Dual Olympian Paul Rogers is excited for what the Boomers can do in Paris but closer to home, he's loving his NBL1 West involvement with former Perth Wildcats NBL teammate Brad Robbins at the Warwick Senators.
Rogers has his legacy as one of Australia's greatest ever players cemented after a playing career saw him represent the Boomers at the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games, win two NBL championships, being an NBL MVP, and playing with the Perth Wildcats, Adelaide 36ers, two clubs in Spain and at Gonzaga University.
That has seen Rogers inducted into the Basketball Western Australia Hall of Fame, but for the majority of time since retiring from the NBL in 2010 he had opted away from spotlight and big city to live with his family in Denmark.
However, with his four children with wife Rennae all growing rapidly, it was time to move back to Perth and initially Rogers just thought he would be teaching at John Septimus Roe Anglican Community School in Mirrabooka nearby their new home in Kingsley.
Rogers was part of their basketball program and with children Layla, Indy, Lachy and Kendall all attending, that was enough for him – or so he thought until one of his former Wildcats championship winning teammates put in the call.
Robbins had just been appointed coach at the Warwick Senators and called up another former 'Cats skipper to see if he'd like to join his coaching staff, and Rogers jumped at the chance.
Rogers has loved every minute of the NBL1 West season ever since with the Senators sitting in second spot now with one game of the regular season remaining where he is hopeful for a special month while keeping a close eye on the Boomers in Paris.
Getting involved in coaching at Senators
While Rogers had remained involved in basketball in Denmark with some coaching and in the basketball program at school, coming back to Perth was all about the children's education and sporting opportunities more than his own coaching aspirations.
However, once Robbins asked if he would join him at the Senators once he was appointed coach of their women's team, he quickly said yes before his former teammate could even get the question out.
"I have been coaching really since I finished playing, but obviously in Denmark it's a much smaller pool of talent down there," Rogers said.
"But we did have a basketball specialist school so I was still doing it every day and was involved in the state country team and stuff like that as much as I could be.
"So when I moved back to Perth, I got the phone call from Robbo asking to help him out and I jumped at the chance. That was really the length of the negotiations and here we are."
Rogers had considered some other potential opportunities around the league, but the whole combination of Warwick Stadium being the closest to home and school for him, and then with a former teammate being coach, and it quickly became a no-brainer for the 50-year-old.
"I had been sounded out by some other clubs but they weren’t quite as where we were living as this one," he said.
"I did consider it because I thought it would be a fun thing to be back involved at this level, but just with my role at the school I'm at and we have a basketball specialist program there, and being involved with the under-16s country team, I didn’t really want to have to travel too far.
"So when this opportunity came up at Warwick and it was Robbo coaching, it wasn’t even a question as to whether I would or not."
Coaching with a former teammate
A point guard and a centre naturally have a bond on any team they play on so Rogers and Robbins did have that connection going back to their playing days, but at the same time Rogers could barely recognise the 2024 version of Robbins as a person and coach.
What he remembered as a teammate was a fiery competitor who earned his Angry Ant nickname with his tenacious defence, and Rogers thought he might still be a similar personality as a coach.
However, what he has found is now someone with an enormous basketball IQ, somebody who can create a great connection with his players where being instructional, motivational, supportive and still have that hard edge all at the same time.
What Rogers has now seen first up from working with Robbins first hand this season is one of the most impressive diligent coaches he has ever been around.
"It's absolutely phenomenal having seen the change in Robbo as a person from what I remember as a player to now," Rogers said.
"He probably won't like me saying this, but he was the Angry Ant and he had such an intensity to everything he did as a player. But he's been able to change his whole persona and the way the approaches everything in his life.
"He is doing his work A Stitch in Time and does the Taming the Angry Ant speech and we got him out to speak to the boys at JSR. I must admit after I heard the speech, I thought it might have just been a good speech, but now I've seen that it's fair dinkum.
