Boomers coach Brian Goorjian has sent an “important” message on Ben Simmons’ future in the national team ahead of the upcoming FIBA World Cup.
Simmons’ decade-long absence from the Boomers dragged on this year, with the Australian instead continuing to focus on his rehabilitation from a lingering back injury.
Provided Simmons is fit to return for the Nets next season — and all news to come out Brooklyn so far has been positive — a long-awaited return to the national team could be on the cards at the Paris Olympics.
Although speaking to ESPN ahead of this year’s World Cup, Goorjian made it clear he won’t be begging for Simmons to return — and the 27-year-old knows it too.
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“This is very important,” Goorjian said.
“In my dealings with Ben, it’s always been: I’m not recruiting you. It’s important for the country [to know], we’re not going, ‘please, Ben, please, we don’t have anything if you don’t play’. We’re not like that at all.
“It’s like, you’re fantastic, and you’re a great player and the country loves you, and the country wants you in green and gold, and our team does.
“But, in turn, this is really good for you. Because you get to walk through these doors and drop everything behind and be you, and play with your mates in a great culture.
“I look at it that way, that this is gonna be a really good opportunity for him, and that I and the guys on the team, we care about him. We want him to have a great career.
“You need this. And, in turn, if you’re Ben Simmons, and if you play like Ben Simmons on this team, with that culture, you’re gonna take us to somewhere the team’s never been. That’s my goal in all of this.”
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Goorjian is right too, with the current Boomers squad stacked with talent and a mix of youth and experience, highlighted by the leadership of Patty Mills and emergence of Josh Giddey.
As much as Simmons would be a value add to the national team, regardless of recent form and associated injury battles, the Boomers aren’t stressed for options without him.
In fact, this year’s World Cup could give Boomers fans a glimpse into the future as the offence plays through the hands of breakout Oklahoma City Thunder star Giddey.
The broader point Goorjian also made about the Boomers being something Simmons needs is one Andre Gaze brought up earlier in the year.
“You know what, he hasn’t played a lot of basketball in the last couple of years,” Gaze told SEN in May.
“Where it is right now, he’s got some work to do to actually make the team.
“It’s not like it was prior to Tokyo where the evidence you saw in the NBA you’re going to be an automatic selection, because of his health issue and lack of basketball but most importantly because of the players.”
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