BOCAUE, Bulacan -- Luc Longley was 18 years old when he first donned the Australian national team colors. At 22, he was the only NBA player in the Boomers' lineup.
Today, with no less than eight Australians becoming solid contributors in the NBA -- including newly crowned Rookie of the Year Ben Simmons of the Philadelphia 76ers -- the Boomers' program has become among the best in the world and the three-time NBA champion with the Chicago Bulls now gives back to his national team with his experience from a playing career that spanned nearly a decade.
"I've been with the national team since the beginning of the Rio [de Janeiro Olympics] campaign, so six years now as an assistant coach," the 49-year-old, 7-foot-2 slot man said to the media after Australia's practice session here at the Philippine Arena. "I've been really enjoying it. We've got a good group of young guys; young men to work with and we're trying to get our first men's [basketball] medal in [the 2020] Tokyo [Olympics]."
Longley had suited up for the Boomers in three Olympics: 1988 in Seoul (when he was nineteen years old), 1992 in Barcelona and the Sydney 2000 games. He missed the Atlanta games in 1996 due to an injury.
Although Longley had focused more on his NBA career with Chicago, alongside Hall-of-Famer Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, he always credited the experience he had with the Boomers as an important aspect of his growth as a basketball player. Longley helped the Boomers to two semifinal appearances in the Olympics as a player and was on the staff when they did it again in Rio de Janeiro.
"The growth [of the Boomers' program] has been fantastic," Longley said. "We're getting good coaches through the program and we're also quite deep. This team is mostly made up of and traditionally made up of guys playing at home. The Australian National Basketball League (NBL) is getting very strong now, too. We're playing well and getting good players so I'm proud of it and that's why I'm involved."
After Longley retired from the NBA at the end of the 2000-2001 season with the New York Knicks, he was instantly inducted into the Australian Institute of Sport, feted in the Basketball Australia's Hall of Fame in 2006, and inducted to the Sports Australia Hall of Fame in 2009 -- becoming only the fourth cager honored after Phil Smyth, Andrew Gaze and WNBA star Michelle Timms.
After spending time being part-owner of the Perth Wildcats (where he once played in the NBL) he joined the Boomers' coaching staff in 2013.
In his half a decade with the program, his biggest project has become mentoring 7-foot Sudanese-Australian Thon Maker, who is still attempting to reach his full potential.
"We've only seen five practices and one game (a loss against Japan)," Longley said of the former YouTube sensation drafted into the NBA by the Milwaukee Bucks straight out of high school. "But he certainly brings athleticism and length to us and he helps us a lot."
Longley is wary about the Philippine contingent they will be facing to close out the preliminary round and hopes that the rabid Filipino crowd expected at the game will bring a certain degree of "nervousness" to the Boomers.
"I hope that our guys are a bit nervous tomorrow (July 2nd)," he said. "I think being nervous is important, I don't think they were nervous enough against Japan. So in that respect, I think the crowd might help us, might wake up our guys a bit."
The New Mexico Lobos product also admitted that losing to the Akatsuke Five placed more pressure on the Aussies to win against Gilas.
"There is pressure, for sure," Longley said. "[The] top spot means something and the Filipinos on home turf is gonna be fantastic to see. The Philippine style of basketball is very difficult to guard and they're gonna be more Filipino than Filipino tomorrow and they've proven to be very potent offensively when they get rolling so our job is not to let them get rolling and we'll just jump on in there and we'll see what happens.
"[This is a] very important [game] because you carry the record through. It would [have been] less important if we had beaten Japan, but we didn't. We'll pull the aces out of our sleeves tomorrow and we'll try to get right on top of the Philippines as quickly as we can. The last time we played them, they led us in the first quarter so we know how powerful they can be."
The second round begins this September already and with Maker and NBA teammate Matthew Dellavedova unsure of another run this year with the team, the Boomers must use this opportunity to get an advantage by topping Group B and gear up for its (and the Philippines') upcoming opponents coming out of Group D (looking likely like Iran, Kazakhstan and Iraq).
But will the Philippine Arena becoming the biggest homecourt edge Gilas has ever had in these preliminaries, can the Aussies exorcise the ghost of that loss to the Japanese and get the job done on the road? Or will the Philippines give them their first losing streak at the most inopportune time?
Luc Longley's presence on the bench helps as a beacon for the youngsters of the Boomers. Whether they can come out as strong as he foresees remains to be seen.