"Everything he says in that is true and it's a complete 180 degree turnaround from the person I knew and it's totally in a positive direction so it's been extremely eye opening to work with him."
This Senators team of 2024
Not only has Rogers been enormously impressed by working with Robbins this season, but he has enjoyed everything about working with the Senators team as well who can guarantee a top two finish with a win at home to the Lakeside Lightning on Friday night.
With Stacey Barr working back from injury and with Chloe Forster in MVP level form, with Karly Murphy putting herself in All-First Team contention, and then the experience of Nat Burton, Nicole Jorre de St Jorre and even Izzy Miotti, and young talent Kyana Weir, Alyssa Duncan, Katie Cummins and Alaska Rhebok, and it's easy to see why.
That's even with Marena Whittle now leaving for the Paris Olympics and with Robbins at the helm, Rogers is hoping for a special next month for the Senators.
"It's going to be tough to win it there's no doubt about that because there's some very good teams, but just the way that Brad has developed this team over the last six or eight months has been incredible," Rogers said.
"The other thing that blew me away is the amount of knowledge that he has and from a coaching standpoint I had never really thought of him like that.
"But his knowledge is clearly a byproduct of the work he's been doing at the Lynx and he has absorbed so much that I'm absolutely gobsmacked when I watch him go about his work and how he sees things.
"As a team, we have put ourselves in a great position but it's obviously going to be very difficult to close it out. We'll be definitely giving it our best shot though."
Future coaching aspirations
Rogers didn’t think he had head coaching aspirations even before this season at the Senators, but now he's even more sure of it just having seen what sort of commitment, time and brain power it takes for Robbins to do the job.
Having said that, he couldn’t be happier being involved and feels like he's found his perfect role with Warwick as assistant coach and then helping out developing players where he can with the Senators and then at school while also involved as coach for the WA under-16s boys team.
"If anything, doing this role has probably confirmed that being a head coach is something that I do want to chase or pursue. It's not the pathway I want to go down to be a professional basketball coach," Rogers said.
"I was offered a role with Adam Caporn at the Institute and I thought about it, but going that pathway I thought was more for young guys and who weren’t trying to also support their families.
"It would have been an amazing learning experience and everything, but it just wasn’t something that I saw myself doing. I see myself more in the player development type role rather than a head honcho, and I feel like I've found my niche here with Brad because he's so knowledgeable and knows exactly he wants to do.
"That means that my niche is really about keeping him up and about, giving him some ideas and throwing some stuff around while hopefully being able to help the players as much as I can with their development.
"I also try to make it as fun of an environment as possible for them because I truly believe you play your best when you're feeling liked and happy. Hopefully I've been able to do that for a few of the girls at least and I've enjoyed getting to know them all, and it's been a real highlight of my basketball career."
Life like since playing career
Having first moved to the United States as a 19-year-old to attend North Idaho College and attend Gonzaga University and embark on a professional playing career where he lived in Spain, Perth and Adelaide, and also spent so much time in the national team, Rogers needed an escape.
He and wife Rennae decided that moving to the south west of WA would be the perfect place to set up a new life and raise their four children, and they called Denmark home for more than a decade.
However, by the end of 2022, the family decided it was time to come back to Perth, and while they have settled into their new life nicely, Rogers will always cherish that time with the family in such a beautiful part of the world in Denmark.
"It was a beautiful lifestyle really. It was a good timing for when it was the start of our kids growing up and it was about us slowing down a little bit, and getting away from basketball in a way," Rogers said.
"I was able to finish my teaching degree and that did go hand in hand a little with basketball, but living down there was exceptional. I definitely recommend it to anybody that's thinking about it, but it got to a point that opportunity wise for the kids with their sport and education might have been a little limiting.
"My second eldest daughter, Indy, is playing here at Warwick and wants to go to uni so we just felt we'd make the change to come back up to Perth. We're really happy that we have, we are happy with the school, the kids have settled in well at Warwick as well and it's been a massive positive for our whole family."
