What’s the future for the Boomers without talismanic Patty Mills?

Australia, like many other basketball teams at the Olympics, relies on the outlier brilliance of one superstar. The coach admits it’ll be hard to replace him.

Hans van LeeuwenEurope correspondent

Aug 7, 2024 – 6.53am

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Paris | The Boomers suffered an unprecedented, nail-biting roller-coaster ride of an Olympic quarter-final loss to Serbia. If this really was the last outing in green and gold for Australian men’s basketball superstar Patty Mills, then it was quite the swansong.

He has anchored, or sometimes carried, the team for so long that it was only fitting he should be at the heart of a dramatic, and ultimately devastating, defeat.

Hans van Leeuwen covers British and European politics, economics and business from London. He has worked as a reporter, editor and policy adviser in Sydney, Canberra, Hanoi and London.