Thirty years ago, the Rollers achieved something no Australian national basketball team had done before.
At the Atlanta 1996 Paralympic Games, Australia defeated Great Britain 78–63 to become Paralympic champions and the first Australian national basketball team to win gold on an Olympic or Paralympic stage.
At the centre of it was a 19-year-old Troy Sachs OAM PLY, who produced a performance for the ages with 42 points in the gold medal game.
But ask Sachs about Atlanta 30 years later and he’ll tell you the story isn’t, and never really was, about the 42 points.
“The coaching staff defined everyone’s roles, and everyone accepted their role, and they did their role,” Sachs said.
“Whether it was to get the Powerades during the game or whether it was to score 42 points, no one was jealous of those roles.
“I think that is the biggest thing to come out of ’96.”
For Sachs, who had already made his Paralympic debut in Barcelona four years earlier, this was a group that found its identity as the tournament went on.
“When there’s competition and a common goal, people put aside personal differences, and you just go out and go after it together,” he said.
“As we progressed, the camaraderie became stronger and the understanding of how we needed to play and interact with each other on the court became more infectious.
“More belief started to happen amongst the team.”
Australia opened its campaign with a loss to Spain before responding with four straight wins over Great Britain, Canada, Mexico and Argentina to progress to the knockout stages.
Next up was the Netherlands, in a quarter-final that went right down to the wire.
“I got passed the ball with a couple of seconds left and shot the lay-up to win the game,” Sachs recalled.
“I thought we were already up, by the way. So, for me, it was like, ‘Well, whatever,’ and then everyone sort of jumped all over me.”
The 46–44 win proved to be a turning point for the Rollers.
“You always need a little bit of luck in that quarter-final, we got the luck,” Sachs said.
“After that, we really decided that we had nothing to lose.”
The United States stood next in Australia’s path to the gold medal game, with the host nation boasting some of the biggest names in the game — a team Sachs described as the sport’s “Dream Team”.
“They had the notoriety, whereas we were the underdogs in a way.”
And as Aussies tend to do, they relished having the odds stacked against them.
The Rollers went on to defeat the United States 63–57 to book their place in the gold medal game, with Sachs producing a casual 28 points, 32 rebounds and 15 assists in a performance of a lifetime.
“I wouldn’t say that we were better basketballers, but we were fitter and stronger and we had a game plan, and we stuck to it.
“I still to this day think I had the game of my life.”
… And that was before he dropped 42 points in the final.
“As a 4.5-point player, scoring was my job,” he said.
“For every point that someone scores, there’s always someone that has to pass the ball, rebound it, set a pick. They're out there doing the Dennis Rodman work.
“That’s what makes wheelchair basketball such a metaphor for life. There are so many different roles, so many different abilities, and everyone just does the best they can with what they’ve got.”
Thirty years on from Atlanta, Sachs only has to look around his gym to find reminders of a glittering career. Framed singlets, his wheelchair and the shoe he wore are all proudly on display.
“There is one thing, though, even more than a uniform and a medal, that only a gold medallist can say — that their national flag was raised in their honour,” Sachs said.
“My goal was to change the game. I wanted to change the way people saw me, my mob and my fellow brethren with disabilities. I wanted everyone to see us as people and professional athletes.
“To win a gold medal and to be on the front of newspapers, to start a cultural winning mentality within a wheelchair basketball arena… There is nothing more you can do than that.”
