BOOMERS OLYMPIC SQUAD ANNOUNCED

Media Release: Basketball Australia

Basketball Australia has today announced the first intake 22-player squad that will be up for selection for the Boomers at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

This initial squad will be refined before training camp in July with a final 12 selected to meet the world’s best at the Olympics in late July – August 2024.

Ten players from the Tokyo 2020 Bronze Medal breakthrough have been named including Joe Ingles, Patty Mills, Josh Green, Matisse Thybulle, Dante Exum, Jock Landale, Chris Goulding, Matthew Dellavedova, Duop Reath and Nick Kay.

Amongst the next wave – a pack of young guns will also be in contention for a spot at the Olympics.

This features international talents Josh Giddey, Dyson Daniels, Jack White and Xavier Cooks as well as US college enigma Johnny Furphy who starred for the Kansas Jayhawks in the Big 12 this season.

From the NBL, DJ Vasiljevic and Rocco Zikarsky have been named after solid NBL campaigns and key performances for the Boomers against Korea and Indonesia at the recent FIBA 2025 Asia Cup Qualifiers.

Congratulations to the NSW athletes selected for the squad, namely Xavier Cooks, Josh Green, Nick Kay, Matisse Thybulle and Matt Nielsen (Assistant Coach).

The most notable omission is Ben Simmons, who will unfortunately have to wait for his Olympics debut due to a back injury forcing a late withdrawal. Simmons was all in for the Paris 2024 Olympics until the injury emerged in early-2024.

Goorjian will lead the Boomers to a fourth Olympics as Head Coach and is determined to use learnings from recent performances as a catalyst of evolution.

“The FIBA Basketball World Cup in 2023 marked a new beginning for the Boomers,” said Goorjian.

“We were able to introduce some new faces and identify areas that we needed to advance and improve,”

“We’ve been actively monitoring the Aussie players across international leagues in USA, Europe and Asia as well as domestically in the NBL and we’re confident in the potential chemistry of this list,” added Goorjian.

“The complexity of international tournaments like the Olympics is that you have a relatively short window to train and prepare – so you have to identify and implement a style works fast and amplifies the collective skill set,”

“There’s always a correlation made of our offensive play with European styles, which is interesting considering there isn’t a whole lot of exposure to the Euro system with our players,”

“What we have experienced, is the emergence of Australians at the top level overseas and the evolution of the NBL as a world class league with high powered scoring offenses, so we want to drive a game that is familiar but unique to our group.”

Notably, two areas addressed in the squad selection have focussed on adding versatility and strength of size as well as a depth of shooting talent.

“When Jock Landale went down (at the FIBA World Basketball World Cup) we had to adjust to small ball. It was challenging but ultimately rewarding as we got to trial different packages and get prime minutes into Duop Reath which fast-tracked his development,” said Goorjian

“Looking to the Olympics, we will have Jock Landale available for selection and the added versatility of Kay, Xavier Cooks as well as guys like Will Magnay and Rocco Zikarsky.”

“We’ve also introduced more depth across shooters in the squad with veteran Chris Goulding joined by Dyson Daniels, Jack McVeigh and DJ Vasilijevic,”

The road to Olympics glory for the Boomers became clearer in March with Australia drawn into Group A for the Paris 2024 Olympics.

The Boomers will face Canada and the winners from the Greece Qualifying Tournament (one of Greece, Slovenia, New Zealand, Croatia, Egypt and the Dominican Republic) and Spain Qualifying Tournament (one of Spain, Lebanon, Angola, Finland, Poland & Bahamas).

Despite being referenced externally as the ‘Group of Death’ the level of opposition adds to the motivation for Goorjian.

“We’re really excited at this opportunity. The consensus is that the tournament will be at an unseen level with the talent and international NBA star-power across the teams,” said Goorjian.

“I will emphasise and instil with the group that we’re not aiming to match or replicate the style of game heading our way from other nations. Our goal is to beat them.”

“We’re going to play Aussie ball. And we’re going to go at them with all we’ve got.”