2016 Rio Paralympics: Aussie Rollers enjoy better record than gold-seeking Boomers and Opals
AUSTRALIA’S most successful basketball group is not the Boomers, or even the Opals. It’s the Rollers and they are hot on the trail of redemption.
JANNIK Blair knows there’s no currency to cover a gold medal.
“And that’s why the feeling after London, ‘empty’ is probably the best way to describe it,” the Aussie wheelchair basketballer says.
“You’ve done so well, gone undefeated up to the final – and we finish as second best in the world.
“It’s hard. You never want to say you’re not happy with a silver medal because it’s still a huge achievement. But we have a gold medal standard.
“That’s the standard we hold ourselves to in everything we do – training, preparation, culture. That’s where we’re at. That’s why we’re here.”
If ever there was a redemption yarn in this Australian Paralympic Games team, it is scrawled all over the Rollers unit that won silver in London four years ago.
Having entered the tournament final, a grudge match against old rival Canada, the Aussies had not lost a game. They were defending world champions. Defending Paralympic champions. Gold medal favourites.
“So the fact we didn’t win, it’s still very fresh in our minds,” Blair says.
“We had success two years ago in world championships, and we were thinking about London a lot there. But as much as the world champs is the same basketball standard, it doesn’t have the same atmosphere or prestige as the Paralympics.
“There are seven of us on our team now from London and we remember it very clearly. The five new guys would have watched it on TV – and all they’ve heard about for the last four years, at every camp and every tournament, is what went wrong in 2012 and what that feeling was.
“None of us want that again so we’ll do everything in our power to make sure it doesn’t happen.”
Contracts and NBA championship rings aside, the Rollers are Australia’s most successful basketball group.
Australia’s Boomers side last month had their best result in an Olympics tournament in 16 years, losing their bronze medal playoff to finish fourth.
The women’s Opals have three silvers, but have never broken through for the main prize on the Games stage.
By comparison, the Rollers have won two golds, the latest in Beijing in 2008, and since Atlanta in 1996 have finished outside the medals only once.
This, remember, is a team of students, financial planners and IT guys. A few professionals on the global wheelchair basketball scene, too, playing as far abroad as Spain and Italy.
Compare that with the $45 million combined value of the Boomers’ starting five and the Rollers are Australia’s cut-price basketball superstars.
“Yeah, but watching Andrew Bogut play is still pretty sick,” Blair says.
“I love that guy. He’s a beast. Just doesn’t give a damn. Our captain (and flagbearer) Brad Ness is similar – he’s big and old and slow but he is just so smart and doesn’t take any s**t.
“They both love to lay a big hit. Put people on the floor if they have to. That’s certainly what Brad encourages us to do as well.”
Blair, 24, is a regular starting-five guard for the Rollers, classified a one-point player in the on-court quota.
The US college graduate was just 12 when a paddock ute race with his older brother on the family farm at Horsham in western Victoria went horribly wrong, leaving him paraplegic with no movement below his ribcage.
“My brother is a year-and-a-half older, so he was smashing me and I decided to whip around halfway across the paddock,” Blair says.
“I was going a bit too fast, and the paddock had just recently been harvested so there was a lot of loose straw on the ground. I slid on the straw, then gripped in some dirt, and rolled.
“I didn’t have a seatbelt on and so I went out the driver-side window.
“We don’t know whether it was the landing, or the ute rolling over my back. But either way, I severed my spinal cord completely at T8.”
A handy basketballer as a junior – along with the footy, cricket, tennis and athletics – Blair was introduced to wheelchair basketball two years after his accident.
His rapid rise as a value-for-quota player led to an invitation to play and study at the University of Missouri, before he deferred for a year leading up to his Paralympic debut in London.
There, a head-hunting mission by a rival state coach who was leading the US wheelchair basketball team led to a transfer to the powerful University of Alabama.
Blair was based in Perth for six months with a core of Rollers players leading up to Rio in a bid to maximise their preparation.
Australia began theirs campaign with a solid 70-50 win over The Netherlands.
The Rollers survived a scare in their second pool game though, fighting back to win a two-point thriller over Turkey, 62-60.
The Aussies faced Canada next ahead of clashes with Spain and Japan.
The gold medal match is scheduled for next Sunday morning (EST).
AUSSIE v AUSSIE -- STARTING FIVES
BOOMERS
Matthew Dellavedova NBA, Milwaukee Bucks $12.7m a year
Patty Mills NBA, San Antonio Spurs $4.6m a year
Andrew Bogut NBA, Dallas Mavericks $14.5m a year
Joe Ingles NBA, Utah Jazz $2.8m a year
Aron Baynes NBA, Detroit Pistons $8.6m a year
BOOMERS OLYMPIC RECORD
Appearances: 14
Debut: 1956
Medals: 0
Best finish: 4th (2016, 2000, 1996, 1988)
ROLLERS
Tristan Knowles Spotswood, Victoria Financial planner
Bill Latham Lower Bucca, NSW Pro wheelchair basketballer in Spain
Jannik Blair Horsham, Victoria International Business graduate
Matthew McShane Carrara, Queensland Industrial Design student
Shaun Norris Alexandra Heights, WA Tech support, IT
ROLLERS PARALYMPIC RECORD
Appearances: 13
Debut: 1960
Medals: 4 (2 gold, 2 silver)
Best finish: Gold (2008, 1996)
Originally published as 2016 Rio Paralympics: Aussie Rollers enjoy better record than gold-seeking Boomers and Opals
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