Basketball will join Canberra's centenary party when it is confirmed the Australian Boomers and Australian Opals will play a double-header against New Zealand at AIS Arena in August.

And officials are confident home-grown hero Patrick Mills, fellow NBA star Andrew Bogut and Canberra Capitals favourite Lauren Jackson will put their hand up to play.

ACT Sports Minister Andrew Barr, Boomers coach Andrej Lemanis, Opals coach Brendan Joyce and Basketball Australia chief executive Kristina Keneally will announce on Friday Canberra will host game two of a three-game world cup qualifying series.

The double-header will take place on Sunday, August 18, and is the first time the Opals and Boomers have played on the same day in the capital. The Boomers haven't played in Canberra for a decade, and proud Canberran point guard Mills is believed to be keen to wear the green and gold for the first time in his home town.
Advertisement

Mills could return as an NBA champion, his San Antonio Spurs currently 2-0 up against Memphis in the western conference finals.

Centre Bogut returned from an ankle injury in time to help guide Golden State Warriors to the second round of the play-offs.

While they have dominated New Zealand in recent qualifying series, the Boomers traditionally field their strongest side after missing out on the 2002 tournament when upset by the Kiwis.

It will also be an overdue chance for Canberra fans to watch Jackson up close after she missed the entire 2012-13 WNBL campaign with the Capitals through injury.

The 32-year-old announced earlier this year she would sit out the entire WNBA season for Seattle in order to recover from a chronic hamstring issue.

It means she should be fit and rested for the series, which the world No.2 Opals traditionally win comfortably over the No.22-ranked New Zealand. The world cup will be held in Spain in September, and is the first major assignment for Lemanis and Joyce after their recent appointments to replace Spurs assistant Brett Brown and Canberra Capitals coach Carrie Graf.

Canberra is scheduled to host Canterbury Bulldogs in a round 23 NRL clash at Canberra Stadium.

The Raiders traditionally ask to play on Sunday afternoons, which would directly clash with the basketball double header which will tip-off around 2pm.

It is believed Basketball ACT plans to hold discussions with the Raiders and NRL about avoiding a scheduling clash.

Read more: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/sport/basketball/stars-to-align-for-centenary-show-20130523-2k4d0.html#ixzz2UAiGlpQO

This is the article from Dec 4 last year regarding the 2013 Oceania Championships:

A draw ceremony was held in Churchill, Australia to decide the order of games in the 2013 FIBA Oceania Championships for Men and Women.
Melbourne to host first game, Auckland to stage decider...

Aaliyah Ah Kiong and Kristle McKenzie, the captains of the New Zealand and Australian teams competing in the final of the Pacific Youth Basketball Championships in Churchill, Australia, took a break from competition to assist in the draw which decided how the 2013 FIBA Oceania Championships will be played.

The Championships will decide the Oceania qualifiers for the 2014 FIBA World Cup for men in Spain and for women in Turkey.

Earlier, the FIBA Oceania Board had decided that for the next two editions of the event, the series will be played as a home-and-away two game series and that the men and women will play their games om the same program.

Auckland and Melbourne have been nominated as the host cities by Basketball New Zealand and Basketball Australia.

The draw ceremony in Churchill was to decide where the opening game of the series would be played, and then the host for the final and deciding game.
FIBA Oceania President Bob Elphinston, Basketball New Zealand Board Member Burton Shipley and Basketball Australia's Graeme Allen were at centre court to see the draw conducted.

As a result of the draw;
Game 1 will be played August 14th in Melbourne, Australia.
Game 2 will be played August 16th in Auckland, New Zealand
-ends-

-----------------

wonder what prompted the change from the original plans???

this is form an article regarding Joyce wanting to get Phillips back into the Opals side, but it finished with talking about the Oceania Championships:

In the case of the men, both Australia and New Zealand will qualify for the worlds, their two-game series in Auckland on August 14 and in Canberra on August 18 only contributing to their world championship seeding.

But for the Opals, it is cut-throat.

"I've never taken a team lightly and I'm not about to start," Joyce said of the NZ series, the newly-appointed national women's basketball coach hoping to suit key members of the London Olympic Opals team.

The Opals-Boomers double-header in the national capital will be part of Canberra's Centenary celebrations.

"Canberra is one of Australia's strongest sporting hubs, housing our elite program at the Basketball Australia Centre of Excellence at the AIS and boasting such fierce teams in the Canberra Capitals and Canberra Gunners," Basketball Australia chief executive Kristina Keneally said.

"It is only fitting that the proud basketball community in our nation's capital should showcase these championships at the world class AIS Arena as the Boomers and Opals tip-off their campaign toward the 2014 World Cup."

ACT Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Tourism and Events, Andrew Barr, said the traditional cross-Tasman rivalry between Australia and New Zealand in all sports made the Oceania series a great addition to the Centenary sporting calendar.

-------

Would love to know what drugs Keneally is on to call both the Caps & Gunners "fierce" teams when you consider how they have gone in recent years. I know the Gunners have put in an improved performance so far this year, but "fierce" isn't the first word that comes to mind to describe either of those teams.