Canberra basketballer Patty Mills says being an Australian flagbearer at the Tokyo Olympic Games will fire him up as the Boomers look for a breakthrough medal.
Patty Mills says being a flagbearer adds “fuel to the fire” to win Australia’s first men’s Olympic basketball medal.
The NBA star and swimmer Cate Campbell will be joint flagbearers at the July 23 opening ceremony for the Tokyo Games.
Mills, the first Australian Indigenous flagbearer, says the honour adds motivation to end the Boomers’ medal curse at the Olympics.
“This is something that just adds more fuel to the fire,” Mills told reporters.
Australia’s men’s basketballers have never won an Olympic medal, finishing fourth four times – most recently at the 2016 Rio Games.
And in Tokyo they’ll be without Philadelphia star Ben Simmons who opted to work on his game in the off-season rather than suit-up for the Boomers.
But with Mills and an NBA-hardened core featuring the likes of Joe Ingles, Matthew Dellavedova, Aron Baynes and Dante Exum, the Boomers carry medal intentions into Tokyo.
“The expectation is there from our team standpoint,” Mills said.
“We understand what is at stake and what we’re trying to achieve and make history in that sense.
“But I think the confidence and the comfortableness that we all have comes from the years and years of experiences and just being together for so long.
“And the new boys and the young boys have just added to the group, along with the experienced coaching staff as well.
“We’re here to … be able to achieve something that we have never achieved before.”
Mills said balancing flagbearing duties with his on-court performance wouldn’t be an issue.
The Boomers’ opening match, against Nigeria, is two days after the opening ceremony.
“I don’t think it’s going to be tough at all to be able to balance them both,” Mills said.
“For me, who really gets going off stuff like this, it complements it, it’s fuel to the fire. It just adds that other burning sensation to be able to go on and achieve a gold medal.”
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