By Stefan Djordjevic/ info@eurohoops.net
The San Antonio Spurs guard Patty Mills will play for the Australian national team at the 2019 World Cup as they fight for the historic medal, their first in the competition: “I’m excited to get the green and gold on and get everyone back into camp. We can refocus on what we are trying to do, which is create history, so that part is exciting”, he said, per fiba.basketball.
Mills also reminded that Australia has prepared high-quality games in order to prepare as best as possible: “We have four great quality games leading into the World Cup and we have probably never had this level of quality of practice games so that’s going to be great.
Two of those games will be against the USA squad in Melbourne (August 22-24) and it could be a potential spectacle in front of as much as 100,000 fans at Marvel Stadium.
The time in Australia is going to be great. Getting everyone back together and back into camp will be exciting. In a way, it’s going to be a new group, with guys who have never played together before in addition to the core group that is there.”
An interesting fact about Australia’s roster is that it could feature an all-NBA lineup for the first time as there have been 13 Australian players in the NBA this season including: Deng Adel (Cleveland Cavaliers); Aron Baynes (Boston Celtics); Jonah Bolden (Philadelphia 76ers); Andrew Bogut (Golden State Warriors); Ryan Broekhoff (Dallas Mavericks); Mitch Creek (Minnesota Timberwolves); Matthew Dellavedova (Cleveland Cavaliers); Isaac Humphries (Atlanta Hawks); Joe Ingles (Utah Jazz); Thon Maker (Detroit Pistons); Patty Mills (San Antonio Spurs) and Ben Simmons (Philadelphia 76ers).