page_title: Erin Phillips
section_title: 2012–16: Olympic absence and return, World Championship bronze
hierarchical_section_title: Erin Phillips / Basketball career / National team / 2012–16: Olympic absence and return, World Championship bronze
caption_attribution_description: English: Erin Phillips, Australian National Senior team. Taken at Webster Bank Arena (Bridgeport, CT) at the Olympic exhibition game between Australia and France
context_page_description: Erin Victoria Phillips is an Australian former professional basketball player and an Australian rules footballer for Adelaide. She played nine seasons in the Women's National Basketball Association for five different teams and is a two-time WNBA champion. She also represented Australia on the women's national basketball team, winning a gold medal at the 2006 FIBA World Championship for Women and serving as a co-vice captain at the 2016 Summer Olympics. Additionally, Phillips has played four seasons in the AFL Women's competition, in which she is a two-time premiership player and two-time league best and fairest.
  Phillips's father Greg played professional Australian rules football for Port Adelaide, where he won eight premierships and earned an induction into the Australian Football Hall of Fame. Phillips only played Australian rules football up until age 13 before switching to basketball because of the lack of professional opportunities for female footballers at the time.
context_section_description: Although Phillips participated in training camps with the national team in preparation for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, she was not named to the team. The Australian press and the WNBA regarded her omission as a surprise. Nonetheless, Phillips knew she was hurting her chances of making the team by playing the full WNBA season instead of skipping the first half of the year to keep training with the Opals like Lauren Jackson. She decided to play the full season because she thought it was better preparation and she wanted to honour her contract with the Indiana Fever. The Opals won the bronze medal in London, and Phillips ended up winning her first WNBA title.
  Phillips returned to the national team as one of 33 players selected to prepare for the 2014 FIBA World Championship for Women in Turkey. She was named to the team for the World Championship, having won the WNBA Finals just 15 days before the Opals' first game in the tournament. Australia swept their round robin group and won their quarterfinal game against Canada. After a 12-point semifinal loss to the United States, the Opals defeated the hosts Turkey for the bronze medal. Unlike her previous two World Championships where she had little playing time off the bench, Phillips established herself in the team's regular starting lineup, leading the team in minutes per game, and was third in scoring and second in assists. Overall, she averaged 8.7 points, 4.0 assists, and 4.0 rebounds in 26.2 minutes per game. In the loss against the United States, she led the team in scoring with a game-high 19 points and made her only three three-pointers of the tournament on six such shots.
  The last major international tournament of Phillips's career was the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Phillips and Laura Hodges were voted co-vice captains by their teammates, while Penny Taylor was voted captain. Despite sweeping their round robin group, Australia were upset in the quarterfinals 73–71 by Serbia in a game where the Opals had 26 turnovers. Phillips had 10 points and 4 assists in the loss. Overall, she averaged 4.7 points, 3.2 assists, and 2.0 rebounds in 23.5 minutes per game while playing as a starter. The loss to Serbia ended the Opals' streak of five consecutive Olympics with a medal. Phillips officially retired from competitive basketball in January 2018.
caption: Phillips playing for the Australian national team in 2016
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