Tokyo Olympics 2021: Boomers bronze was 65 years in the making, says Andrew Bogut

Bronze has set a high bar for the Boomers future. Come Paris 2024, expectations will be for silver or gold. But with such a special culture, anything is possible, says Andrew Bogut.

I won’t lie, there was a big part of me that had FOMO seeing the Boomers finally end Australia’s medal drought.

The scenes of my great mates embracing at full-time and collecting their bronze medal, had me on my feet and feeling proud.

I saw the legendary Andrew Gaze get really emotional on the Channel 7 set, but for me it was more about the ups and downs that we’ve had as a group.

Brian Goorjian gives man of the moment Patty Mills a huge hug after winning the bronze.

There were no tears, but I think if I were in the moment in Tokyo, it would be tougher to hold those tears back.

I was just proud of the guys to come back after a tough loss to the USA in the semi to be businesslike winning that game against Slovenia.

The bronze medal is a reward and a testament to all the work that all the generations have put in to actually come back home with some hardware.

There is a laundry list of people who have contributed to Australia’s success on the international stage, dating back decades, if not half a century.

From all the former legends, and even down to Luc Longley and former coach Andrej Lemanis who helped build this current group. It is all the people involved in the Boomers who have tried to establish the culture that hasn’t been built overnight.

It has been built over decades and decades; in fact, this bronze medal has been 65 years in the making.

It’s fulfilling, even though it is a bronze, because it is important to create history and set the bar for future campaigns.

Matisse Thybulle, Joe Ingles and Chris Goulding all contributed to a great tournament.

As Patty Mills said after the game, this bronze is now the high standard for Australian men’s basketball.

And to be honest, that standard was set probably eight years ago.

I remember discussing with the players that we will no longer go into a tournament trying to make up the numbers.

Patty has done a great job of continuing that standard, along with Ingles, Landale, Baynes and co.

Even the younger guys that have come into the team have bought into the culture and expectations.

As for the future, I think Patty will play again in Paris in 2024.

Coach Brian Goorjian came on board for the Olympics and left a huge impression.

He is all about legacy and breaking records. I think he is fifth all-time now in Olympic scoring, so he’ll have a chance to tie Gaze.

So, I wouldn’t be surprised if he went again.

Baynes is 34, but first of all he has to recover from his neck injury and then work out his future.

But he would probably be up in the air for Paris. I’d assume Ingles will try and get to Paris, but there is that question of the younger generation coming through and there might be a few veterans that we need to move on.

This could be Dellavedova’s last Olympics by the looks of things. He has been Delly like defensively and glue like, but you can start to see that he is slowing down a bit and as we all know, age loses to no man.

That is just the reality of professional sport. That was me in 2019 at the World Cup. Your body starts giving in and things get a little bit harder.

Matthew Dellavedova may have played in his final Olympics.

The Boomers in Paris will mostly be a younger group if everyone puts their hand up, but everyone may not put their hand up, so some of the senior guys may still get a roster spot just for that veteran leadership presence.

But if Baynes is unlikely to play in Paris, the big question mark is what Australia’s bigs will look like moving forward.

Landale and Nick Kay will be there for another few campaigns.

I think Duop Reath will have a bigger role going forward. Duop will be a much better player in three years, especially given he has signed with the Illawarra Hawks under current national coach Brian Goorjian.

But there are definitely some question marks around the Boomers bigs moving forward, especially if Baynes doesn’t play on.

You just hope another big comes out of the woodwork for Australia, but all of current younger bigs will be even better next campaign.

Matisse Thybulle was quite a revelation.

Matisse Thybulle has been tremendous for the Boomers, and he’ll be back.

We also have a strong core of youngsters emerging, led by top six NBA draft pick Josh Giddey.

Josh received a sniff of the culture during the Olympic exhibition games and camp in Las Vegas and I think he will be part of the program long term.

Josh Green is the other one who didn’t play a lot this campaign, but he will work his way into more minutes in the next few Olympic campaigns.

Dante Exum also had a fantastic Olympic campaign. For Dante, it is about staying healthy, but he really contributed well in Tokyo, especially defensively and handling the ball playing at point guard.

It is exciting with the young guys coming through.

Aron Baynes gives out some advice to Josh Green.

The big question mark is obviously Ben Simmons and if he’ll ever play for Australia at an Olympics or major tournament.

I can’t speak for Ben, but I would expect him not to play until he does.

I don’t think we can continue to have that mindset of preparing camp and other things like he is going to be there.

You want Ben involved because he is one of the best Australians out there, but you can only bang your head against the wall so many times until you crack your head open.

It is a matter of leaving it in his court and not overly smothering him. If he wants to play, great, but if he doesn’t, we are going to move on.

Regardless of Simmons’ commitment, I think the Boomers are in a strong position to achieve success for years to come.

The bronze medal now sets the bar for Paris to try and be the first Australian men’s silver or gold medallists to continue the team’s growth.