Maryborough's Matthew "Delly" Dellavedova will captain the Australian men's basketball team for the first time when the Boomers begin its World Cup qualifying campaign this week.
The former Cleveland Cavaliers and Milwaukee Bucks player will lead the Boomers when the team plays China in Melbourne on Thursday night.
Dellavedova, who plays for NBL team Melbourne United, said playing China twice over the next week was going to be tough.
Daniels is 'a great kid'
The Boomers team will include six players on debut with Dellavedova among the more experienced.
Meanwhile, another Central Victorian Dyson Daniels has hit the big time in the sport in the USA.
Dellavedova said he had sent a couple of text messages to Bendigo's latest basketball export after he was drafted in Friday's NBA Draft.
A 19-year-old point guard, who stands at 6 feet 11 inches, was snapped up by the New Orleans Pelicans at pick number 8 to boost its defence.
"It's a really tough competition, physical, fast-paced," Dellavedova said.
"And as you see, with the different NBL players getting drafted, it's really well respected around the world and just continues to get better year by year.
"It's unbelievable to go that high in the draft.
"But I think more exciting is the prospects of his career in the NBA and then with the Boomers as well. I know he is passionate about playing for Australia."
Sports stores say they expect Bendigonians to snap up NBA jerseys of Dyson Daniels when they are released in August ahead of the new NBA season starting in October.
His drafting marks the latest in a run of international sporting triumphs for Central Victorians after Bamawm swimmer Col Pearse won two silver medals at the World Para Swimming Championships in Portugal.
Swimming talent makes waves
The Paralympian came second in the men's 200m S10 individual medley and the 100m butterfly event.
Pearse made headlines in 2020 when at the height of the coronavirus pandemic he and his family turned the dam on their dairy farm into a swimming pool and used milk bottles as lane ropes.
Pearse said the Portuguese city of Madeira was similar to Bendigo.
"It's like 200,000 people, a small little island, good weather, good pool. Really great people as well," he said.
"We were all saying it pretty much felt like a holiday, besides the days we were racing, where we'd have to turn it on and do the whole recovery process and nutrition.
"We were going for walks along the beaches, going to a cafe and grabbing a Portuguese tart and a coffee."
In other results, Bendigo's Jenna Strauch has taken out silver in the women's 4x100m medley race at the world swimming championships in Budapest, Turkey.
Strauch, along with teammates Kaylee McKeown, Brianna Throssell and Mollie O'Callaghan, finished with a time of 3 minutes 54.25 seconds.
The Dolphins star also took silver in the 200m breaststroke.
