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Australian basketball star Ben Simmons is adamant he wants to play for the Boomers at the Olympics next year, but says he has not made that clear to anyone at Basketball Australia (BA).
Key points:
Ben Simmons has not played for the Boomers for a decadeHe committed to play at the 2019 World Cup and 2021 Olympic Games before withdrawingCoach Brian Goorjian said playing for the Boomers would benefit Simmons as much as it would benefit the team
Speaking to ESPN’s Marc Spears for the website Andscape, Simmons went into detail about his struggles with back injuries that curtailed his career with the Philadelphia 76ers and has sidelined him for most of the past two seasons, including sparking a trade to Brooklyn.
While his reputation in the NBA has taken a dive, the door remains open at the Boomers for the uber-talented Simmons ahead of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
And Simmons said he “100 per cent” wanted to join the team, but admitted to Spears that he had not told higher-ups at BA of his desire to break a decade-long drought of games in green and gold.
“I’ll let you break the news. I want to play,” he said.
“That’s the other thing. I get messages from Australian people like, ‘Yo, you should be playing right now; [Houston Rockets centre] Jock Landale is playing right now’.
“To me, I’m going to play when I’m ready. There hasn’t really been a time where I’ve been prepared and ready physically. But next year, my goal is to be on the Olympic team.”
The three-time NBA All Star has not played for Australia since 2013 and was named in the Tokyo Olympics squad only to withdraw.
The Boomers won a bronze medal at the Olympics in 2021 and finished fourth at the World Cup two years earlier, which Simmons initially committed to before pulling out soon after.
Australia’s men’s team is currently playing in the FIBA World Cup in Japan, led by coach Brian Goorjian and veteran guard Patty Mills.
Both men have made clear the door remains open to Simmons, without wanting to recruit too hard.
“It’s been disappointing that he hasn’t put the uniform on yet,” Goorjian told ESPN before the World Cup.
“I thought when I first came in ‘he’s gonna play, I’m gonna get him, this rapport’s gonna be good’. And then, when it finished like it finished in Philadelphia, I thought just going into the Olympics, I looked at it and if that was my son, I don’t know if I’d really want him to play in this.”
Goorjian said he did not want to suggest to Simmons, to the rest of the team or to the public that the Boomers “don’t have anything” without Simmons, but recognised he is a “great player” and a stint with the national squad could be mutually beneficial.
“If you’re Ben Simmons and you play like Ben Simmons on this team with that culture, you’re gonna take us to somewhere the team’s never been,” he said.
“What is phenomenal about Australian basketball right now is if he doesn’t play, we’re still on the same path. We’re still going for that gold and we have the ability long term to get that done.”
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