Basketball On The Internet.

READ the initials LL and who is the first person you think of? Leroy Loggins? Lisa Leslie? Lyle Lovett? Lex Luthor? Lana Lang? Lois Lane?

If Luc Longley was your answer, you had it right. The man with the cool J who rarely had to use it considering his teammates included Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Toni Kukoc and some guy named Jordan - is back in the news today, joining the Boomers.

He will be head coach Andrej Lemanis' lead assistant, with Cairns Taipans assistant coach Mick Downer also aboard as the technical assistant, the backroom expert, focusing on video analysis and scouting.

(The full story is up at http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/more-sport/luc-longley-joins-australian-boomers-coaching-panel/story-fnduixme-1226641673244 )

And if you want a chance to get to know Luc better, here's a reprise of an interview I did with him more than a decade ago but which, I like to think, offers great insight into the type of man he is. http://www.botinagy.com/blog/flashback-luc-longley-interview/

And he is the type of man, champion, deep thinker and all-round Aussie good bloke most of us would want to see around the national program.

Having direct input? Even better.

As for having sat on the sidelines with a team and coached a game?

"No, I have not," he said, that fact and his presence on the Basketball Australia review panel which interviewed potential Boomers candidates sure to be raised by someone somewhere today.

But as BA informed me yesterday: "For the sake of *probity, his appointment was also endorsed by the ASC and the BA Board, and everyone else on the selection panel is aware and comfortable with it."

(*probity - (noun) integrity or honesty ... in case you were unsure.)

"I didn't expect to be an assistant coach," Longley said. "But then I didn't expect to be a divorcee, or a stepfather either."

Having been unable to leave the game on his own terms after injury ended it for him prematurely, Longley was estranged from the sport.

But it was temporary. His love for it steadily lured him back into the fold.

"Basketball is something I know," he said. "At least I like to think so."

Anyone who has spent more than a few minutes around him knows Longley's basketball IQ is off the chart, his work as a consulting coach with the Boomers leading into London last year a huge asset for raw young talents such as Aron Baynes.

Having him helping to maintain and develop the culture of the Boomers is a master-stroke from Lemanis.