Basketball year in review: Rose Gold, Mills, Simmons and Giddey’s rise

A first medal for the Boomers, a horror Olympic run for the Opals and an NBA year in which one promising career stalled and a new star began to rise. The year in Australian basketball has been a historic one.

WORD(S) OF THE YEAR: “Rose Gold”

It’s unlikely many people had heard this before the Tokyo Olympics, but it became synonymous with the Boomers’ bronze medal win. Patty Mills and his team had eyes on winning gold, but a semi-final loss to the US meant that hope was dashed. Still, they regrouped and Brian Goorjian’s team won the nation’s first medal in men’s basketball and, hopefully, set the stage for a World Cup or Olympic gold in years to come. Andrew Gaze’s heart-warming celebrations topped off an emotional night.

Patty Mills celebrates Boomers bronze in Tokyo.Credit: AP

THREE WINNERS

Josh Giddey: The Victorian teenager won NBL rookie of the year season with the Adelaide 36ers, joined Oklahoma City as the sixth pick in the NBA draft and after less than 30 NBA games has a couple of league records and is threatening to break LaMelo Ball’s record for youngest player to get a triple-double.

Jock Landale: After years of false promises, it all came good for Landale in 2021. He won grand final MVP and led Melbourne United to the NBL title, then was a starter in the bronze medal-winning Boomers and was signed by Gregg Popovich’s San Antonio Spurs in the NBA. Now he is working to earn minutes with the Spurs. No one should bet against him doing it.

Jock Landale in action for the Spurs.Credit: Getty Images

Sara Blicavs: Persistence paid off for Blicavs, who was waived by WNBA club Phoenix Mercury just before the season and was among the last cuts for the Opals’ side for Tokyo. But she kept training and was a shock call-up just days before the first game following Liz Cambage’s exit. Blicavs was among the team’s most energetic and consistent performers in Tokyo; she should be right in the running for the women’s World Cup side.

THREE DISAPPOINTMENTS

The Opals: For so long this team was the standard for Australian basketball at the Olympics, winning four medals. But the Tokyo campaign was built around Cambage, so it crumbled after losing the star centre on the eve of the games. A pre-Olympic win over Team USA was a triumph but masked their shortcomings. The team just made it to the quarter-finals where the Americans bundled them out. Sydney hosts the women’s World Cup in September and with AFLW, soccer and others competing for talent, this team better be ready to put on a much more cohesive showing.

Ben Simmons: Simmons began the year making his third All-Star team but by play-off time his shooting reticence was thrown into the spotlight as the Sixers missed the conference finals and put the blame to the Australian. He responded by pulling out of the Olympics and requesting a trade. Now he has missed almost 30 games and is no certainty to be traded this season, so he’s stuck training by himself waiting for a trade.

Ben Simmons has not been playing for the 76ers.Credit: AP

Losing players to AFLW: Women’s basketball in this country has to face the reality that it’s losing too many elite talents to AFLW. Jasmine Simmons captained Australia to an under-17 gold medal and went to college in the US only to return home and sign with the Adelaide Crows, while Tessa Lavey and Monique Conti are trying to play both sports. Is the sport burning out these players or are they losing faith in having a career in basketball? Let’s hope the powers that be are reviewing where and why these young women are choosing to be Erin Phillips instead of Lauren Jackson.

CONTROVERSY CORNERED

What really happened with Cambage and the Opals? No one wants to say. But what we do know is that whatever physical and verbal interactions she had with the Nigerian team before the Olympics shocked her teammates and left her exiting the team just days before the games. An independent panel using Basketball Australia’s rules found her only deserving of a formal reprimand. Since then, Cambage has said via social media she has “zero” interest in playing at the FIBA women’s World Cup in Sydney, so the Opals are moving on without her.

MAN OF THE YEAR

Mills is the man of the year, the century, the Olympic flag bearer and anything else you want to bestow upon him. He and veterans Joe Ingles, Aron Baynes and Matthew Dellavedova set the standard, designed the program and then led the Boomers through to the bronze medal game against Luka Doncic and Slovenia, where Mills scored 42 points and earned a medal he proudly took home to his family in Australia. Now he is working with Kevin Durant to take Brooklyn to an NBA title.

Cayla George has been a steady presence for the Opals.Credit: Getty Images

WOMAN OF THE YEAR

In a time of chaos and calamity, Cayla George stood up for the Opals, leading the team in scoring and rebounding in Tokyo and producing in every single game despite the team’s strategy being in disarray and their self-belief in question. She is starring for the Melbourne Boomers to start the WNBL season and she will still have a pivotal role for the Opals at the home World Cup in Sydney in September. She did it all with a smile and a laugh, too.

VIRAL MOMENTS OF THE YEAR

Mills/Ingles hug: No moment was more loving or more wholesome than two life-long friends embracing after finally securing an Olympic men’s medal for Australia. They used to dream of their professional careers while driving around Canberra in a Mazda 626, but they never could have dreamed of such a special moment.

A singular focus on the goal ... Patty Mills with teammate Joe Ingles.Credit: AP

Simmons pass, not dunk: For all the great things Simmons did last season, the late game play where he turned down a dunk to pass off to Matisse Thybulle in a must-win play-off game reinforced for fans that Simmons didn’t want to shoot the ball and struggled when under pressure. Let’s hope he proves them wrong when he finally gets traded.

Dunk over ‘Delly’: It has only just happened but the NBL says its video of Mitch Creek’s dunk over Dellavedova has had more than 10 million views before a melee broke out between Melbourne United and SEM Phoenix players. Delly’s name still rings out around the world, perhaps Creek’s will too.

QUOTE OF THE YEAR

Mills on setting “gold vibes only” as the Boomers’ motto: “I’ll start by saying that our motto that we were living by was ‘gold vibes only,’ and yes, our goal is to win gold. We’re at the Olympics, that’s what everyone’s goals and dreams should be,” Mills said.

“If you don’t have that goal set out for yourself as a team, as individuals, then what are you doing here? But that mentality and that belief is what got us this [bronze medal].”

CRYSTAL BALL FOR 2022

Giddey will follow Simmons in winning NBA rookie of the year; expect him to set more records as well. Team USA will win the women’s World Cup in Sydney but the Opals will be back in the medals behind Ezi Magbegor, George and others. Watch out for Jade Melbourne and Shyla Heal, too. The NBL will send more players to the NBA; Hugo Besson could be the frontman. NBA G-League Aussie Dyson Daniels will be a lottery pick in the NBA draft, while Perth Wildcats forward Luke Travers won’t be far behind him. Watch out for Goorjian’s Illawarra Hawks attempting to take their coach to his seventh NBL title, although there are plenty of contenders this season. In the WNBL, the Melbourne Boomers are overdue for a title and are good enough to claim it if healthy.

For more basketball coverage, check out our weekly Hoops Heaven column, which looks at the NBA, NBL and all things Australian basketball.