Brad Ness

Bradley John Ness, OAM (born 24 November 1974) is an Australian wheelchair basketballer. He won a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing and silver medals at 2004 Athens and 2012 London Paralympics. He was selected as the Australian flag bearer at the Opening Ceremony at the 2016 Rio Paralympics. In December 2023, Ness was appointed the Head Coach of the Rollers - Australia men's national wheelchair basketball team.

We were preparing to leave the pier when the skipper thought he heard me calling "all clear", but the rope I was attending was still attached to the quayside. When the ferry moved out, the rope tightened and sliced off my right ankle as neatly as a chef chopping through a carrot.

Brad Ness was born on 24 November 1974, and is from the Western Australian country town of Wagin. On 19 December 1992, at the age of 18, he lost his leg in a boating accident aboard a high-speed ferry between Rottnest Island and Fremantle. The accident happened while the workers were preparing to leave the pier. Ness's leg was attached to the quayside when the ferry was moving out, the rope tightened and sliced off his right ankle. He was working on the ferry as a deckhand at the time. He was back to working on boats again within six months of his accident, and received his licensed mariner's licence. As a youth he competed in several sports including Australian rules football, tennis and swimming, and was good enough at football that he considered a professional career in the sport. Ness decided to try basketball after seeing a wheelchair basketball game on television.

He is married and lives in Fremantle.

In February 2013, thieves broke into his house and stole his Paralympic medals by blasting his safe out of its wall. During a ceremony at the Perth parliament house on 9 July 2013, he was given replacement medals by the Australian Paralympic Committee, a first for the organisation.

Ness is classified as a 4.5 player and plays centre. He first started playing wheelchair basketball in 1996 after having seen the game played on television. His ability to play wheelchair basketball has been supported by the Western Australian Institute of Sport Individual Athlete Support Program, and he currently plays basketball full-time as a professional.

Ness first made the national team in 1999 at the Roosevelt Cup in Georgia, USA.

As a member of the Australia men's national wheelchair basketball team, Ness competed at the 2000 Sydney, 2004 Athens, 2008 Beijing, and 2012 London Paralympic Games, winning a gold medal in 2008 and silver medals in 2004 and 2012. He captained the team at the 2008 and 2012 Paralympics. In 2016, he was selected for his fifth games, the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro where his team, The Rollers, finished sixth.