Andrew Bogut’s decision to play on home soil for the Sydney Kings this season resulted in a in a 35 per cent rise in attendance and a 29 per cent rise in TV viewership for the club.
His presence saw the National Basketball League set a a new attendance record of 714,346 with traditional media coverage tripling in process.
Since then Bogut has returned to the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, a team he won a NBA championship with in 2015 with the hope that the “Andrew Bogut Effect” can continue to pay dividends in the bay area.
Despite playing only 11 regular season games at the tail end of the regular season, Bogut will make his third start in a row for the Golden State Warriors in Game 2 of an the Western Conference Finals against Portland. Even though it’s directly linked to DeMarcus Cousins being injured that’s pretty wild.
“Bogut is doing a great job. He’s been great, too, since he’s been back. This is why we got him — just in case. We were hoping we wouldn’t have any injuries, obviously, but that was our most vulnerable position. We’re lucky to have Andrew.” Warriors coach Steve Kerr told media.
Bogut noted via his blog on Yahoo Australia that although winning a championship in 2015 was his favourite victory with the Warriors the ability to defeat the Houston Rockets in Game 6 of this years playoffs is the best win he’s ever been a part of.
“Just because of the circumstances coming into that series – missing DeMarcus Cousins and then Kevin Durant goes down – and we weren’t playing our best basketball in the first couple of games.
For us to go into Houston for Game 6 when no one predicted us to win – I think we were the heaviest underdogs the Warriors have ever been in the playoffs – it was a huge emotional win for us” Bogut noted.
Bogut also shared his excitement of playing alongside All-Star countryman Ben Simmons for the Australian Boomers in this years FIBA World Cup.
“We’ve now got a stacked lineup with NBA players across the board and he adds another element. He’s an All-Star so adding him has improved us overnight” Bogut said.
Bogut agreed it will be a tough decision to determine what the Boomers line-ups look like when factoring what position he plays Simmons in, as well as the recent loss of NBA stars Dante Exum (injury) and Ryan Broekhoff (family commitments) from the team.
With Cousins out until the conclusion of the Western Conference Finals and Kevin Durant set to miss the next three playoff games the “Andrew Bogut Effect” is something the Warriors are hoping can help them continue their playoff success until their All-Stars can return.
Dan Boyce is a die-hard Sydney Kings fan who grew up in Melbourne during the roaring 90's of Australian Basketball and spent far too much time collecting Futera NBL Basketball cards.
