i will let myself get a bit excited about this... but will hold back some. still some time to go before it will be a done deal and until then its far from guaranteed.

will be very very welcome though. will give us a very good guard rotation.

I am skeptical that he will ever become a boomer. He already has a relationship with coach K, has basically lived his whole life in the U.S, is playing pro ball with future olympians. Why would he decide to play for Australia when he's close to being a guarantee in 4 years for the U.S team?
Hey don't get me wrong would love to see him rocking the green and gold but just have serious doubts it will ever happen.

"Why would he decide to play for Australia when he's close to being a guarantee in 4 years for the U.S team? "

He is far from a guarantee.
He has to compete with a lot of quality point guards who will be around for a LONG time as they are young:

Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul.

Rose and Westbrook are 23 and Paul is 26, so there is a chance that those 3 could be around for another 8-9 years+ which is potentially this years olympics, the 2014 WC's, the 2016 Olympics in Brazil, the 2018 WC's, and the 2020 Olympics.

Irving has to realize that if he wants to play for USA, it might not happen until 2020 and beyond. Or he could play for Australia immediately and get international experience straight away (which would only further help his NBA game)

Not like the Boomers have a shabby team either so he isn't signing up to join a complete lemon of a program. Have another No#1 draft pick alongside him in Bogut and then talented players from Europe in Ingles, Newly etc. I think you guys have a decent shot at tempting him.

Where is Mystro from?

NZ...

Dont forget he has to decide he wants to play for Australia, the USA have to decide they wont ever want him in their national program, and FIBA has to decide that him being cleared to play for Australia is "good for the development of basketball" in this country.

The odds of all that happening are low, and the odds of it happening by this winter seem very remote. Stranger things have happened though.

Irving story obviously growing legs. It's a feature on Sports Illustrated dot com now:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/basketball/nba/01/19/kyrie.irving.cavaliers.ap/index.html

The international clearance rules seem strange to me, and really need to be simplified.

Take the Kyrie situation out of it, just look at it overall.

If a player is eligible to play for two different countries, and the first country he is bound too hasn't picked him for the next upcoming international tournament, but the other country would like to, and the player is happy to play for that other country, then it should just happen.

Agreed, but Irving isnt eligible to play for Australia because he has already played for the USA. If he hadnt played for the USA he could chose either of the two countries.

Paul, I say 'eligible' in the sense that he has citizenship of both USA and Australia, not taking into account FIBA rules.

Vart, hear what you are saying, but you could argue Irving has already "chosen" his country by representing USA in a FIBA sanctioned junior event. I would hate to think that we have players everywhere with dual citizenship chopping and changing between countries...

The main thing going for Irving player for the Boomers is the amazing depth of USA PGs at the moment.
Rose, Westbrook, Paul, Lowry, D Williams, Wall, even Billups wants to play in the Olympics this year.

So if he plays for Australia he is guaranteed a spot as long as he is playing well in the NBA.

If he wants to play for the USA he has to beat out 8-10 PGs. Plus there are always 1-2 PGs top level PGs leaving College each year..

With the depth that the USA have they may be happy to let him go.

I understand what you are saying Vart, but I am with LC, I dont think it is a good thing to have guys switching countries on a regular basis. If you make a choice that should be it except in exceptional circumstances.

I can see USA Basketball stopping a player from playing in the olympics for another country. The other with Irving would be the extra endorsements he could possibly get by playing in the olympics, I would assume is manager would be all over this.

Yeah LC and Paul, you guys are right. I guess I'm just really excited about the prospect of this happening! Ha ha.

I guess we need to look at the three major stumbling blocks, or things that need to happen (in order);

1) Kyrie has to decide that he wants to play for Australia.

Whilst he hasn't made this decision public, or even said if he's actually made the decision yet, everything he says and does points to him wanting to play for Australia.

2) The USA have to release him.

For mine, this is the major stumbling block. Whilst we all know that the USA have many international quality point guards, they have no real reason to just give one to another country. I'm not sure how Kyrie and his people convince USA Basketball to do this.

3) FIBA has to decide that him being cleared to play for Australia is "good for the development of basketball" in this country.

This one is a 'no-brainer'. There is no way that FIBA can justifiably argue that having a high profile NBA number one draft pick running around in green and gold at Olympics and World Championships can be anything but good for the development of the game in Australia.

So right now, I'd say we're probably about 1.5 to 1.75 out of 3. Ha ha.

Also, I think we need to move past thinking about Kyrie playing in London, or just London should I say. We need to remember that this guy is a 19 year old kid who would play the point for us for the next decade any beyond, regardless of whether he plays in London or not.

Agreed. I think the 2016 Olympics are a possibility.

I imagine the USA will bring him into the squad leading up to 2014 in Spain and possibly make a decision whether he is someone they want to keep on the radar.

If they decide he isnt in their future plans that's when Australia becomes a real chance. I doubt theyll release him at 19 when he has enormous untapped potential though.

it's interesting that in Europe over the last 12 months, specifically leading up to Eurobasket that guys were getting passports to countries that had little to nothing to do with.

A good example is Bo McAlebb who played for FYROM and I think ended up making the all tournament five. He hasn't even played any domestic ball in that country I believe.

CJ WAllace who plays for FB Barcelona plays off a Congolese passport and has nothing to do with that country too!

So many loopholes and it's showing at international level.

Serge Ibaka is another example. Gets a spanish passport for having played a couple of years in the ACB. The government expideted his citizenship so he was eligible for eurobasket.

It's not really the same thing as the Irving situation I know but just a general rant on a similar topic :-)

Avv, those things may all be true, but there is (at least was) a further limitation imposed by FIBA that each country is limited to only one 'naturalised' player per tournament. This is intended to stop teams from loading up such as in the cases you mentioned. Irving is a different case, he is automatically an Aussie citizen by birth, he just happens to be entitled to dual citizenship.

Obtaining the clearance will be a formality. Basketball USA wont step in the way of the young man representing his country of birth, irrespective of his contribution to the juniors.

Kryie just has to make up his mind.

"Still haven't decided. Really it will come down to whether or not I want to give up my whole summer."

So he hasn't played in Oz so we don't want him????
So how many NBL games has Bogut played so far ? And how many of the Oz squad are currently playing in Australia? A lot of them only know the other squad players because they have seen photographs....

Don't fret about a nineteen year old having a few verbal gaffes. They all do that.

The actual chance of Kyrie getting a usa olympic gig are miniscule given the known USA opposition at PG, and there will be gun young guards coming out of the draft in the next three years too, and he also has to beat them out.. difficult.

IMHO he should make up his own mind, and then we will see if he is good enough to make the squad, as we do with all our overseas players. A great proportion of all our olympians live and train overseas.. in all the sports.

yeh anon if you were good enough and they wanted you there'd defs be a chance you could play for them.

Another local example: Aron Baynes was born in NZ but grew up in OZ...he had to decide between Oz and NZ and chose Oz for international hoops...

http://www.nba.com/2012/news/01/19/cavs-irving-olympics.ap/index.html

"Honestly, it's going to be a process if I decide to play for Australia," he said. "A lot of things have to do with FIBA and Australian lawyers, but I'm not ruling out that possibility of playing with the Australian team. If it happens, and I play for Australia, great. But if I don't, then in 2016 I'll decide again."

Would be a shame for one of them. But the other two I imagine would be perfectly happy as role players on an Olympic Bronze medal winning team, thank you very much!