Dazz
Years ago

Are The Boomers victim of Our Basketball Success?

At one point, Australia was rated in the top 4 nations. During that era we managed 4th place at the Olympics, won junior world titles, etc.
But NBA careers were rare. Apart from a few try-outs, Longley was the only regular player. In those days most of the Boomers played in the NBL, representing your country was the ultimate pinnacle, and The Boomers had a real program. They would train together regularly, play games against the NBL-Allstars, and when they got together for tours or to play visiting teams they had 90% of the squad.
In those days, if The Boomers coach said "I want Joe Bloggs to shoot more 3's," he did.

Now days, the majority of our good players are either in the NBA or Europe. Obviously they're still available for Olympics and World's, but (for obvious reasons) they're less like to be available for qualifiers, friendlies, or training.
When everyone was in AUS, they could have a mid-week training session attended by most of the squad. Now that's impossible.

The success of our best players overseas would tend to suggest that Australian Basketball has actually improved a little, but The Boomers don't seem to reflect that?

Australia IS one of the top Rugby nations, so when the wallabies play a one-of "test" against whoever, they sell out Subi oval (a crappy venue for rugby in a city where AFL dominates.) Yet the Boomers play, and hardly anybody cares.

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Luke  
Years ago

That is a solid reason and gets you thinking

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GWB  
Years ago

It's a bit early to say the Boomers don't reflect that. We have 7 NBA players NOW, but we didn't prior to the world cup and we were missing our two best. The team is still young, and Lemanis is still inexperienced in World Basketball. Wait til after Rio to talk about what the team reflects.

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Wilson Sting  
Years ago

The NBL is definitely the victim of our basketball success.

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Fletch  
Years ago

That is exactly it. The NBL became a victim of Australian basketball success, its rapid decline in popularity and funding lost all our talented players and high quality imports. And that is a good point to why we struggle in the International arena. The boomers struggle severely in pre-tournament training. Has any of our current boomers played with the veteran leader in the the Rio tournament (hopefully) Bogut before. It really shows the lack of team building, compared to what you describe was the case in the Hay day of basketball the 90's.

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GWB  
Years ago

Fletch - we have kept the same core since 2010. It has nothing to do with team building. If Patty Mills had been available in the worlds, I think we would be talking about a team that went a lot further right now.

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Anonymous  
Years ago

If we are going to use this theory as an excuse for under performance, the A-League is exactly the opposite then. Their players are coming back somewhat and the younger players who are up and coming are getting great competition here. But the Socceroos had the same problem with some of their European stars in years gone by. I don't think our results are poor because of this theory, our results are poor because we tank in games and we make poor decisions at the top!

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paul  
Years ago

"At one point, Australia was rated in the top 4 nations. During that era we managed 4th place at the Olympics, won junior world titles, etc."

The international basketball scene was not nearly as deep or strong back then. If you analyse our performances against the top nations we actually haven't dropped away, and in some cases we are better, there's just more good teams to beat now.

Our junior men have finished 2nd, 4th and 2nd in WCs the past three years, and a haven't finished outside the top 6 since 2001, so they're doing alright.

I think the biggest issue recently has been as Goorjian and Brown started to figure out the international game and get the team playing a consistent style they've finished up, and Lemanis was blooding an inexperienced team in Spain with 2016 on his mind.

I think the style Lemanis wants to play suits our athletes better than those previous, so hopefully after another two years and with a more experienced squad they can do some good things in Rio, assuming we qualify.

Whether that nets a medal will come down partially to luck given how many good teams there are.

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Anonymous  
Years ago

Step 1 Need a better coach - plenty of ex -nba and current nba assistant coaches who would transform the boomers into a legit world team

Step 2 need a better pre tournament schedule against top teams
Imagine if Canada or France replaced China in the sino challenge

Step 3 - find the money to do the above

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paul  
Years ago

Do you have an example of an ex-NBA coach or assistant transforming an international team? I don't think we need a new coach who'll take another four years to figure out the international game!

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Anonymous  
Years ago

Mike Fratello did a great job with Ukraine.. Ex NBA coach always equals results..

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Anonymous  
Years ago

Step 3 should be step 1.

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paul  
Years ago

I think if you do some homework you'll find ex-NBA coaches have generally not produced great results in international basketball. It's a different game.

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MACDUB  
Years ago

Dazz, the Wallabies don't sell out anything.

Poor attendance during last years RC.

Big attendances to games vs. The ABs - the ABs pulling power.

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GWB  
Years ago

When it comes to results transferring and developing a team, when it comes to continuity of players we have done very well. In spain, we missed our X factor in Patty Mills - and we did underachieve to be fair. But I just think with the crop coming up, and the chance of a healthy Bogut, if the stars align for us, just this once, I think we have an incredibly dangerous team.

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