The Australian Boomers has named one of its most exciting and talented basketball squads to date, with the team leaving on Tuesday for Europe to begin their 2014 FIBA World Cup campaign.
Last week, Boomers coach Andrej Lemanis announced the final 12-man squad for upcoming tournament in Spain. The squad is headlined by San Antonio Spurs NBA title-winner Aron Baynes, Cleveland Cavaliers guard Matthew Dellavedova and 2014 draftees Dante Exum (Utah Jazz) and Cameron Bairstow (Chicago Bulls).
Ten out of the twelve selected players in the squad boast NBA experience or have tried out with teams in the NBA Summer League.
This is testament to the strength and depth of the current squad, which does not include Australia’s two biggest NBA stars – Spurs point guard Patty Mills and Golden State Warriors centre Andrew Bogut, who will both miss the tournament due to injury.
Three-time Olympian and former Houston Rockets player David Andersen will play in his fifth major international tournament for Australia, alongside fellow experienced leaders Joe Ingles and Brad Newley.
Six players will be making their major tournament debuts for the Boomers, including Bairstow and Exum, as well as NBA prospect Brock Motum.
Not since the days of Shane Heal, Andrew Gaze and Luc Longley have we seen such an exciting pool of Australian basketball talent.
Lemanis signaled the Boomer’s intent to chase a medal at the championships, leaving out exciting prospect Ben Simmons from the World Cup squad. The 18-year-old is tipped to be a future NBA first-round draft pick after committing to Louisiana State University – the college that produced Shaquille O’Neal.
“Really disappointed didn’t make the Worlds Team, Good luck to all the guys who did #grindtime,” Simmons wrote on Twitter.
To add to the hype surrounding Simmons, Thon Maker, a seven-foot-one Sudanese-born Australian, is turning heads in the US and has received several offers from the country’s top basketball universities, only adding more excitement to the future of Australian basketball.
Despite this, with Adam Gibson the only player selected from Australia’s national competition the NBL, there are fears the Boomers squad will now consist of only overseas-based players, leaving the domestic competition void of high-level Australian talent.
However, similar to how the A-League built on the momentum of the Socceroos 2006 World Cup campaign, the forthcoming boom for Australian basketball should invigorate a new set of fans that the NBL and Basketball Australia must capitalise on.
While we have to be patient and understand this process will not happen over night, Baynes and Mills recently took the NBA Championship trophy on a tour of Australia, last week Dante Exum dropped into a Melbourne Footlocker store and the Boomers just acquired a new naming rights sponsor in Air BnB.
All this suggests we have begun to move in the right direction.
Coming off the back of what has been a tough period for the NBL, current CEO Fraser Neill needs to continually work on a refreshing approach to Australian basketball that captures national traction and hype.
With the tournament to be televised free-to-air, if this talented Boomers outfit performs well in Spain it could represent the first small step towards returning the NBL to its former glory.
Upon arrival in Europe, the Boomers will take on Finland in Helsinki, before travelling to Nice for clashes with France, Ukraine and the Philippines, and then a final two-game stop in Strasbourg.
The Boomers official World Cup campaign starts on August 31 against Slovenia in the Canary Islands. Other teams in their group include Angola, South Korea, Lithuania and Mexico.
Make sure you watch this tournament as it may just mark the beginning of the most exciting period in Australian basketball history.
Boomers World Cup team: Cameron Bairstow (Chicago Bulls, NBA), Aron Baynes (San Antonio Spurs, NBA), Matthew Dellavedova (Cleveland Cavaliers, NBA), Dante Exum (Utah Jazz, NBA), David Andersen (Strasbourg, France), Ryan Broekhoff (Besiktas, Turkey), Adam Gibson (Adelaide 36ers, NBL), Chris Goulding (CAI Zaragoza, Spain), Joe Ingles (Maccabi Tel-Aviv, Israel), Nathan Jawai (Galatasaray, Turkey), Brock Motum (Bologna, Italy), Brad Newley (Gran Canaria, Spain).
Johnno
Guest
Some changes are ahead for international basketball. FIBA has done the following -2014 The name is now gonna be called World cup, not world championship. I prefer World championship for basketball, it just sounds better -FIBA next's basketball World cup is gonna move to 2019, to avoid the Soccer world cup clash -Teams will increase from 24 teams to 32 teams in 2019 Basketball World cup -32 teams will be fantastic. Olympic basketball shamefully only allows 12 teams. despite so many good teams in Europe then missing out. At the last Olympics, Canada,Greece,Italy,Turkey,Germany,Croatia,Serbia, all were not able to participate. Many of these teams could of pushed Spain for silver. -So 24 teams is good, but the move to 32-teams in 2019 is perfect timing -Coz the IOC are so set in there ways, and not gonna expand to 16 teams even, I hope this new Basketball WC 32-team format works, as there will be alot of teams and all the good teams will go, unlike the 12-team Olympics which is very unfair on Europe.
