Back injury that ended Ben Simmons’ NBA season has cost him a spot in Paris

There will be 10 players from Australia’s historic bronze medal winning team in Tokyo trying to get to Paris but that team won’t include Ben Simmons.

A mix of old and new, including 10 players from Australia’s historic bronze medal winning team in Tokyo, will be trying to get to the Paris Olympics but that team won’t include Ben Simmons.

Despite being “all in” for a Games debut, the back injury that ended Simmons’ NBA season in Brooklyn has also cost him a spot in the Boomers’ squad for Paris.

Instead, fellow NBA star young gun Josh Giddey is set to be the headline act, with the 22-player squad named on Thursday to be trimmed to 12 for the Games, meaning a raft of veterans and Boomers mainstays could yet miss out.

Bronze medal winners Joe Ingles, Patty Mills, Josh Green, Matisse Thybulle, Dante Exum, Jock Landale, Chris Goulding, Matthew Dellavedova, Duop Reath and Nick Kay are all in coach Brian Goorjian’s squad.

The next waves features rising talents Josh Giddey, Dyson Daniels, Jack White, who has signed for the Memphis Grizzlies, and Xavier Cooks as well as US college enigma Johnny Furphy, who starred for the Kansas Jayhawks in the Big 12 this season.

From the NBL, Dejan Vasiljevic and Rocco Zikarsky have been named after key performances for the Boomers against Korea and Indonesia at the recent FIBA 2025 Asia Cup qualifiers.

Your Australian Boomers Olympic squad is here! 🤩
 
Ahead of #Paris2024, this initial squad will be refined before training camp in July where the final 12 will be selected to take on the world's best.
 
Full details ➡️ https://t.co/IMMJUhDo2u
 #WeAreBasketballpic.twitter.com/oTFIH0sust

— Basketball Australia (@BasketballAus) April 10, 2024

NBL championship winners Jack McVeigh and Will Magnay have been included along with Perth Wildcats big man Keanu Pinder, Illawarra Hawks forward Sam Froling and New Zealand Breakers guard Will McDowell-White.

Goorjian will lead the Boomers to a fourth Olympics as head coach and is determined to use leanings from recent performances as a catalyst of evolution.

“The FIBA Basketball World Cup in 2023 marked a new beginning for the Boomers,” he said.

“We were able to introduce some new faces and identify areas that we needed to advance and improve.

“We’ve been actively monitoring the Aussie players across international leagues in USA, Europe and Asia as well as domestically in the NBL and we’re confident in the potential chemistry of this list.

BOOMERS PARIS OLYMPIC SELECTION SQUAD

Chris Goulding, Joe Ingles, Nick Kay, Dante Exum, Patty Mills, Sam Froling, Duop Reath, Josh Giddey, Dyson Daniels, Josh Green, Will McDowell-White, Keanu Pinder, Xavier Cooks, Jack White, Matisse Thybulle, Jock Landale, Matthew Dellavedova, Johnny Furphy, Rocco Zikarsky, Will Magnay, Jack McVeigh, Dejan Vasiljevic.

Coach: Brian Goorjian. Assistants: Matt Nielsen, Adam Caporn, David Patrick, Jacob Chance.