Former NBL champion Mark Worthington has called for Australia to make basketballer Patty Mills the flag bearer for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The Spurs point guard has starred for the Boomers so far throughout the FIBA World Cup, scoring 30 points in the win over France that has them in prime position to medal.
He has been the team’s best performer throughout the tournament to this point and has previously represented Australia at three Olympic Games.
Worthington can’t think of a better person to represent the country at the opening ceremony in Tokyo.
“He is the finisher for the group, he is our best player at the moment with what he’s been able to do with putting points on the board,” the former Olympian told SEN Afternoons.
“If he’s not the flag bearer in 2020, I’m not here.
“He should be the person leading the Australian team around come Tokyo.”
Worthington believes the clutch shooting of the likes of Mills and Joe Ingles is the difference between this Boomers side and versions in the past.
“This is no disrespect to past Boomers, but even when I was playing, we always had that toughness and hung around teams, but we just didn’t have the class to finish off games,” he said.
“Now when you have a world class finisher in Mills, a world class player like Ingles to set the table and obviously a big fella like Aron Baynes who can go five of six from three if you don’t mind to get us over the line, we’ve always had the chemistry and the toughness, now we’ve got the skill element to go against these European powerhouses.”
Australia takes on the Czech Republic in the quarter finals of the tournament on Wednesday night and will face the winner of Spain versus Poland in the semi finals if they get through.