Matt Nielsen has been rewarded for his remarkable commitment to the Australian men's basketball team by being named captain for next month's Beijing Olympic Games.
The European-based Nielsen, a former championship winner with the Sydney Kings and one of the best big men Australia has produced, was prevented from competing at the 2006 world championships due to an insurance bungle with his Lithuanian club Lietuvos Rytas.
The situation was again threatening to stop him being part of Beijing, so the 30-year-old decided to put forward his own money to cover the difference and guarantee he could be a part of his second Olympic Games.
Nielsen is understood to have contributed about one third of the asking price from his own pocket well in excess of $10,000 to satisfy Lietuvos, with Basketball Australia picking up the rest.
He acknowledged it was a less-than-ideal solution, but wasn't prepared to miss another major tournament for his country.
''We worked it out in the end,'' Nielsen said at a function on the Gold Coast yesterday to honour Australia's men's and women's Olympic basketball teams.
''I ended up covering it, but I didn't want to live the rest of my life not going to an Olympics for that reason. Not the ideal way to end up at the Olympics by paying it, but that's the way it is.''
Along with Milwaukee Bucks centre Andrew Bogut, European stand-out Dave Andersen and veteran Chris Anstey, Nielsen will form a potent frontline in Beijing.
A member of the 2004 Olympic team that failed to reach the second round, Nielsen is desperate for an improved showing in his first major competition as Boomers captain.
''Yeah big-time. It's an honour to play for your country and something you aspire to when you're a kid,'' he said. ''But to captain the team in an Olympics is the highest honour I think I can imagine. It's something I take pretty seriously.''
Players, coaches and officials from the Boomers and Opals were handed specially-crafted rings yesterday to commemorate their participation at Beijing.
While the Opals are favoured to fight out the gold medal with the United States, expectations on the Boomers are far lower.
In a pool that includes powerhouses Russia, Argentina, Lithuania and Croatia, Nielsen knows they have a hard road ahead to achieve their goal of a first men's medal.
''Only four teams go through. If you've got Argentina, Russia, Lithuania and Croatia, someone's not going that's very decent, that's a fact,'' he said.
''That's what happened to us last Olympics, we were the good team that got outed, so our main job is to get to that next round and then after that anything can happen.'' AAP
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