Organisers expect crowds of more than 50,000 people for both nights of the Team USA games, but many of those fans are now furious the majority of the USA's biggest stars have withdrawn and now Australia's superstar has joined them. "It's much bigger than two games [against USA] and believe me I know that," Simmons said. "People can be mad at me or whatever the case but my goal is to bring an Olympic medal to Australia, so if you guys are mad at me now then that's fine but hopefully when I'm holding that medal up with my teammates, then you are smiling." Simmons will be present at Boomers camp starting on August 3 and expects to be at the USA games and possibly the Canada games but won't be playing. The Boomers must finish above New Zealand at the World Cup to qualify directly for the Olympics, or otherwise win an Olympic qualifying tournament next year to score one of the last spots.

Simmons hosted his annual basketball camp in Melbourne on Sunday and explained his decision. The main factor in his full withdrawal was that he would force major changes to how the Boomers play and once he stepped out they would then have to change back to their past style for the World Cup. The Boomers have only four lead-up games at home then possibly a scrimmage in China before their group games begin on September 1 in Dongguan, where they have to finish in the top two out of a group that includes Lithuania, Canada and Senegal. It's understood Simmons has also turned down or stepped back from several endorsement opportunities in Australia that were linked to playing for the Boomers. "It was super difficult and everyone knows I want to represent Australia and when the time is right it was going to be right," Simmons said.

"It was a mutual decision between me, the team and the players and coaches. We feel like it's in the team's best interests in the long run that I don't compete in these games for the fact this team needs to get its chemistry together and I don't want to get in the way of that. "I feel, we feel like this is the best decision for the team in the long run and my ultimate goal is to win a medal at the Olympics and I want a gold so if this means sacrificing this [year] then I'm happy to sacrifice this if we get a medal in the Olympics. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video "It's all of us talking and getting down to one thing. We found this was the best decision for myself and Basketball Australia right now." Simmons recently signed a $US170 million ($246 million) maximum contract extension with his NBA club Philadelphia 76ers but he said that wasn't a factor in missing the exhibition games.

"It had nothing to do with contract stuff, it was about me making sure the team comes first," Simmons said. "As I said before, this is definitely one of those decisions where of course I want to play in front of Melbourne fans, Australian fans. "It's probably the toughest decision I've had to make since I breaking my foot and not playing that season." Boomers coach Andrej Lemanis said Simmons was largely decided on missing the games when they spoke a few days ago citing the need for World Cup side to play together. "Once Ben had the opportunity to think through everything going on in his world and what it meant for the team with only four games, it just seeemed it didn't make a lot of sense to cram these games into everything else he is doing," Lemanis said.

Loading "There are a lot of forces pulling at Ben, this is the most simple decision at the end of the day. "When Ben and I had the discusion, he was already of the mindset that this was best for everybody and my role is to support all of our athletes." Lemanis hopes Australian fans will soon look at the Australian NBA stars who are playing and support them. "We have four NBA champions in Patty Mills, Matthew Dellavedova, Aron Baynes and Andrew Bogut then you have Joe Ingles who is a starter in the NBA and Deng Adel, Jonah Bolden and those sort of guys," Lemanis said.

"We have plenty of talent and a team who did pretty well at Rio so at some stage I hope we can get excited about the talent that's on court." The Boomers will name a replacement player on Monday.