The 2000 Boomers vs the 2021 Boomers. Andrew Gaze vs Patty Mills.
Patty Mills has put himself firmly in “icon” territory, as the man who carried the Olympic flag for the Australians at an Olympics much as Andrew Gaze did 21 years before him.
But as far as the 2000 team and the 2021 Boomers go, that is not where the similarities end.
Australia in 2021 has their best shot yet at winning an Olympic medal in men’s basketball. We’ve been knocking on that door for so long now, that it almost feels like a date with destiny.
And the Boomers have added some pretty impressive talent of late; Matisse Thybulle is one of the NBA’s best defenders, and Dante Exum has been showing signs of why he was the 5th pick in the 2014 NBA draft.
The Boomers have also knocked off the United States in warm-ups, and own the distinction of being the only team in history to take down the Americans in consecutive games.
But before we anoint the Boomers their maiden medal, it would be wise to look back and see that we’ve walked similar treks before.
Heading in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the Boomers were a stone-cold medal favourite – at least in the public’s eye.
Andrew Gaze, the affable Aussie larrikin with the savant-like scoring skills could do no wrong, and he was surrounded by, what was at the time, the most talented team to ever wear the green and gold jersey.
Australia’s first-ever medal, on home soil, after coming agonizingly close in both Atlanta and Seoul – it seemed like the stars were aligning for the perfect bookending for a Boomer’s nucleus that had weathered so many storms together.
The Australian basketball public must have said to themselves “this is our time!”
But it wasn’t to be.
The Boomers were taken down in their first pool game by a surprising Canada team 101-90 behind an astonishing 15 assists from a man who’d go on to be an NBA MVP, Steve Nash.
Australia would go on to fall to Yugoslavia 66-80 in their last pool game yet would beat an Italian team that beat them handily in a warm-up game, in the quarterfinals 65-62.
The Boomers would not win again in Sydney.
After the year 2000, basketball in Australia would go through perhaps its darkest ever period.
With greats such as Andrew Gaze, Mark Bradtke, Andrew Vlahov and Luc Longley now lost to the international game, the Boomers struggled to transition to the next generation.
The Boomers in 2001, failed to qualify for the 2002 FIBA Basketball World Championships.
NBL crowds diminished greatly in size, as the league fell off FTA and public interest in the sport fell off a cliff.
To use the often used media cliché, basketball was a “basket-case”.
And whether through correlation or causation, the Boomers perceived failings in the public’s eye stands as a visible turning point for the state of the game in this nation.
Fast-forward nineteen years and by then a new group had made their names synonymous with the word “Boomer”.
On the back of great investment and business nous from Larry Kestleman, the NBL had largely regained its lost foothold in the Australian sporting psyche.
The Boomers had tasted yet another fourth-place finish in Rio, where they fell to Spain 89-88 in a Bronze medal game that still gives Australian basketball fans nightmares.
But for two nights in August, at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne, the Boomers had centre stage.
The first game followed the expected, and seemingly preordained path – the Boomers were plucky, but the Americans with their talent and athleticism, eventually wore us down.
In the second game, the Australian Boomers, behind a heroic performance from Patty Mills did what was previously unthinkable.
Shot after shot rained in from different angles and directions.
Australia’s Patty Mills celebrates after shooting a 3-pointer during their exhibition basketball game against the U.S in Melbourne, Saturday, Aug. 24, 2019.
His roar to the crowd is now an iconic image.
Fifty-two thousand Australians roared with him.
Australia is not supposed to beat the Americans at basketball, but from that day forth, the mould was broken.
But what was not broken, was the Boomers curse – They would go on to place fourth again at the 2019 world cup.
Fourth.
It’s a number that I bet, Australian basketball players and fans wish they could all have erased from the numerical order.
The current crop of Boomers – Patty Mills, Joe Ingles, Aron Baynes and Matthew Dellavedova have two fourth places to their names heading into the Tokyo games.
The old guard of Gaze, Heal, Vlahov, Bradtke – and to a lesser extent, Longley – had two-fourths heading into the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
Andrew Gaze was the flagbearer in Sydney, and Patty Mills the flagbearer in Tokyo.
And like in 2000, the Boomers again head into an Olympic games as a medal favourite.
And yet, much like beating the Americans, a medal feels like something Australia isn’t meant to do.
History has a funny way of repeating itself, but for the Boomers, history is still yet to be written.
Can they break that mould in Tokyo?