Creek has no time for Games

THE lure of Commonwealth Games gold was not enough to convince Mitch Creek to ditch personal ambitions.

The Adelaide 36ers star was the biggest of a spate of Gameseve withdrawals, ditching the Boomers to instead take up a short-term deal with German club Gottingen.

“It’s a tough decision to make to miss out on the Commonwealth Games,” Creek told the 36ers website.

“That was something that was a dream of mine to partake in, but I’m still extremely excited and a little bit nervous of what to expect (at Gottingen).”

Adelaide teammate Matt Hodgson will also miss the Games, with the centre to have knee surgery. Hodgson’s original replacement, Melbourne veteran David Andersen, was also ruled out after hurting a calf in Saturday’s NBL title-clinching win over Adelaide.

Perth’s Lucas Walker has now been called into the Boomers set-up, with lllawarra point guard Mitch Norton coming in to replace Creek.

It caps a big rise for Walker, who could not secure a start with an NBL club a year ago.

The Boomers have been left with one true centre in their 12man squad in his Wildcats teammate, Angus Brandt.

But the absence of Creek is likely to have a bigger impact on coach Andrej Lemanis’s plans, given he had been the standout performer in Australia’s World Cup qualifying campaign.

He led in points and rebounds over the opening four games of qualifying, and despite losing the NBL grand final decider, Creek impressed with 15 points and 10 rebounds for the 36ers.

Creek has made no secret of his desire to make the leap to the NBA. A short-term deal in Europe should aid his cause.

While Norton is his direct replacement, it is the likes of Daniel Kickert, Chris Goulding, Cameron Gliddon and Nathan Sobey who Lemanis will turn to in a bid to fill the scoring void.

Goulding returns to the green and gold in red-hot form, having been named player of the series in the NBL grand final.