When Australia take on Team USA a straight line can be drawn from the AIS to the Olympics semi-final arena
The Saitama Super Arena is a world away from the cavernous training courts of Basketball Australia’s Centre of Excellence at the Australian Institute of Sport. The former is situated within greater Tokyo, one of the densest metropolitan areas in the world, the latter within a sprawling, low-rise campus in leafy northern Canberra. But when the Boomers take on Team USA in the semi-final of the Tokyo 2020 men’s basketball on Thursday, a straight line can be drawn from the AIS to the Olympic arena.
In 1981, after prime minister Malcolm Fraser formally opened the AIS to “carry Australia’s name high”, Dr Adrian Hurley and Patrick Hunt set about developing a basketball program that would revolutionise the sport in Australia. “There was Adrian, 21 athletes and no basketballs,” Hunt later recalled.
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