Australia have named their Olympic roster for the upcoming Olympic Games in London.
Australia have officially named 21-year-old hotshot Matt Dellavedova in their Olympic squad.
The point guard followed up last year’s appearance with the Boomers at the FIBA Oceania Championship with a terrific season in American college basketball at St Mary’s and will now play in the biggest tournament of his life.
Australia coach Brett Brown will also give Olympic debuts to Aleks Maric, Aron Baynes, Peter Crawford and Adam Gibson.
Maric was a leading center in Europe at Partizan Belgrade a few seasons ago and has spent the last couple of years playing for Panathinaikos. He featured in this year’s Euroleague Final Four where they were edged out by CSKA Moscow and Barcelona.
Patrick Mills recently wrapped up his season with the San Antonio Spurs and is among several players returning to the Olympics.
Others are Joe Ingles, Brad Newley, David Barlow, David Andersen, Matt Nielsen and Mark Worthington.
Andrew Bogut had hoped to play for the Boomers for the first time since the 2008 Games but the Golden State Warriors center is recovering from injuries and ruled himself out several weeks ago.
“We have a host of players making a name for themselves around the world which is a credit to Australian basketball,” Brown said.
“While we will definitely miss Bogut, it is pleasing to see Patty’s development and it is great to see him doing well for the Australian team as we run a similar system to his NBA team which should make him more comfortable with us at the Olympics.”
Brown is the assistant coach of Mills’ NBA team, the Spurs.
Australia will play in Group B against Brazil, China, Great Britain, Spain and a team that comes out of the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament.
FIBA contributed to this report
