Basketball Australia to defend 'tanking' claims
Under fire Boomers, and ex-Breakers, coach Andrej Lemanis has been vigorously defended by his national association after claims the Australians ''threw'' their final pool game at basketball's World Cup here.
International body Fiba have announced they are investigating Australia's 91-83 Group D defeat to Angola in Gran Canaria which saw them drop to third in the pool.
With Lemanis resting two key starters (New Zealand-born centre Aron Baynes and veteran lefty Joe Ingles) for the game, and barely playing two others (Matthew Dellavedova and David Andersen), speculation was rife in the basketball community that the Boomers had ''tanked'' in order to gain a preferred knockout draw.
They also let a 15-point lead slip away.
Slovenia's NBA star Goran Dragic took to Twitter to vent his frustrations over the manner of the defeat: ''Basketball is a beautiful sport, there is no room for fixing the game like today Australia vs Angola! FIBA should do something about that.''
The result saw the Boomers meet Turkey in the opening round of 16 knockout game in Barcelona, and would also have seen them avoid the hot favourite USA team until the semifinals.
However, if that was their strategy, it backfired badly when the Boomers were stunned 65-64 by Turkey in the opening knockout game and exited the tournament.
Lemanis, who coached the Breakers to a championship threepeat in the Australian NBL, denied the Boomers threw the game and today Basketball Australia came to his defence.
''BA categorically rejects any suggestion that the Australian Boomers were a party to contriving the result of the ... game between Australia and Angola,'' they said via a media release..
''The Boomers went into the game against Angola to win - plain and simple.
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Basketball Australia to defend 'tanking' claims