A History of the Australian Boomers

With the Olympics only a couple of weeks away I thought I would look at the evolving nature of the Australian Boomers basketball team.  Going all the way back to the 1996 Games in Atlanta, USA to this month’s London 2012 Olympics it’s interesting to see how the team has changed and where the players are coming from.  Let’s start 16 years ago...

1996 Atlanta Olympic Games

This team was the highlight of the last twenty years as they blasted nearly everyone in Group B, winning four out of their five games, putting them second in the group and scoring over 100 points in those four wins.  They got pounded by Yugoslavia but everyone in the group did.  In the quarter finals they were matched up with Croatia and on the back of a last second three pointer by Tony Ronaldson they escaped by two points to move on to the semi finals, where they would be against the mighty USA.  Losing 101-73 put them in the Bronze medal game which they lost by a heartbreaking six points against Lithuania.

The squad was made entirely of NBL players –

Andrew Gaze (captain) – Melbourne Tigers

Tony Ronaldson – South East Melbourne Magic

Sam Mackinnon – South East Melbourne Magic

Scott Fisher – Perth Wildcats

Pat Reidy – North Melbourne Giants

Brett Maher – Adelaide 36ers

Tonny Jensen – North Melbourne Giants

Shane Heal – Sydney Kings

Mark Bradtke – Melbourne Tigers

John Dorge – South East Melbourne Magic

Andrew Vlahov – Perth Wildcats

Ray Borner – Canberra Cannons

Some massive names from the history books of Australian basketball and it was no wonder that the team came so close to winning a medal.  Things would change with time.

2000 Sydney Olympic Games

With only six players returning from the 96 games there was a lot of pressure on the younger guys to step up and produce.  Luckily for the team Luc Longley put his hand up to play which helped immensely.  In group B the team was average, winning three out of their five games and interestingly finished with a measly +1 in points difference.  The team lost their first two games, going down to the Steve Nash led Canadians by 11 and losing again to Yugoslavia by 14.  That would mean they have to win their next three games, which they did.  Four points did it against Russia, eleven against Angola and in the final game of the group they beat Spain by eleven.  That would mean they came up against Italy in the quarter finals, beating them by one shot, 65-62 but lost again in the semi finals, this time to France 76-52.  In a severe case of déjà vu they squared off against Lithuania again for Bronze where they faltered and lost by a massive 18 points, 89-71.

Again this time all but one player on the squad was playing in the NBL –

Andrew Gaze (captain) – Melbourne Tigers

Chris Anstey – Victoria Titans

Mark Bradtke – Melbourne Tigers

Martin Cattalini – Adelaide 36ers

Ricky Grace – Perth Wildcats

Shane Heal – Sydney Kings

Luc Longley – Phoenix Suns (USA)

Sam Mackinnon – Townsville Crocodiles

Brett Maher – Adelaide 36ers

Paul Rogers – Perth Wildcats

Jason Smith – Victoria Titans

Andrew Vlahov – Perth Wildcats

Still the big names but some up and comers like Chris Anstey and Jason Smith.  What is great about this squad is that Longley played, showing that Australians can play overseas and play well, which will be a continuing trend in the next few games.

2004 Athens Olympic Games

There were five returning players from the Sydney games but the heavy hitters, like Andrew Gaze, Luc Longley and Andrew Vlahov had retired.  And it showed, as the team wallowed to a 1-4 record and second last in the group.  What makes matters worse is that their only win was against bottom placed Angola who had an average losing margin of 20 points a game.  That put us in the 9^th place classification match against New Zealand where we beat the Tall Blacks 98-80, a small victory when it made us 9^th instead of 10^th.  The less said about this campaign the better.

There were now three players playing overseas, up from the one at Sydney –

Shane Heal (captain) – Sydney Kings

Tony Ronaldson – Perth Wildcats

Brett Maher – Adelaide 36ers

Andrew Bogut – University of Utah (USA)

Martin Cattalini – Adelaide 36ers

John Rillie – West Sydney Razorbacks

CJ Bruton – Sydney Kings

Jason Smith – Sydney Kings

Glen Saville – Wollongong Hawks

David Anderson – Montepaschi Siena (Italy)

Matthew Nielsen – Sydney Kings

Paul Rogers – Casademont Girona (Spain)

As you can see all of the legendary players had left except for Shane Heal and Andrew Bogut was a 19 year old college player, this was very much a rebuilding year and it showed on the standings.  However, there were triple the amount of players playing overseas than the last Olympics which is a good sign for Australian basketball.

2008 Beijing Olympic Games

Six past players took part in the China games but it seemed there was a youth initiative happening, with six players 25 years or younger.  Similar to the Sydney Olympics, the team lost their first two games but went on to win their next three to come fourth in the group.  It was the young brigade who led the way, with one of those six under 25 players leading the scoring in all but one game.  Unfortunately coming fourth put them square against the  ‘Redeem Team’ Americans where they were handsomely thrashed 116-85 but put up a fight in the first half, only being down by 12 but were blown out of the water in the second half.  As there was no seeding playoff game the team finished seventh but were equal fifth on win/loss which was a great turnaround.

There were now five players playing overseas, nearly half the team –

Matthew Nielsen (captain) – BC Lietuvos Rytas (Lithuania)

Chris Anstey – Melbourne Tigers

Patrick Mills – Saint Mary’s (USA)

Andrew Bogut – Milwaukee Bucks (USA)

Joe Ingles – South Dragons

Brad Newley – Panellinios (Greece)

CJ Bruton – New Zealand Breakers

David Barlow – Melbourne Tigers

Mark Worthington – South Dragons

Glen Saville – Wollongong Hawks

David Andersen – FC Barcelona (Spain)

Shawn Redhage – Perth Wildcats

As Australians are getting more and more recognition throughout the basketball world they are getting snapped up by talent hungry teams, shown by the five foreigners out of the twelve.  But that is nothing compared to this year’s squad.

2012 London Olympic Games

As the games haven’t been played yet I can’t give a recap so here is the team –

Matthew Nielsen (captain) – BC Khimki (Russia)

Peter Crawford – Townsville Crocodiles

Patrick Mills – San Antonio Spurs (USA)

Adam Gibson – Gold Coast Blaze

Joe Ingles – FC Barcelona Regal (Spain)

Brad Newley – Valencia BC (Spain)

Matthew Dellavedova – Saint Mary’s (USA)

David Barlow – CB Murcia (Spain)

Mark Worthington – Gold Coast Blaze

Aron Baynes – Ikaros Kallitheas BC (Greece)

Daniel Kickert – Turow Zgorzelec (Poland)

Aleks Maric – Panathinaikos BC (Greece)

David Andersen – Mens Sana Basket (Italy)

As you can see, all but three players are from the NBL and in my opinion is a great showing of Australian basketball.  Sure the NBL suffers as the league would like to have all of these players competing in the Australian league but it just goes to show that the world is sitting up and taking notice of the Aussies in the world and I would love to see all of the players competing in the Olympics be from overseas teams as it shows that this country exports so great talent.

How will the team go?  Who knows but I’m pumped to find out, only three weeks to go!