Basketball On The Internet.

PICTURE this. You’re at the rock concert of one of your all-time favorite artists and the show is going well. He/she/they is/are clearly impressed too.

“Wow ‘fill in name of appropriate city’! You are the best crowd in the world!” he/she/they declare.

And, of course, everyone cheers even louder.

Did he/she/they really mean it though?

I mean, REALLY mean it?

Or was it just a great thing to say to show the crowd his/her/their appreciation?

If you can recognise it wasn’t necessarily truly genuine but, at the very least, polite, you can understand why it was appropriate to take Kyrie Irving’s “I wouldn’t rule it out” contention in response to “would you consider playing for the Boomers” question as, well, polite.

Currently the Cleveland Cavaliers’ Melbourne-born NBA No.1 draft pick is in Las Vegas, working out with a USA squad for the 2014 World Championship and beyond.

That’s right. He won’t be in Canberra with Andrej Lemanis’ Boomers squad from Friday.

But are you truly surprised?

With the extraordinary reception Kyrie had during his recent visit back to Australia with his father Drederick, of course he was happy to engage Boomers speculation.

Why not?

What could it hurt?

Andrew Bogut was right, of course. Basketball Australia should have moved heaven-and-earth to genuinely get Kyrie’s attention but, for the most part, BA was blissfully preoccupied with its national teams and juniors and national juniors and teams of junior nationals and and … “Who is this Kyrie Irving guy anyway?”

But, if we are being candid, anyone who saw the footage of Kyrie challenging The Big Dog (Kobe Bryant) for a game of one-on-one at the USA camp leading into the Olympics last year, surely already knew he would only ever wear green-and-gold if the Seattle SuperSonics were revived and he was traded.

As for this week's USA minicamp, sources say Irving is nearly a lock to be part of the 2014 FIBA World Championship team to compete in Spain.

No official invitations will be extended for the USA team until after the 2013-14 NBA season, so team officials have more time to evaluate the league's young talent.

But from there, Kyrie is one of the few out of this week's squad of 28 players expected to challenge for a spot on the Olympic team that competes in 2016 in Rio.

The purpose of this type of minicamp is to serve as a feeder system for upcoming international games.

“It's not just for the next team,'' USA coach Mike Krzyzewski said.

“As you get to know these guys, you track their careers.

“There may be other things in the future.

“A guy who is 23 or 22 here, at 26, he's going to be a different player.

“It has been a good formula for us to have a fluid pool of players.

“It has worked out well. We're not going to change it.''

Irving, who played briefly for Krzyzewski at Duke University and recently described him as his “second father” is highly likely to be in Spain next year though.

Just on the other side of the draw.

In the meantime: “Melbourne, you’ve been amazing.”

Cue the roars.