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Andrew Bogut is one of the most important players for Golden State as they look to compete for an NBA Championship. But do Australians care?
In 2005, Bogut became the first Australian to be the overall No. 1 pick in an NBA Draft – an historic moment in Australian sporting history.
Bogut was drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks, far from a team that screams excitement. Having said that, they did well in his rookie season, making it to the first round of the playoffs.
He didn’t play in another playoff series with Milwaukee, missing their 2010 campaign against Atlanta because of injury.
When Bogut was with the Bucks people could be excused for not seeing him play very often because of the tiny market that Milwaukee is. They are never on ESPN, and most Australians could only catch glimpses of Bogut for a few seconds on the nightly news.
Bogut is now on one of the most exciting teams in the entire league. The Golden State Warriors boast the very potent starting line-up of Bogut, Steph Curry and Klay Thompson (aka the ‘The Splash Brothers’), and two All-Stars in Andre Iguodala and David Lee.
The importance of Bogut to the Warriors make-up can’t be underestimated. This was proven in the lead up to the trade deadline.
Golden State were willing to part with all bar two players on their roster if the right offer came their way – Curry and Bogut.
Do we not pay enough attention to Bogut’s success because he isn’t the crazy athletic type?
Or is it because he often does the dirty work and his dominance doesn’t show up on the stat sheet or the highlight reels?
Could it be that we still think of him as the injury-prone No. 1 pick who didn’t live up to the hype?
Spurs guard Patty Mills has been going off lately and he has been getting plenty of attention in Australia.
This attention has been well deserved, but Bogut has been the backbone of Golden State’s defence all season long and has gotten little more than a whisper for his efforts.
Bogut is having himself a great season, and the key is that he has been healthy for most of it, playing in 50 of Golden State’s 58 games.
He recently missed seven games in a row through injury and Golden State’s defence looked drastically different without him. It took veteran big man Jermaine O’Neal to play out of his skin for a couple of games for the Warriors to get wins.
Even Dante Exum, the Aussie teen who is looking like a certain Top 5 pick in this year’s NBA Draft, has been getting a lot more attention than Bogut.
Very rarely will you see an Andrew Bogut jersey being worn by Australians. Instead, we choose the superstars: Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony and Derrick Rose.
Maybe it’s time we show some Aussie pride and give Andrew Bogut the credit and respect he deserves.
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