Expectations for Boomers in Paris
Another big part of Rogers' playing career on top of what he did at Gonzaga, in the NBL at the Wildcats and 36ers, and in Spain, was his time playing with the Australian Boomers.
He was part of the team for both the Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 Olympic Games, but even he was blown away by what he saw when he watched a training session of the 2024 squad in Melbourne recently.
"Watching them train was probably the highest level of basketball I've almost ever seen," Rogers said.
"That's including NBA and anything I was part of just because of the passion and the want to be part of that team. You've got Joe Ingles getting tech fouls in a four-on-four drill because they had brought refs in, and that just shows how much it means to all of them."
On the back of what he saw and with the pure talent the Boomers possess, Rogers expects big things from them in Paris while being fully aware of how tough it will be to come back with a medal.
"If you're look at just straight up talent and who they can put on the floor, I can't imagine anyone else in the world can put much better out there aside from the US," he said.
"It does go so much deeper than that, though, and you are playing against countries where they have played together since they were young like Spain, France, Germany and those sort of teams.
"I do wonder if the Boomers have had enough preparation time together and in reality they might not have, but we're all just waiting for that bit of a miracle that they can find that spark and chemistry because they definitely have the talent to do it."
How far Australian basketball has come
What stands out to Rogers is just the pure talent in the Boomers program and Australian basketball in general.
He thinks back to the late 1990s or early 2000s when he was playing at his peak and he got a look in with the Toronto Raptors, and while Luc Longley and Chris Anstey played some decent minutes, even Australian legends Andrew Gaze, Shane Heal and Mark Bradtke couldn't find much court time.
Fast forward to today and this Boomers Olympics team features Dante Exum and Josh Green fresh off the NBA finals, Josh Giddey a genuine star, Joe Ingles, Patty Mills and Matthew Dellavedova NBA veterans, and Jock Landale and Duop Reath in the NBA too as bigs.
Will Magnay, Jack McVeigh and Dyson Daniels are either current, former or future NBA players too, and even those who missed out on the final 12 include Matisse Thybulle, Jack White, Xavier Cooks and Chris Goulding.
"It's amazing to see how far it's come and watching them win that bronze medal and hearing Andrew Gaze talk and get so emotional, that really hit home," he said.
"Then just a couple of weeks ago seeing the video of Jack McVeigh and Will Magnay with their reactions to finding out they made the team, it just hits you right in the guts.
"Every Boomers mate that I've played with and talked to, we all talked about how emotional that made us and I still get a bit teary eyed thinking about it."
Boomers culture something special
It's more than just the current 12 Boomers players representing Australia in Paris as well that has Rogers impressed.
The amount of care and effort that has now been put in to create a special culture that embraces any player to ever represent Australia at a World Cup or Olympic Games both with the Boomers and Opals is something that Rogers is impressed by, and it makes him and all his former teammates emotional.
"The other thing that I'm really impressed by and am loving is the culture that is in the Boomers program and it started with the Akubra hats with your number on it if you played at a World Cup or Olympics," Rogers said.
"I'm No. 97 and Cat (Martin Cattalini) is 98 and I think Bear (Tony Ronaldson) is about 86. That's something super special when you think these old guys who played in Olympics all the way back and they might be in their 80s now and you see what it means to them to get their hat.
"Even Scott Fisher, I saw how much it meant to him and I was surprised by his reaction. He was so excited to be able to get his after playing at an Olympics and World Championships.
"The Opals are doing something similar with their pendants and numbers too and you're seeing these older ladies getting presented by the current crop.
"It's something magical and even when I was at that Boomers training session, I was there with Fish and we saw Bogut, Gibbo, Brad Newley and a few other guys, and we got to talk with all the guys.
"They have built something pretty special with the culture that wasn’t there before and it makes us part of a special club which is awesome."
