Australia's basketball Boomers out to restore their pride in Beijing

The Australian Boomers announced a 33-man squad this week (to be cut to 12) that seemingly will be competing for more than just a medal at this year’s Beijing Olympics.

Anything less than a top four finish, based on the strength of the squad, will surely be considered not good enough. A top four finish will go a long way towards restoring the Australian basketball public’s waning interest in the National Basketball League.

The NBL has just crowned the Melbourne Tigers as champions but finds its short term future in not so great shape, a prime example being the Sydney Kings and Brisbane Bullets (the first and third largest cities in Australia) struggling for survival beyond this off-season. 

Sydney are struggling to pay the bills, let alone the players, even though they went to the deciding fifth game in the NBL Finals, while Brisbane have had to resort to hanging out the “For Sale” sign just one year after achieving championship glory in 2007.