BASKETBALL COUP: NBA SUPERSTARS WILL TAKE ON THE BOOMERS

THE Australian Boomers will host the star-studded US men’s team on home soil for the first time since the Sydney Olympics in a two-game series in Melbourne next year.

NBA stars LeBron James, Steph Curry and Kevin Durant could be among the players on the US roster for the warm-up series before the 2019 World Cup in China.

The Australian men’s team will likely feature NBA stars such as Ben Simmons, Patty Mills and Matthew Dellavedova at Etihad Stadium in August next year.

The matches will take place on August 22 and 24 in 2019, with the World Cup beginning a week later in China.

“This announcement is a landmark moment for Basketball Australia and all those fans of our great game,” Basketball Australia CEO Anthony Moore said yesterday.

“I believe that this event will be long remembered in Australian sporting history.

“With these two games occurring just prior to the 2019 FIBA World Cup in China, our Boomers and the USA will be at full strength and the quality of basketball that Australian sports fans will witness will be extraordinary.”

The most recent meeting between the two teams was a tight 98-88 victory by the Americans in the group stage at the Rio Olympics in a game where Mills topscored for the Boomers with 30 points.

USA Basketball CEO Jim Tooley said the clashes would be another instalment in “a special international basketball rivalry”.

The Boomers have won their opening four World Cup qualifiers and have already advanced to the second stage of qualifying, beginning in September.