BASKETBALL, GOLF

Goulding’s year of living dangerously

FROM watching Melbourne United almost beat Oklahoma City while sitting on his couch in pain with appendicitis, to playing against former Boomers roommate Ben Simmons in an NBA pre-season clash.

United captain Chris Goulding will cap off a crazy 12-month turnaround today when he takes on Sim- mons’ Philadelphia 76ers. This time last year, Goulding was a late withdrawal as Melbourne came within one bucket of beating a star-studded Thunder side.

A year on and the United guard is fully fit and ready to make the most of his opportunity on the NBA stage.

“I’m really excited,” Goulding said. “Everyone keeps asking me if I’m over the moon to be here and maybe I’m a bit older and mature now but I’m not really overawed by the occasion. I’ll just treat it like any other game, but it will be cool to play against [Simmons].

“He came to a Boomers camp and I roomed with him in 2014 — so I’m looking forward to the game.”

Goulding knows Simmons’ Sixers are on the big stage earning the big bucks, but he says Melbourne won’t take a backwards step. “As long as we go out there and play an intense style of defence that Melbourne United has been known for, then we will just go for it,” he said. “But we haven’t really done any scouting on the Sixers. “I don’t think we really need to. “We watched 20 NBA games of theirs last season, but we’ll do some specifics on their plays on the day of the day of the game.”