Australia basketball great Luc Longley was forced to miss an Olympics in a decision ''bothered him for a long time'', and now he hopes the club versus country tug-of-war doesn't hinder Dante Exum's World Cup hopes.
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The Canberra schoolboy who is destined to be a top-10 NBA draft pick has made it clear he wants to play for the Boomers at every opportunity, and has told his manager to insert a clause in his contract.
Exum is so highly rated that he has landed a multi-million dollar endorsement deal before playing a single second in the NBA.
His contract with sportswear giant adidas, announced on Friday, is the latest step in his transformation into an international superstar.
Longley, now a Boomers assistant coach, said he was rapt the current player crop, including 18-year-old prodigy Exum, had pledged their commitment to the national cause before September's World Cup in Spain.
"It sounds like in his mind Dante's made his decision and I respect that,'' Longley said.
"For me it's a question [of whether] he's going to pull it off. I know his intentions are there. If he's newly drafted, is his club going to allow their precious draft pick to wander around Spain with us?
"I had the same wording in my contract but at the end of the day, when you're getting a five- or eight-million dollar salary and your club says you have to deal with an injury, no matter what it says in your contract you're obliged to do the right thing by your body.''
The former centre, who won NBA titles alongside Michael Jordan at Chicago Bulls, knows the hurdles of being freed to represent your country.
Longley bypassed the 1996 Atlanta Olympics to tend to an ankle injury that ended his career a few years later.
"I lived through it, I missed an Olympics [1996] because of that and it's a very difficult situation,'' Longley said.
"People who are critical of it, I dare them to gamble five or eight million dollars on a situation like that.
"I love the way he's thinking, though.''
Longley has no doubt that point guard Exum has the basketball nous to hit the ground running in the NBA, and rates the off-court changes his major challenge.
"He'll have good and bad games as he works it out. He's talented, bright and poised enough where he'll find his moments,'' Longley said.
"I don't think the basketball will be the hardest part for Dante, I think the off-court stuff is really challenging.
"Dante knows basketball; what he hasn't been around a lot is extreme wealth, the hangers-on, the emotional ups and downs of succeeding and failing on a global stage.''
