossroads in her early 20s. She may not have always been in the exact situation she has wanted to be in, but she has always been true to herself.

“Then Cockburn came calling and I was like, yes, get me outta here. This will be so good. I have always wanted to go to Perth, it sounds awesome. The community, club, culture sounded great so get me to Cockburn. So I went and it’s the best thing I’ve ever done for myself.”

Even though she had never been to the west coast before, she was certain of it as a landing spot. “I'd always wanted to go to Perth. Like, no reasoning whatsoever. Even as a kid, I just wanted to go.

“[I was building my joy with basketball] very gradually. It was nice to be back playing after taking about six months off.

“So it was fun but I still put so much pressure on myself and that took the joy out of it for me. Instead of focusing on the joy, or anything like that, it was more of ‘oh I hope I don't muck it up or I need to be better’. Or it was constantly not doing enough, could’ve done that better, could’ve done this. I would get on myself if I didn't do enough. So there wasn’t a lot of joy surrounding that with basketball.”

Instead of focusing on what she was doing, her focus was on what she wasn’t doing. There was still an externality to her thinking, and she needed to get back to what she had success with; her three-and-D archetype. It’s a sought after skillset, and one that Gorman has been mastering through her adult life.

It also lends itself to a simple rubric - is she causing her opponent to miss? Is she shooting a good percentage from three? There’s obviously so much more that goes into it, but it works as a consumable, commodified metric for quantifying success over this retelling.

Upon landing in Cockburn in 2023 she found her feet, dropping 14.9 points per game to go with two and a half steals, but slightly inefficient from deep at 31%. In her rookie season with the Cougars she was named Best Defensive Player at the club's award night while leading the team to its maiden championship with a Grand Final MVP to boot.

This netted her a job opportunity for the Perth Lynx in the WNBL for the 2023-24 season. “It was so cool. Ryan [Petrik] was calling me and I was like ‘oh my God what is going on right now?’ They reached out to my agent who I got maybe a week before I heard about it and yeah, it was a pretty cool experience.”

Gorman came out of the gates hot in Perth’s pursuit of ultimate glory in WNBL24. Two double-digit scoring games with a combined 6-11 shooting from deep was a sign of things to come for Gorman with the Lynx, as they started the season 2-0 on the road, and she became a permanent fixture in the rotation through the Grand Final. Although her counting stats weren’t what they are now, she shot decently from three at 33.3% while tallying 0.913 points per possession (PPP) and holding her opponents to 0.783 PPP.

She would head back to Cockburn in 2024 to defend their NBL1 title from the season prior. They made the Grand Final again, but finished as runners up against the Rockingham Flames. Gorman would shoot 34.4% from three this season, scoring 1.012 PPP, and holding her direct opponent to 0.551 PPP, astronomical numbers under the lens of efficiency.

“Over time, my coach [at Cockburn] Tyrone [Thwaites] was really great with it,” Gorman shared. “He was just super helpful and understood that side of things. He was very good at understanding different types of players and what they need rather than like a ‘one size fits all’ approach. So he kind of saw that that was going on for me and he really encouraged me to focus on what I was good at. Because I would just be like, I need to work on this and this and this and this.

“And he'd say, ‘yeah, okay, but what are you good at? Let's focus on that too, because that's what's gonna help you get to the next level as well. The better you can get at what you are good at, the better that will be for your game. Then we can slowly start to work on one or two other things.’”

The 2024-25 WNBL season saw her soar again, taking on an even larger role and defining herself as one of the league's best shooters. She would rank fourth (37.3%) in three-point shooting, for players who attempted more than 100 three-pointers. Funnily enough, the three players ahead of her all played for the Bendigo Spirit.

Offensively, she bumped up her PPP to 0.932 on significantly higher volume, but her defensive PPP also rose to 0.824, which could be attributed to the level of competition (NBL1 vs WNBL), and also her earning defensive assignments against MVP-calibre players.

As her role grew, she found her flow. She began getting into a rhythm on both sides of the court and felt joy in those responsibilities. “When I played on Sami [Whitcomb] in the WNBL just last year - that was really fun. And I felt very like, I guess, in that rhythm. Yeah, that was huge.”

Gorman has been exemplary in the 2025 NBL1 West season, being named Defensive Player of the Year. “When I came to Cockburn, any time there was a good guard on the other team, the coaches would just say go stop them,” Gorman remembers. “That really helped me showcase that and, again, Tyrone was really good and helped a lot of people see that.”

