Hoops

Interesting Boomers tweet from Kyrie Irving

http://www.nba.com/2012/news/01/19/cavs-irving-olympics.ap/index.html

"Honestly, it's going to be a process if I decide to play for Australia," he said. "A lot of things have to do with FIBA and Australian lawyers, but I'm not ruling out that possibility of playing with the Australian team. If it happens, and I play for Australia, great. But if I don't, then in 2016 I'll decide again."

Another local example: Aron Baynes was born in NZ but grew up in OZ...he had to decide between Oz and NZ and chose Oz for international hoops...

So he hasn't played in Oz so we don't want him????
So how many NBL games has Bogut played so far ? And how many of the Oz squad are currently playing in Australia? A lot of them only know the other squad players because they have seen photographs....

Don't fret about a nineteen year old having a few verbal gaffes. They all do that.

The actual chance of Kyrie getting a usa olympic gig are miniscule given the known USA opposition at PG, and there will be gun young guards coming out of the draft in the next three years too, and he also has to beat them out.. difficult.

IMHO he should make up his own mind, and then we will see if he is good enough to make the squad, as we do with all our overseas players. A great proportion of all our olympians live and train overseas.. in all the sports.

Obtaining the clearance will be a formality. Basketball USA wont step in the way of the young man representing his country of birth, irrespective of his contribution to the juniors.

Kryie just has to make up his mind.

“Still haven’t decided. Really it will come down to whether or not I want to give up my whole summer.”

Avv, those things may all be true, but there is (at least was) a further limitation imposed by FIBA that each country is limited to only one 'naturalised' player per tournament. This is intended to stop teams from loading up such as in the cases you mentioned. Irving is a different case, he is automatically an Aussie citizen by birth, he just happens to be entitled to dual citizenship.

it's interesting that in Europe over the last 12 months, specifically leading up to Eurobasket that guys were getting passports to countries that had little to nothing to do with.

A good example is Bo McAlebb who played for FYROM and I think ended up making the all tournament five. He hasn't even played any domestic ball in that country I believe.

CJ WAllace who plays for FB Barcelona plays off a Congolese passport and has nothing to do with that country too!

So many loopholes and it's showing at international level.

Serge Ibaka is another example. Gets a spanish passport for having played a couple of years in the ACB. The government expideted his citizenship so he was eligible for eurobasket.

It's not really the same thing as the Irving situation I know but just a general rant on a similar topic :-)

Vart, hear what you are saying, but you could argue Irving has already "chosen" his country by representing USA in a FIBA sanctioned junior event. I would hate to think that we have players everywhere with dual citizenship chopping and changing between countries...

NZ...

Where is Mystro from?

Not like the Boomers have a shabby team either so he isn't signing up to join a complete lemon of a program. Have another No#1 draft pick alongside him in Bogut and then talented players from Europe in Ingles, Newly etc. I think you guys have a decent shot at tempting him.

"Why would he decide to play for Australia when he's close to being a guarantee in 4 years for the U.S team? "

He is far from a guarantee.
He has to compete with a lot of quality point guards who will be around for a LONG time as they are young:

Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul.

Rose and Westbrook are 23 and Paul is 26, so there is a chance that those 3 could be around for another 8-9 years+ which is potentially this years olympics, the 2014 WC's, the 2016 Olympics in Brazil, the 2018 WC's, and the 2020 Olympics.

Irving has to realize that if he wants to play for USA, it might not happen until 2020 and beyond. Or he could play for Australia immediately and get international experience straight away (which would only further help his NBA game)