Bring it on, says Andrew Bogut

He’s over all the pre-season hype, now prize NBL recruit Andrew Bogut just wants to play.

Sydney Kings star Andrew Bogut is over talking, and just wants to play

He’s over all the pre-season hype, now prize NBL recruit Andrew Bogut just wants to play.

Despite a minor injury scare when he had a knee iced after taking a knock at training on Thursday, Bogut has been cleared to suit-up for Sydney in their season opener at home to Adelaide on Saturday.

Bogut’s much-heralded return to Australia is set to attract even more eyeballs to the resurgent competition, which last season attracted record live attendances and television viewing numbers.

“We always spoke at the outset when we first acquired the league about how good it would be for a player like Andrew Bogut to one day consider it an appropriate ending to their career to come back to the NBL,” said competition chief executive Jeremy Loeliger.

“We didn’t necessarily think that it would be Andrew Bogut and I think it was a really proud moment for us when he decided to come home.”

Put up at several pre-season media conferences Bogut has dutifully promoted the game, but this week he was clearly more focused on playing.

“It’s been a long pre-season, so there’s been a lot of hype for a lot of months,” Bogut said.

“But I’m looking forward to just getting the game under way and getting out there and getting those nerves out and trying to get our first win.

“We’ve got a really tough match-up, a really well-coached well-respected team coming to town so if we’re not ready for that, I don’t know if we ever will be.

“They are a run-and-gun team and they really like to attack the basket and they try to junk things up defensively, so hopefully we’ve learnt a lesson after playing them in the blitz and we can adjust.”

Adelaide, who have won their past nine games against Sydney, won’t be relying on just one man to try to curb Bogut’s influence.

‘We’re going to guard him as a team and we’ll just see how we go from there,” said 36ers forward Majok Deng.

While Daniel Johnson will likely spend the most minutes on Bogut, athletic 205cm Deng might also occasionally find himself on the former NBA centre.

“It won’t be fun but it is whatever (it is),” Deng said.

Meanwhile, the Brisbane Bullets say they can go from the cellar to champions in the space of a season. A new-look Bullets opened the season with a shock 86-73 defeat of the rated NZ Breakers in Auckland on Thursday night.

“We had a big overhaul, we’ve got a lot of new players,” said Boomer Cam Gliddon said. “Obviously the biggest one is to win a championship, that’s what we’re going for.”