Australia - Anstey rapt to be back as a Boomer

From news.smh.com.au
Download source here

Melbourne Tigers star Chris Anstey hopes his return to the court for the Boomers will coincide with an improved Olympic Games showing by the Australian side in Beijing.

Following his commanding role in the Tigers' NBL championship win over Sydney, Anstey is excited at representing Australia in a major tournament for the first time since the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

Anstey was injured during the Athens Olympics in 2004 and the 2006 world titles, leaving him worried he might never play for Australia again.

The Boomers failed to qualify for the 2002 world championships.

Anstey is relieved to be fit following his NBL campaign and not in the position he was in four years ago, when he needed ankle surgery after a season in Russia.

His absence had a major impact on a young Boomers side that failed to reach the second round in Athens.

"That was devastating, I couldn't even watch that," Anstey said.

"I went away on holidays and sat on the boat and didn't even have a look at it because it was too hard to watch.

"So I can't wait to get back around the guys and back into the team and hopefully bring something a little bit different that they haven't had since I played last."

After an impressive season with the Tigers, the 32-year-old will form part of a strong starting five that will aim to improve on results from Athens and win through to the quarter-finals, where medals become a possibility.

"Our front line's as good as it can be," he said.

"Everyone's available and with Andrew Bogut playing, Matthew Nielsen, Dave Andersen, myself, Nathan Jawai had a fantastic year as well, we've got a lot of very good big guys to pick from.

"(A medal's) always realistic and you never want to say it's not, but it's also just as realistic to know that you might miss out on that top eight.

"So a lot of times there's that little in it that the difference between finishing top eight and missing out, you might win a medal but if you finish ninth you're done."

Anstey will resume fitness work next week before hooking up with the Boomers in June, pleased to be fit and fresh following the epic grand final series against the Kings.

He is also relieved not to have to consider withdrawing from Australian duties because of a club's insistence, which occurred during his time in Europe.

"Being a nine-month (European) season if you need surgery you've got to get it done right away and recover in time for next season," he said.

"You have to do the right thing by your employers at the time and when there's a lot of money involved and they ask you to do something, you've got to do it, you can't put off the surgery and miss half the season."

Meanwhile, Anstey has welcomed the appointment of national coach Brian Goorjian as coach of the Tigers' NBL rivals, the South Dragons, believing the posting will be good for the sport in Melbourne.

"We've tried to develop that rivalry with the Dragons and we've said all along that that's not really going to happen until they start winning," he said.
"With Goorjian coming here he automatically brings success with him and it will be good, but it will just give us a better team to beat in Melbourne."