The Tokyo Olympics held so much promise for the Boomers, despite being postponed until 2021 due to the coronavirus.
Australia was coming into its ‘golden generation’ – the culmination of over a decade’s worth of sacrifice from an established core of NBA veterans joining forces with up-and-coming athletes the likes of which we have never produced before.
If ever there was to be an Australian Dream Team – a team to lead us to a medal for the first time in our nation’s history – the Tokyo Olympic team was going to be it.
But with news today that the NBA season is set to be postponed until January, hopes of an NBA-star-studded Australian super-team are being dashed before our very eyes.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver in an interview with CNN confirmed that he felt a start date “in January” would be best for the league and conceded that this would likely affect the Olympics, which begin in July.
Despite saying that no start date had been “set in stone”, Silver did say that the league was hoping to have a full 82-game season, which, if it kicks off in January, would see the Finals end in September, a month after the Olympics concludes.
“There are a lot of great US players, and we may be up against a scenario where the top 15 NBA players aren’t competing in the Olympics, but other great American players are competing,” Silver said.
“And, obviously, there are many NBA players who participate in the Olympics for other countries. That’s something we’re going to have to work through.”
How, exactly, the NBA would “work through” the situation is unknown but one possibility might be to allow non-playoff teams to release their international players for the tournament – however it seems any bigger concession, like a pause in play to allow for all players to compete in the games, is not on the cards.
The Tokyo 2021 Olympics might be the first games without NBA players since 1988.
Jarrad Hurley's professional basketball aspirations led him to the dizzying heights of the Adelaide social league circuit. After an epiphany that his hoop dreams would go unrealised, he put the ball down and picked up a pen. Jarrad lives vicariously through the successes of Australian basketball, is a mad 36ers fanatic, and might just cry if the Boomers ever medal.
