The Boomers could still field their best-ever team at next year’s Olympics with news of the NBA’s plan to start their 2020/21 season on December 22, averting a potential scheduling clash between the worldwide sporting spectacle and the world’s greatest basketball league.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver originally touted a January start – which would have seen season end in September, after the Olympics in July – in the hope of bringing spectators back to games, but with a “third wave” of coronavirus hitting the states, those plans seem unviable.
It is understood that the NBA is leaning towards the December date and a 72-game season so the following 2021/22 season can begin by the usual October start date.
An earlier start and shortened NBA season would be a godsend for the Boomers, who were to be one of the worst-hit teams in any tournament without NBA participation given there are nine Australians currently in the league.
If the 2020/21 season starts on December 22nd as suggested, the Boomers could have a veritable Dream Team of NBA veterans and to look to
play with to build upon successive fourth-placed finishes at the FIBA World Cup and the 2016 Rio Olympics.
But while NBA players are likely to be available for all teams at Tokyo, there are still possible scheduling clashes between the NBA and the Olympic qualifiers in June to work through, which may mean that other teams that rely heavily on their NBA talent struggle to qualify.
The host nations for the qualifying tournaments – Croatia, Lithuania, Canada and Serbia – would be favourites to win the remaining Olympic berths under normal circumstances but any of those teams could potentially be hit with devastating NBA omissions.
Australia has already qualified by being the best performing Oceanic team at the FIBA World Cup, however, questions remain over who would coach the team, with Basketball Australia now interviewing for the position Brett Brown unexpectedly left with an eye cast beyond the Olympics through to the World Cup in the Philippines in 2023.
Candidates include former Boomers’ coach Brian Goorjian, current Sydney King’s head coach Will Weaver, Perth Wildcat’s Trevor Gleeson and Melbourne United’s Dean Vickerman.