Shane Heal: Boomers fans deserve answers over Matisse Thybulle snub after Olympics exit
The Boomers campaign has come to a crushing end in Paris, and now one burning question must be answered, writes Shane Heal.
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COMMENT
The Boomers are out after losing an overtime thriller to Serbia in a game of stark contrasts.
The Aussies’ first half was some of the best basketball I have seen from a Boomers team in many years.
The lead blew out to 24 at one stage before the Serbs started to claw their way back into the game.
The Boomers finished the first half up 54-42.
But then the second half showcased some of the Boomers weaknesses as old habits came back to haunt them.
They continued to play quickly even when momentum was against them.
Their speed led to turnovers and quick, low percentage shots which allowed Serbia to turn the game around as they hit the lead with a 25-11 third quarter.
The Aussies committed an inexcusable eight turnovers in the third quarter alone.
Australia showed true grit and determination to hang in there and eventually sent the game into overtime with a Patty Mills clutch pull up mid-range shot.
The Boomers ultimately going down by five has eliminated them from the Olympics, leaving their “Gold Vibes only” mantra as nothing more than a memory.
Patty Mills and Josh Giddey had 26 and 25 points respectively, and while those individual stats were impressive, it will go down as a campaign that didn’t quite ever live up to the talent on court.
There was lots of talk about the combination of the old and young and how Giddey, 21, and Mills, 35, would combine.
From the outside it looked like a match made in heaven, but it didn’t seem like the two of them every really gelled, and it turned out to create some vulnerability at the defensive end.
It’s hard to fathom how this team only ended up winning one game at these Olympics, given we had more NBA talent than any Boomers team in history.
Simply put, the basketball public need answers regarding the non-selection of Matisse Thybulle.
With every game played at the Olympics it was hard to move on from him not being there.
Every single game there was a huge defensive role that was needed and it was hard to understand any reasons for him being cut.
There has to be more to this non-selection and the Australian public deserve better explanations surrounding that decision as it was clearly an error.
If there are circumstances that played a part in him not going we need to know, because right now it just looks like a poor decision.
The Boomers’ exit presumably marks the end of an era for NBA and Boomers stars Patty Mills, Joe Ingles (who only played a couple of minutes in total at these Olympics) and Matthew Dellavedova.
Patty and Joe will finish their Boomers careers with five Olympic Games to their name, not to mention our Bronze ‘Rose Gold’ medal from Tokyo.
Both have shown so much passion and dedication to the game and the national program and they must be applauded for their commitment over such a long period.
But it’s time for the Boomers to move on and plan for the next World Cup and Olympics cycle.
Josh Giddey, Jock Landale and Dyson Daniels have shown they will be the centrepiece of the Boomers looking forward.
All have shown they have what it takes to help Australia rebuild and lead the way forward.
Along with the transition, Basketball Australia will have to make a key decision on who is the best person to lead the Boomers for the next campaign.
Brian Goorjian is the Boomers only coach in history to win an Olympic medal.
He is 70 years old and his past success must come into the equation, but will Basketball Australia want to go in a different direction now?
There will be a review of this Olympic campaign and I’m sure they will get an understanding of other potential contenders before finally making such a key decision.
Australia has stars coming through the ranks who are about to break their way into the NBA. But the international game is different, and these young players need to be exposed to international campaigns.
It takes time and we have seen that just because we have seven NBA players, it doesn’t always translate to success. Despite all our NBA talent, we only won one game in Paris.
We need an identity of who we are, how we are going to play and what style will give us the best chance to win.
This was an area that I couldn’t understand during this campaign. The team continued to play at a fast pace, something you normally do when you have more talent than the rest of the world.
We need to learn from the Germans’ success at these Games.
They ran when they saw opportunities to score quickly but played with poise and passed the ball well to find the right options.
Australia finished the tournament with more turnovers of any team in the top eight.
We didn’t have the ability to play quickly and make the right decisions consistently in that moment.
After the final group stage loss to Greece, Goorjian took aim at his own side as he accused them of playing hero ball.
In the end the Boomers are left with some big decisions left hanging overhead.
While the next Olympics is four years away, these decisions need to be made quickly for the Boomers to get back to a top four finish, a place where both the Opals and Boomers need to be and should be consistently.
- Shane Heal is a four-time Olympic basketball star for the Boomers, including captaining the 2004 Athens Olympic team. He is writing exclusively for news.com.au during the Paris Olympics.
Originally published as Shane Heal: Boomers fans deserve answers over Matisse Thybulle snub after Olympics exit
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