This from a recent news clip by the Australian sports news wire:
Aussie basketball has a new star
By Guy Hand
CAN new Australian basketball sensation Nathan Jawai play in the NBA? Should he be in the Olympic Games team next year?
Those at the top of Australian basketball say it's a resounding slam-dunk “yes” to both after the 21-year-old Cairns Taipans giant lit up the NBL All-Star Game on Wednesday night.
After just 16 NBL matches, Jawai outshone the competition's best players in the league's showpiece game, unleashing an array of slam-dunks allied to big-match temperament to win the most valuable player award.
Jawai, a 208cm, 130kg giant so big opponents need a GPS navigation system to get around him, didn't pick up a basketball until he was 15 and has been dubbed “Baby Shaq” over his likeness to NBA legend Shaquille O'Neal.
While he has plenty to do to reach O'Neal's quality, Jawai's All-Star performance not only confirmed the hype surrounding him, it intensified it to the point the match will surely be his springboard onto the international stage next year.
“He's the best talent that's come into our league in a long, long time. I don't think we've anybody like him in that position,” said Boomers coach Brian Goorjian.
“Guys in the NBA from Australia that make it are usually bigs. He's a good a one to come in the league that I've seen.
“If Nathan Jawai was a senior at a university somewhere in the USA, he'd be a first round draft pick.
“The sky's the limit for him and I think he can play in the NBA at some point in time.”
Goorjian will now have to decide whether to select Jawai in his Olympic Games squad for 2008.
Indications are he will, just as Goorjian did in 2004 when he elevated the then little-known Andrew Bogut to his squad for the Athens Games.
A year later, Bogut was Australia's first ever No.1 draft pick in the NBA.
Only the great Australians get to play in the world's best basketball league - Luc Longley, Andrew Gaze, Shane Heal, Mark Bradtke and Chris Anstey also boast NBA seasons on their resume.
Goorjian is not alone in his assessment of Jawai - who grew up on the Bamaga Aboriginal and Islander settlement in the Cape York Peninsula.
Melbourne Tigers coach Al Westover - respected throughout the game - also believes Jawai has the tools to make it internationally.
And Townsville's exciting US import Corey “Homicide” Williams - who has twice made it to the last cut at NBA level and twice fallen at that frustrating hurdle - believes the only thing standing in Jawai's way is Jawai.
“To be as big and agile as he as, the athletic ability he possesses, he definitely has an opportunity to be a first round pick,” Williams said.
“As long as continues to remain focused, hungry and play hard. He has to have the desire. There's plenty of guys that are good but the desire's the question.
“If he wants it, he can get it.”
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