Aussie legend back to roots

Phil Smyth is in the record books as the only Australian to play in at least five FIBA World Championships in 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990 and 1994. He holds the Australian record for most games played as a national cager with 365 outings. Smyth was the MVP in the Australian National Basketball League (NBL) in 1988 and won three NBL titles as a player with the Canberra Cannons and three more as a coach with the Adelaide 36ers. He was awarded the Order of Australia Medal in 1988 and inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1997, the NBL Hall of Fame in 2000, the Australian Basketball Hall of Fame in 2004 and the South Australian Sport Hall of Fame in 2010.

In the NBL, Smyth scored 4,980 points in 346 total games, averaging 14 points and finished his career No. 4 on the all-time free throw percentage list, No. 3 in all-time assists and No. 2 in all-time steals.

Aside from his World Championship exploits, he played in four Olympics from Moscow in 1980 to Barcelona in 1992. He was an assistant coach at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) from 1983 to 1992 and in 2001, took over as head coach of the Australian national team Boomers.

With his glowing credentials, Smyth could’ve found a job in basketball anywhere in the world. But the 54-year-old legend decided to go back to the roots of the game as a teacher and director of coaching at the Australian College of Basketball (ACB) in Melbourne. He couldn’t resist the gratification of sharing his knowledge with under-20 boys aspiring to someday play for the national team and the NBL.

It wasn’t difficult to lay down the framework of a basketball curriculum at ACB with Smyth’s experience at the AIS. The ACB opened shop last year and the first batch of 32 students is now on its seventh month. The program involves classroom work and basketball training for 72 weeks in two years. When the students graduate, they receive a diploma that is a university qualification. Graduates may enrol in a university for two years in Australia or the US or anywhere else to earn a degree or go straight to the NBL.

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Smyth said he’ll never forget defending Lithuania’s Sarunas Marciulionis and Croatia’s Drazen Petrovic in international competitions. “They were the toughest to defend,” he said. “I was fortunate to play in an era where legends like Arvydas Sabonis and Toni Kukoc played. I also was lucky to play on the Australian team that finished fourth in the 1988 Olympics. We never got to play the US Dream Team in Barcelona in 1992 but we went against the US with Shaquille O’Neal, Shawn Kemp and Reggie Miller at the World Championships in 1994.”

At the recent London Olympics, Australia wound up seventh in men’s basketball and bagged the bronze in the women’s division. The Boomers got off to a poor start, losing back-to-back to Brazil by four and Spain by 12 before beating China, 81-61, Great Britain, 106-75 and Russia, 82-80. In the knockout quarters, the US ousted Australia, 119-86. It was a source of pride for Australians that the Boomers defeated the eventual bronze medal team from Russia. As for the Opals, they lost to the eventual gold medal team from the US, 86-73, in the semifinals and upended Russia, 83-74, in the battle for third. WNBA stars Lauren Jackson and Liz Cambage led the charge for the Opals. On the Boomers’ front, all the players were uprooted from foreign leagues with only Peter Crawford and Adam Gibson recruited from the NBL.

Smyth said the success of the Australian basketball program for men and women is because of grassroots development, mainly through the AIS’ efforts. For a while, the Boomers employed naturalized players like Rocky Crosswhite, Ricky Grace, Darryl McDonald and Scott Fisher – Americans who settled in Australia after playing as imports in the NBL. But lately, Australia has shown up in international tournaments with a completely home-grown lineup.

Smyth said top Australian collegiate players dream of making it to the NBA and find the US NCAA a pathway to achieving their goal. “But at ACB, we want to prepare the players more before they move out,” he said. “Out of 400 Australian kids who went to the US to play college basketball, about 200 came back. It’s not easy assimilating and adjusting to a different culture. Of course, there are exceptions but we want to offer an alternative to our Australian kids with dreams of playing as pros.”

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Smyth brought over 16 players from ACB and the under-20 squad played eight games in a one-week visit here. The Aussies won over Trace, TIP and Trinity (60-55), drew with Mapua, 67-all, and lost to Ateneo B, Arellano, STI and Barangay Ginebra by 40 points.

Smyth said ACB was established by Stuart Roberts who initially organized a golf academy and later branched out to basketball. It was Roberts who recruited Smyth, saying “Phil’s credentials at the elite level are superior and his passion for developing athletes will be a significant benefit to our students.” 

Aside from playing games in Manila, the under-20 team visited the Kuya Center for street children in Cubao and went through some basketball drills with the kids. Australian Ambassador Bill Tweddel and Games and Amusements Board commissioner Fritz Gaston, local representative of Basketball New South Wales, attended the heartwarming visit to the center which was established in 1991 as a halfway residence and processing hub for boys in the 7-15 age bracket. Gaston and Smyth played against each other in international youth competitions in their younger years.

Smyth, who played for Australia at the 1978 World Championships in Manila, said he hopes to return next year with a taller group of players so as to be more competitive against Filipino teams.  The trip was arranged by Basketball New South Wales CEO Danny Martinez, a Filipino who relocated to Sydney over 40 years ago. Basketball NSW counts on over 50,000 players from professional and amateur clubs.