Andrew Bogut is not playing for his native Australia this summer as the nation tries to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics. Bogut is coming off a second surgery on his elbow and there was the issue of getting insurance during the lockout.
So instead he is coaching.
Here is the note from Sportando (via Slam):
Milwaukee Bucks center Andrew Bogut will spend his time during the NBA lockout as assistant coach of the Australian national team that will face New Zealand in an Olympic qualifying series. Bogut hoped to play for Australia in the best-of-three series, the winner of which will qualify for the 2012 London games. But Basketball Australia was unable to insure his multimillion dollar contract, and instead the former No. 1 NBA draft pick will assist coach Brett Brown on the bench. Brown joked Thursday “he’ll be my richest assistant coach. He’s fantastic about wanting to play, but with injury and insurance issues with the NBA lockout, he’ll play his role from the bench next to me.”
With Bogut Australia finished seventh in the last Olympics, without him 10th at the World Championships last summer.
The Australian squad does feature Patty Mills of the Portland Trail Blazers and Nate Tomlinson who plays for the University of Colorado, as well as Joe Ingles of Barcelona.