NICKNAME/S: Dolla, Dolla Dolla Beal

BIO: Born and raised in Dallas, Texas (USA), Jermaine Beal attended DeSoto High School in DeSoto, where he was a two-time All-State honoree and helped the Eagles to a 5-A state title as a freshman and a state runner-up finish as a junior.

NBL EXPERIENCE

Jermaine Beal made his NBL debut with the Perth Wildcats at 25 years of age. He scored 11 points in his first game.

Baynes first played for the Australian national team at the 2010 FIBA World Championship where he received limited minutes.

Baynes competed at his first Olympics as part of the Boomers squad for the London 2012 Games. With Australia missing its NBA big man Andrew Bogut they would lose their opening two preliminary matches to Brazil and Spain, they went on to defeat China, hosts Great Britain and Russia to set up a quarter-final match against the USA. The Boomers (3-2) went down 119–86 to the eventual gold medallists, who featured superstars Kobe Bryant (20 points), Kevin Durant (14 points) and Lebron James (who recorded a 11 point, 12 rebound, 14 assist triple-double) on their roster. USA would go on to win the gold medal while Patty Mills was the leading scorer for the tournament (21.2 ppg) and Australia finished in seventh place.

He has been a starter for the Boomers since the 2012 Olympics in London where the team was eliminated in the Quarterfinals by the USA. Baynes averaged 8 points and 3 rebounds for the tournament.

In July 2014, Bairstow was named to the Boomers squad for the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain which saw NBA stars Patty Mills and Andrew Bogut both unavailable due to injuries. Australia would lose their their opening game against Slovenia (80-90). The went on to defeat South Korea (55-89), Lithuania (82-75) and Mexico (62-70) before controversially losing to Angola. After Australia had led the game by ten at the half, they would lose the game (83-91) and fall to third place in their pool, and allowing them to avoid USA until the semi finals. This set them up to face Turkey in the crossover games, which they lost, 64-65, finishing in twelfth place (3-3). a investigation into Australia’s alleged ‘tanking’ was undertaken, with Boomers coach Andrej Lemanis rejecting the accusation, saying he rested his players for the next stage due to the heavy tournament schedule. On 26 November 2014, Australia was cleared of tanking by FIBA. As a member of the Boomers’ 2014 FIBA World Cup squad, Baynes was the team’s leading scorer (17 ppg) and rebounder (7 rpg).

In 2016, Baynes was selected for the Boomers squad that competed at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Alongside Patty Mills (21.3 ppg and 1.7 apg) and Andrew Bogut (9.3 ppg and 5.1 rpg), Baynes (9.6 ppg, 5.8 rpg, and 1.6 apg) helped Australia reach the semi finals for the first time since 2000. There, Australia would lose to Serbia (61-87) setting up a bronze medal game against Spain. In a game where Australia would be forced to play without Andrew Bogut for the entire second half due to foul trouble and a number of controversial referee calls at the end of the game, Spain was able to gain control of the ball for the final play, giving the Boomers no choice but to foul. Spain’s Sergio Rodriguez made two free throws with 5.4 seconds left and the Boomers lost (88-89) to finish in fourth-place (equalling Australia’s best-ever finish in the Olympics).

Baynes returned to play for the Boomers as part of the 2019 FIBA World Cup squad. In their opening pool, Australia was able to win all three games, defeating Canada (92–108), Senegal (81–68) and Lithuania (87-82). Behind the high scoring of Patty Mills (22.8 ppg), Baynes (11.4 ppg) and Joe Ingles (10.5 ppg), the Boomers continued through the second round undefeated, notching up wins against Dominican Republic (82-76) and France (100-98). A victory of Czech Republic (82-70) in the Quarter-finals saw the Boomers face Spain in the semifinals in a rematch of the previous year’s Olympics bronze medal game. Spain trailed for much of the game but surged in the fourth quarter and took the lead 71-70 when Pau Gasol hit two free throws with 8.7 seconds to play in regulation. Mills had two free throws to win the game with 4.8 seconds to play, but he missed the second after making the first to send the game into overtime (71-71). Both teams had chances to win in regulation and in the first overtime, which ended 80-80. It was two 3-point shots by Llull in the second overtime that pushed Spain to one of its largest leads of the game to defeat Australia (95-88) and advance to the gold medal game against the USA. Australia would face lose to France in the bronze medal game (67–59).

Baynes would don the green and gold once again for the 2020 Olympics (Japan), where the team began their campaign by going undefeated, securing wins over Nigeria (84–67), Italy (86-83) and Germany (89–76). During the Boomers second game against Italy, Baynes would suffer a severe head injury that would see him miss the remaining games of the tournament. Behind the offensive firepower of Patty Mills (19 points), Australia then defeated Argentina (97–59) to advance to the semi finals. There, they lost to a star studded US team (97–78) which featured Kevin Durant (23 points), Devin Booker (20 points) and Jayson Tatum (11 points). Mills (20 points, 5 rebounds and 8 assists) was again the top scorer for Australia. This set up a game against Slovenia for the bronze medal, where Luka Doncic (22 points, 8 rebounds, and 7 assists) and Mills (42 points, 3 rebounds, and 9 assists) led their respective countries in scoring, but Australia would make history, winning the game (107-93) and making history by securing the Boomer’s first Olympic medal.

Jermaine Beal played four seasons in the NBL, playing for both the Perth Wildcats and the Brisbane Bullets. He averaged 14.9 points, 2.4 rebounds, and 2.9 assists in 119 NBL games.

Dan Boyce (798 Posts)

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.