For love of country

Anstey plays for Australia, not NBA

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Posted: Friday July 24, 1998 01:47 AM

"If I didn't play I'd be letting down Australian basketball," said Anstey (right) AP

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Australia's Chris Anstey, apparently the only NBA player who will be participating in the world championships next week in Greece, feels no conflicts about playing for his country despite a union boycott.

"I'm not representing the NBA, I'm representing Australia," the 23-year-old Anstey, a member of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, said after scoring 14 points and playing a key defensive role in a victory over Puerto Rico on Thursday that put the Aussies into the gold-medal contest of the Goodwill Games.

Anstey said he had felt no pressure from anyone in the union not to play after the latest U.S. Dream Team of NBA stars threatened their boycott, seeking a bargaining chip in contract negotiations ahead of a July 1 lockout.

USA Basketball took them at their word and cobbled together a team of American professionals from overseas leagues and the Continental Basketball Association.

Some of the American NBA players, notably the Detroit Pistons" Grant Hill and the Miami Heat's Tim Hardaway, were known to want to participate in the world championships, but pressure from their fellow union members -- and players' agents -- kept them out.

For a variety of reasons ranging from needing rest after the long NBA season to feeling no need to compete in a watered-down tournament, other countries' NBA players, such as Yugoslavia's Vlade Divac of the Charlotte Hornets and Lithuania's Zydrunas Ilgauskas of the Cleveland Cavaliers, are also not going to Greece.

During the NBA Finals Commissioner David Stern questioned the patriotism of players who would not play for their country, and longtime NBA super-scout Marty Blake, visiting the Goodwill Games, also took a shot at the boycotting players.

"It's a shame that the players selfishly decided not to play. I think it's a tragedy because it hurts international basketball and I'm disappointed with the guys for doing that, their agents," said Blake.

Without criticizing his fellow players, Anstey saw it similarly. "If I didn't play I'd be letting down Australian basketball," said Anstey, whose country has a good chance for its first medal ever at the now wide-open world championships.

"I'm just doing what's right for me and what's right for Australian basketball. Australian basketball's done a lot for me."

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