Summer Tokyo 2021 Basketball Thread - August 7 When We Got Bronze

[Richard Cranium]

Baynesy goes from getting smashed by covid to this? s**t.

 

[Kezza86]

Not good when given he is a free agent iirc...

Explains why he was waived.

 

[scottywiper]

I used to work for the Sydney Kings when Brett Brown was coach and I met many of the players and Andy Gaze was always the nicest visiting bloke.

I have waited many years for a medal... So glad it finally came and so happy it was Patty that starred.

Covered the NBL for years and adopted the Tigers as my team, mainly due to how good the Gazes were to deal with.
Going into the Tigers rooms was like catching up with a few friends....they could not have been any more accommodating and genuine.
Superb ambassadors for their sport.

 

[Luuuc]

 

[Plugger35]

The only Wildcats player I ever met was Tiny Pinder. Choose your heroes wisely kids.

We ran into Tiny at the Jolimont Maccas back in the late 80s, my little sister was staring at him and he turned around and said "how you doing?".

Freaked her right out.

 

[saintal]

Couldn't stand Goorj back in the Giants v Magic days (really miss having a team to support), and that bitter aftertaste lingers to some extent, but you have to give credit where it's due. He keeps on winning.

 

[Luuuc]

 

[RookiePick]

Dean Uthoff or gtfo.

 

[RookiePick]

I went to the "inaugural Ricky Grace camp of champs" as a young fella. All the Wildcats came through at some point and signed all the kids shirts. Except Watto, the ginger bastard.

Good Times.

 

[eddiesmith]

Couldn't stand Goorj back in the Giants v Magic days (really miss having a team to support), and that bitter aftertaste lingers to some extent, but you have to give credit where it's due. He keeps on winning.

As a Magic fan, always loved the Goorj!!!

 

[Nuggetz]

Soo happy for the boomers and everyone involved in the team throughout the years. I'm sure all of them would be emotional tonight, it's been a bloody long time coming!

 

[Royces Hart]

How hard must it be for Patty to leave the Spurs?

Without Pop calling him fat and telling him to get serious, we might not have a bronze tonight.

 

[eddiesmith]

i really miss the glory days of Australian basketball, but the fact our team in those days were all pretty much playing NBL was why we never had success.

It was good for the NBL to have strong teams, but hurt our international chances. The days of 3 Melbourne teams was an awesome time to be a basketball fan.

I was surprised by Gazes stats about participation, Basketball has always struck me as a very high participation sport, when I grew up most kids played it. For the first 30 years of my life my only premierships were my basketball championship wins. Now I have 1 cricket premiership to accompany those basketball victories...

 

[Nuggetz]

How hard must it be for Patty to leave the Spurs?

Without Pop calling him fat and telling him to get serious, we might not have a bronze tonight.

Still remember Pop calling him 'Fatty Mills' and saying that his only role was waving the towel at the end of the bench, until he got serious with his training/conditioning etc.

 

[Luuuc]

Slight mood dampener… I’m still buzzing but this sucks.

Still involved in the celebrations though, via Facetime:

 

[Luuuc]

More good locker room photo content

 

[Marcel Proust]

How hard must it be for Patty to leave the Spurs?

Without Pop calling him fat and telling him to get serious, we might not have a bronze tonight.

Pretty easy to join kd harden and irving

Exum should join the gang

 

[Plugger35]

My other encounter with a Wildcat was when I ran into Tony "The Bear" Ronaldson in a Subiaco convenience store carpark, he was losing it with his kids.

 

[charcoalchicken]

Absolute magic from patty mills and the aussies, beautiful thing to see

 

[Richard Cranium]

Us Exum Island residents have some hope. We're cautiously optimistic, but optimistic nonetheless.

 

[BG__]

Lowkey think the bronze is almost better than silver in an event like this. Finishing off on the tournament on the high of a historic win instead of the heartbreak of runner up just has a better vibe to it in the moment

 

[Plugger35]

Cal Bruton and the Wildcats.

 

[Royces Hart]

Lowkey think the bronze is almost better than silver in an event like this. Finishing off on the tournament on the high of a historic win instead of the heartbreak of runner up just has a better vibe to it in the moment

You lose gold or win bronze in team events.

 

[Scotland]

i really miss the glory days of Australian basketball, but the fact our team in those days were all pretty much playing NBL was why we never had success.

It was good for the NBL to have strong teams, but hurt our international chances. The days of 3 Melbourne teams was an awesome time to be a basketball fan.

I was surprised by Gazes stats about participation, Basketball has always struck me as a very high participation sport, when I grew up most kids played it. For the first 30 years of my life my only premierships were my basketball championship wins. Now I have 1 cricket premiership to accompany those basketball victories...

Lindsay Gaze is 84 years old, in his day basketball would've been a niche sport.

I grew up knowing basketball as a pretty high participation sport, but the NBL is older than I am. I don't know what it was like before that. In the 50s and 60s I doubt most primary schools had basketball courts.

I still think of the Boomers as an NBL rep team + Luc Longley. Gaze, Heal, Anstey etc. all played a handful of NBA games but never cemented a spot. Last time around we had 3 NBL players in Goulding, Lisch and Martin. This time we had Goulding, Sobey, Landale and technically Delly. Kay has also spent most of his career in the NBL. Bogut has retired, Simmons is our only ever NBA All Star and would rather hang out with Kardashians work on his shooting than play at the Olympics. Josh Giddey went pick 6 in the NBA draft and wasn't selected, Humphries is injured, Broekhoff withdrew. Etc.

All in all the strength of Australian basketball is at an all time high, both the NBL and abroad. If you told sad 12 or 16 year old me that we would one day be in a position where we had an NBA All Star, a top 10 NBA draft pick and other players with NBA experience and we could win an Olympic medal without them I would've said you were crazy. Yet here we are.

 

[eddiesmith]

Lindsay Gaze is 84 years old, in his day basketball would've been a niche sport.

I grew up knowing basketball as a pretty high participation sport, but the NBL is older than I am. I don't know what it was like before that. In the 50s and 60s I doubt most primary schools had basketball courts.

I still think of the Boomers as an NBL rep team + Luc Longley. Gaze, Heal, Anstey etc. all played a handful of NBA games but never cemented a spot. Last time around we had 3 NBL players in Goulding, Lisch and Martin. This time we had Goulding, Sobey, Landale and technically Delly. Kay has also spent most of his career in the NBL. Bogut has retired, Simmons is our only ever NBA All Star and would rather hang out with Kardashians work on his shooting than play at the Olympics. Josh Giddey went pick 6 in the NBA draft and wasn't selected, Humphries is injured, Broekhoff withdrew. Etc.

All in all the strength of Australian basketball is at an all time high, both the NBL and abroad. If you told sad 12 or 16 year old me that we would one day be in a position where we had an NBA All Star, a top 10 NBA draft pick and other players with NBA experience and we could win an Olympic medal without them I would've said you were crazy. Yet here we are.

If those stats were in Lindsays day then that would make sense and I may have misheard.

I think the fact some of these players are willing to come back to the NBL is great for the league, if we ever got Mills or Ingles back for a year or 2 at the end would be brilliant. Getting Landale to come to the NBL for a season whilst waiting on a contract was amazing for United to secure his contract. Broekhoff coming back and finishing off in the NBL is great for the league, its a shame he missed the Olympics.

It'd be nice if this saw a surge in support for the NBL, Covid allowing it'd be nice to see full houses in Melbourne every week and even get to a stage they could get back to Rod Laver for Throwdowns.