28/06/2016
FIBA Family
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Basketball legend Summitt dies at 64

KNOXVILLE (FIBA) - The basketball world is in mourning following the death of legendary women's coach Pat Summitt. The long-time University of Tennessee Volunteers and former USA Olympic coach has died at the age of 64.

Summitt, inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000 and in 2013 the FIBA Hall of Fame, had been suffering from the early onset of dementia since 2011.

As the coach of the Lady Vols from 1974 to 2012, Summitt steered the team to eight NCAA championships, a record when she retired.She was the coach of the USA at the 1984 Los Angeles Games when they captured the Olympic gold medal.

Tamika Catchings, who has been one of basketball's best players for more than a decade and will this summer play at an Olympic Games for the fourth time, played at Tennessee for Summitt and visited her former coach in the hospital this week.

Seven times in her famous career Summitt was named as the NCAA Coach of the Year. In 2012, United States President Barack Obama presented Summitt with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

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