The nine-time NBA All-Star was not selected for the Games in Paris last summer and has been ignored by selectors in recent years, despite winning gold with Team USA at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Born in Melbourne in 1992, when his father, Drederick, was a player for the Bulleen Bullets in the South East Australian Basketball League, Irving is a dual citizen of the United States and Australia. At the age of two, he and his family moved back to the United States.
Irving still has to demonstrate his eligibility, though. A player cannot represent one country after having played for another as an adult, according to FIBA regulations, unless the Secretary General, who is now Andreas Zagklis, grants an exception under “special circumstances.”
Given that Irving would probably be the Boomers’ most well-known player at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, the need that any such exemption be “in the interest of the development of basketball in this country” may help his case.
Klay Thompson, a Dallas teammate and former guard for Team USA, however, was unsuccessful last year in his quest to change his allegiance to the Bahamas, where his father was born.
If Irving’s attempt to play for Australia is successful, he would become one of the greatest players on the squad, along with Dyson Daniels of the Atlanta Hawks, Josh Green of the Charlotte Hornets, Josh Giddey of the Chicago Bulls, Ben Simmons and Patty Mills of the Los Angeles Clippers, and Dante Exum of the Mavs.