Shaun Mancini
Roar Pro
This Australia team is really building into something in the near future. Sadly for NBL the better the team looks the less chance NBL players are representing as seen with this roster. Adam Gibson probably lucky to even be there. Look out for Brock Motum. Utah were pretty impressed with him after the Summer League and is still a chance of making the roster before the season starts
Brian
Guest
I used to watch the World's in the 90s but unfortunately in more recent times they have become a bit irrelevant. I think it was in Beijing that we played the USA in the quarters and channel 7 didn't even deem it worthy of being shown. The problem is that unlike Football or Rugby Basketball culture not geared towards the World Cup. Firstly the NBA and Europe had different rules for so long. This also left Australia in a lurch adopting NBA style quarters in the NBL only to play halves at FIBA events. Secondly everytime they host the World's after the Football World Cup when the entire planet just got its fix of International competition. This is particularly so in Europe I'm not a huge Basketball fan but I would watch the NBA, Olympics or Euroleague before the World's now because there seems to be more player care factor. This is very different to Rugby where I would normally only watch the Rugby World Cup. Hopefully the Boomers can do well and change that
Brian
Guest
The problem is its in Europe I assume the games will be at 2am
Swampy
Guest
The NBA championship is the pinnacle of basketball. That is because it is a league where basically all of the world's best players compete against each other (you could argue a few guys are playing in Europe that might do a bench role ok in the NBA but choose to stay in Europe). The Olympics and Worlds are secondary to the NBA. I've watched both championships for three decades and the worlds used to be the bigger event through the 80's but seem to have lost ground in recent years to the Olympics. The worlds are a great event - much like the old football world cups where you would see lots of different cultural styles clash against each other. This time around I don't expect much from Australia but for 2016 and beyond we should get genuinely excited. Strange decision not to select Ben Simmons - maybe BA decided he would make the team too inexperienced in balance. Adam Gibson must be the luckiest guy in Australian basketball to make the team. -- Comment from The Roar's iPhone app.
Terry
Guest
Basketball has never recovered from its slump in Australia at the start of the 2000's and sadly probably never will now. Soccer has taken much of the popularity that basketball had and basketball has been very poorly administered in Australia for many years. The NBL is seen by many as joke competition which is actually pretty unfair. Aside from Perth where they support their NBL team properly the support for NBL teams is desperately poor. Brisbane which is the 3rd largest city doesn't even have a team! I hope if Australia does well in this tournament and even wins it then the sport will regain some of its popularity in this country.
Stevo
Guest
SVB, your exactly right and I don't know why. I've always loved international basketball tournaments. Rugby and basketball are my two favourite sports and here's an interesting discussion point, 851,00 people watched the 2011 Rugby World Cup final on NBC in America, only 940,000 watched the last FIBA final on ESPN in America. I've never understood why Americans are so ho hum about their national basketball team. -- Comment from The Roar's iPhone app.
Will Lutwyche
Roar Rookie
Yeah all Boomers games will be televised on ABC2 starting on the 31st of August. In addition, we will get all the Team USA games as well. Pretty large coup if you ask me and good for the game here in Australia. I think basketball Australia and the NBL would be praying that they get large amounts of viewers and we perform well. Opals games will also be televised later in the year starting on September 27 :)
DingoGray
Roar Guru
Does anyone know whether this tournament will be televised in Australia?
Soul
Guest
Silver this year would require them beating both USA and Lithuania because of how the bracket is set up.
SVB
Guest
The problem is that the World Championships in basketball isn't seen as the Holy Grail for the sport. A lot of people wouldn't even know where or when the last one was held. The Olympic Gold medal is seen as a bigger prize in many people's eyes. Also the NBA to a large degree is seen as the biggest prize of all. Many players choose not to play in these tournaments because of their NBA commitments. That is the problem there. Basketball is still American-centric to a large degree (despite being the number two team sport in the world), and we all know the Americans live in their own little world.
Johnno
Guest
Amazing to think if Bogut or Mills played, we'd be a serious silver medal contender. Still we still might get that or make the semi's. This is good for basketball that more overseas players are making the NBA. The gap is closing between US and other countries. Now get the NBL going and basketball will be better in OZ. But good signs, junior participation rates are high in OZ.