The future of Australian basketball has never looked brighter. In mid-June an Australian lifted the NBA championship trophy for the third consecutive year, while less than a week later Melbourne-born teenage sensation Ben Simmons was drafted with the No1 pick. Simmons’ childhood friend Dante Exum is set to return to the court following a prolonged injury absence, while Thon Maker – a South Sudanese-Australian also selected in the NBA draft’s first round – has shone in early pre-season action.
With the nation’s representative teams preparing to depart for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, the strong state of Australian basketball bodes well. The Opals are perennial medal hopefuls, and have stood on the podium at every Olympics since Atlanta 1996. In the Boomers camp, meanwhile, hopes are high that the team can secure their first medal at a major international tournament.
“Both squads are genuine contenders,” declares Patrick Hunt AM, one of the founding coaches of the Australian Institute of Sport basketball program often credited for the country’s success in the sport. “It is always difficult to compare from one era to another, but both teams have demonstrated great depth in the groups that have been selected. I think these two teams are very capable of doing well at the Olympics – they are versatile, adaptable and will play the Australian way.”
While much of the spotlight has been on Australia’s male basketballers, whether Matthew Dellavedova’s remarkable ascent or the incredible potential of 2.08 metre (6ft 10in) Simmons, their female counterparts deserve equal plaudits. Australia won the junior women’s world title earlier this month, such that all three women’s national teams currently boast world championship medals (bronze for the Opals and Under-19 Gems, gold for the Under-17 Sapphires).
If anything, the pressure is greater on the Opals heading into Rio. The team – headlined by three-time WNBA All-Star Penny Taylor and centre Liz Cambage – departs shortly for training camps in the United States before travelling on to the Olympics, where they are expected to earn a medal.
“We cannot worry about the big picture right now and what we have achieved before – it doesn’t matter,” explains Opals boss Brendan Joyce. “[That past success] is great, but we just need to focus on the present, focus on the process, and that will take care of the results.”
Yet beneath the widespread excitement about the rise of Australian basketball, there exists an undercurrent of concern. None of Exum, Maker and Simmons will suit-up for the Boomers in Brazil. Exum has justifiably elected not to rush his return from injury, while Maker’s national team allegiances have been questioned in the past. But the absence of Simmons, who withdrew from selection contention to “to concentrate fully on his NBA activities”, has raised the spectre of club versus country sagas that are commonplace in other sports.
Is the national team at risk of losing its lustre, to the dollars and fame of the NBA? Certainly Team USA’s roster for the forthcoming competition is missing superstars LeBron James, Russell Westbrook, Steph Curry and James Harden, indicating that the Olympics is hardly the pinnacle for those athletes.
“The Opals have always had those challenges that the Boomers are about to experience,” admits Joyce. With his players spread around the world and on less financially lucrative contracts than the men, the 56-year-old coach is particularly sensitive to their dual commitments. “I have been juggling players for the past three years and trying to get everyone together. It is a challenge, but each player in this team is invested in the program.”
The Australian set-up traditionally holds several training camps per year, adding a further complication for those players unwilling to fully commit to the national team. “Picking players even when they cannot make camps is just destined for failure,” Joyce continues. “Players have to practice and play together to develop team chemistry and cohesion.”
Hunt, who is the President of the World Association of Basketball Coaches, echoes this sentiment. He suggests that the current Boomers and Opals are “not teams of talent, but talented teams”, a distinction that explains a considerable amount about the Australian approach to basketball.
These broader concerns will lay dormant for now, and are likely to be swiftly forgotten if the Boomers and Opals succeed in Rio. The Australian Institute of Sport program – renamed the Basketball Australia Centre of Excellence in 2013 – should also help retain the strong link between the country’s best young players and respective national teams. Ultimately though, the continued ability of Joyce and his Boomers counterpart Andrej Lemanis to call on their best players is dependent on fostering in their players an overriding love of pulling on the green and gold jersey.
“I didn’t dream of playing in the NBA or anywhere else in the world,” Utah Jazz shooting guard Joe Ingles recalled recently. “I grew up wanting to play for Australia at an Olympic Games.”
