"I still get goosebumps": David Andersen on Boomers culture and the Paris campaign

The Australian basketball legend gives his insights on the past, present and future of the men's national team.

Photo credit: FIBA

Few people know the inner workings of Boomers culture as thoroughly as David Andersen. The 44-year-old represented the national team with pride at four Olympic campaigns across a decorated career that has seen him described as Australia’s most successful European export.

He still keeps a close eye on the Australian team and tells The Pick and Roll that the depth of Olympic competition has grown immensely since he first played at that level.

“The Americans used to really lay their hands all over the gold medal without even having to say too much,” he reflects. “But it all changed in 2004 when they lost to Argentina. Now, it’s gone to the next level; the European teams are stepping up. It obviously makes it harder for teams like Australia to compete with the powerhouses.”

Andersen played against Australia’s first opponent at the Paris games, Spain, for over two decades, from the Albert Schweizer Tournament in 1998 – where he won MVP and battled in the low post against a young Pau Gasol as Spain beat Australia in the final – to the heartbreaking and controversial bronze medal game at the Rio Olympics in 2016.

Photo credit: FIBA

“From the get-go, they were creating a team that carried them through the decades. They’ve brought along some really good players, and the competition has risen with them. We’ve had a big history against them; Rio stings you a lot because we were just that little bit away from winning a bronze medal, and it kind of felt like we got robbed a little bit.

“But they’ve been a powerhouse for us so many years, so it was big to get the win on them at the start of this tournament. Some people are saying they may be a little bit less talented this time around, and they're probably going through a rebuild like we are, but the victory was a great way to start the campaign.”

Boomers selection challenges

While the makeup of this year’s Boomers team was hotly debated - the omission of an elite NBA perimeter defender in Matisse Thybulle, most notably - Andersen says the online conversations around selection often wrongly assume head coach Brian Goorjian has sole responsibility for the final squad.

“He has a lot of support around him, assistant coaches and mentors outside of the immediate network of the Boomers who he leans on,” he explains.

“There’s always going to be debates (on team selection). People are always going to argue and put their two cents out. There are a lot of keyboard ninjas that want to get their little voice heard.

“But (Goorjian) has been around the block for many, many years and a lot of thought goes into it. I’m sure it’s very calculated. At the end of the day, you’ve got to take the team to get through to the medal rounds, that’s what it’s all about. All things considered, I think he did a pretty good job.”

In the group stage of the Paris Olympics, Boomers mainstays Joe Ingles and Matthew Dellavedova played just two and 16 minutes respectively, though Dellavedova made an immediate impact against Greece. When the Paris squad was announced, some questioned why the duo – objectively two of the most important Boomers of the modern era, though both now in the veteran phase of their career – made the team ahead of younger, more athletic players.

But Andersen says outside observers can’t always see the off-court value that the deep bench players can bring to a team. He gives the example of John Rillie and Martin Cattalini, who were part of the 2004 Athens Olympics squad. While the pair only logged six points between them for the tournament, their overall contribution to the team went far beyond the stat sheet.

“They would be doing two-and-a-half-hour workouts, playing everyone one-on-one, getting exercise every day,” Andersen recalls. “Those guys show you how you’ve got to keep professional; they were ready for a game if they got a chance.

“Your (players ranked) 10,11,12 – sometimes they’re not going to get minutes. But the fact they were so professional led the other guys. There’s a chemistry and culture that they bring to the team.

“Maybe the selection process is that guys like Joe and Delly instil the same mentality as Rillie and ‘Cat’ into the new Boomers kids. It does carry weight having guys like that in the locker room, around the team. When times get tough, those guys will put their hand up and say ‘Guys, we’ve got to bond together more and get through this’ and maybe you don’t get that in some people.”

Team cohesion and preparation

This year’s Boomers squad boasts nine current NBA players, the most behind the USA and Canada. While this fact highlights the inroads Australians have made into the sport’s premier competition, it also produces new challenges for the squad around maintaining cohesion when the core of the Olympic squad isn’t available for as many training camps and tournaments as they were in previous generations.

“I think it’s extremely hard, and one of the main challenges for the coaches and for Basketball Australia, is to get everyone on the same page as soon as you can,” Andersen says.

“We used to have two or three camps before we started our campaign and now it’s often just one or two camps. There is limited training and time together. It condenses everything and makes it a lot more challenging.

“It’s a big challenge, but I’m sure we’re not alone; other teams have to do the same thing. It sometimes means not taking the best team on paper because you’ve got to mesh all the characters and egos into one team in a short time and that’s very challenging to navigate.”

Beyond Paris

Since retiring from the sport at age 41, Andersen has worked as a special projects officer at the NBL and been an ambassador for the Next Stars program. He’s got to work with and mentor many of the next generations of Boomers regulars, and he likes what he sees.

Photo credit: Basketball Australia

“It’s an exciting time, I think. I’ll hopefully be around Rocco (Zikarsky) a bit more this year, and I’ll be trying to help him. We haven’t got many of those hugely talented scoring bigs, and I feel like he could be one of those who can do bigger and better things. He can get to the NBA and grow as a player and person and help Australian basketball carry on.”

Indiana Pacers rookie Johnny Furphy and Dash Daniels, the younger brother of Boomers star Dyson, and a fixture on 2026 NBA mock draft boards, are a couple of other emerging players who have caught his eye.

“I don’t know what will happen with Matisse, whether he will come back or not, but there’s a good bunch of talent, and we’re passing the torch on. I feel we’re in a pretty good place and hopefully all the cultural things that we’ve embedded over the years will carry on and these guys will buy in. The next wave can be just as good, if not better, in world class basketball.”

READ: David Andersen: Australia's most successful European export

A basketball family: the ex-Boomers community

These days, Andersen will often watch Boomers games with a few other ex-players or he’ll be on a group chat with the likes of Andrew Bogut, Brad Newley and Glen Saville, where the texts and banter will be flying thick and fast. Saville recently got some good-natured laughs from his old teammates when he sent through a snap of him cheering the team on from his couch in his full Boomers gear.

For Andersen, the fact that so many former players continue to be deeply invested in the team’s fortunes and have strong opinions on how players are developed into national representatives is one of the sport’s great strengths.

“The biggest highs come when you’re playing games, being around your teammates, going through the tough training sessions and hard work. It’s fun to stay around it; you feel that family bond of the national team. The relationships are what make it special.

“I still get goosebumps watching them play. I definitely miss it. I mean, basketball – it’s the best thing in the world.”