Boomers get boost with NBA stars back
NBA championship-winner Matthew Dellavedova and his Milwaukee Bucks teammate Thon Maker will headline the Australian Boomers squad for the next round of FIBA World Cup qualifiers.
With their NBA commitments over for the season, the duo have put up their hand for national duty when the Boomers take on Japan in Japan on June 29 and the Philippines in the Philippines on July 2 in a 50,000-seat stadium.
Dellavedova – who won an NBA ring with LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016 and then signed a fouryear $A50 million deal with the Bucks – last played for the Boomers at the Rio Olympics while Maker will be on debut.
Dellavedova and Maker making themselves available will be an entree to the tantalising main course of Australia’s full contingent of NBA players wearing green and gold in next year’s World Cup and the Tokyo Olympics.
They will join the rest of the squad – that includes eight members of the team that won gold at the Commonwealth Games - for a four-day camp in Melbourne on June 21 before heading to Japan.
Queenslander Mitch McCarron rejoins the Boomers fold after missing the Commonwealth Games for a trophy-winning stint in Slovenia.
BOOMERS SQUAD: ANGUS BRANDT, JASON CADEE, MATTHEW DELLAVEDOVA, CAM GLIDDON, CHRIS GOULDING, NICK KAY, DANIEL KICKERT, KEVIN LISCH, MITCH MCCARRON, THON MAKER, NATHAN SOBEY, JESSE WAGSTAFF.