She had a hyper-efficient 1.162 PPP on offence and held her direct opponent to 0.645 PPP defensively, a near identical proportion to the NBL1 season prior, but with greater responsibility.

The accolade is a neat piece of silverware for someone who accomplished said defensive honours while averaging nigh on 18 points per game. Gorman achieved this all of this while also leading the league in both three-point efficiency and volume, a white hot 47.3% on 9.2 attempts per game. She was in her own stratosphere for shooting, a deadly bullet to have in the chamber for the best defender in the competition.

Two common themes stick out for Gorman through the stretches of her basketball career in which she has felt joy; presence and development.

When she has felt joy as a junior, at Cockburn and at Perth, her focus was on where her feet were and what she's good at. In stripping everything back, focusing on what she can control, while not letting external elements overwhelm her, she is an excellent player.

In terms of development, her most substantial improvement has come when she has placed her three-and-D skillset at the epicentre of her growth - going from a great to an elite shooter, or adding a few things on the periphery of her arsenal. Either way, that development complements her vital base of shooting and defence. This has not only seen an exponential rise in her on court play, but reclaiming her joy with basketball.

She’s now at a time in her life where this is front of mind. Although there will always be challenges and areas of improvement, there is also joy that stems from steady growth and building off her strengths.

Defenders are inherently selfless. In Steph’s case this even extends to who she credits, but there’s no mistaking that it’s ultimately her ability on which that credit hinges on. Throughout the history of basketball, competitive teams often value great defenders, with the understanding that the team can make up for offensive shortcomings elsewhere. Gorman undoubtedly brings that tenacity, and much more.

Her confidence and self-belief have continued to grow in recent years, and she attributes it to her environment and the support of people around her, especially the coaches. “The WNBL helped that a lot. Having coaches that believe in me and tell me that has been huge.”

“I think Ryan does a really good job of understanding the balance. He's very much a big believer in that he'd rather have fresh legs so you can go on game day, than drilling it into the ground. It's been really nice being on the same page as him about that which has felt a lot more aligned with how I do things.”

This balance is something Steph has taken ownership in. When freshing her legs, she likes reading fantasy books and spending time with her kitten, Oliver. “He’s very cute, he’s kinda crazy too. I didn’t get him that long ago.”

On fantasy novels: “It’s kind of an escape from reality. You get to be someone else for a little bit and be in that world, as well as the emotions the book takes you through and you can create it for yourself rather than it being laid out for you.”

On the other side of the balance, there’s also autonomy. “And then it's really good because you have the opportunity to do the extra work if that's what feels right. It's great to have some control over that. So it's like, I want to do the work. I want to be here, let's do it. Instead of like, you're making me be here. So that’s been really cool.”

Gorman and the Lynx work in symbiosis. Empowerment is a key pillar of the club, which allows its players to take command of their careers and carve their own paths, something that’s definitely aligned with Gorman, who solidified her mental bedrock in her 20s, and is finding her balance. It’s an achievement some never manage through their entire lives, and it’s definitely something that could have helped her through her younger days in college and early NBL1 seasons.

“I didn't understand the mental part of it as much as I do now but I really struggled.

“I think also we get taught to be humble and not to take credit. I understand where that comes from but it's also like, no, you did a really good job. You worked really hard. There's a difference between confident and cocky. Giving yourself credit for the work you've done is so important and it needs to come from you as well. Learning that has been huge for me.”

This contrasted her studies of psychology at college, which was theoretical and not relevant to the life of a student athlete, but an interest that was piqued and still being explored.

“I am mentoring [at Enriched Athletes] so I think that's a huge step in the right direction and I would really like to keep diving into that field. I'm hoping a university comes on board with the Lynx. That would be really cool.”

Gorman continues to uncover her “why” as her journey progresses, and continues to delve deeper into her interests. But there will always be time for basketball, and she remains focused.

“I want to develop my ball handling skills. My left hand definitely needs some work. And rebounding, they're the two things I want to improve on.”

This supplements her longer term goals: “Opals is a huge goal of mine. Becoming as solidified as I can in the WNBL, as well. I’d love to play 3x3, that’d be really cool, my game would really suit it.”

Amassing experience is central to the current juncture of Gorman’s career and life, and it’s refreshing to see someone who is not only defined within their core, but continue to apply themselves to things that genuinely interest them.

Steph Gorman’s identity shines above all else; she’s self-possessed and doing things her way, at her pace - she’s just getting started.