The title "Australia's Team" is somewhat fatuous.

In a country with such fortuitously diverse sporting tastes, some defined by distinct regional affiliations, the crown has rested occasionally and even simultaneously with a number of teams wearing fashion-resistant green and gold tracksuits.

Cricket's national appeal might mean the all-conquering women's team are now the national flag bearer or, as unlikely as it might have seemed just a few months ago, the men's version could again be "Australia's Team" if they retain their version of the Ashes.

Before the Matildas' troubled World Cup campaign you could have made a strong case they held the mantle and the Socceroos were equally compelling during their golden era.

Netball, women's basketball, rugby sevens; from the depth of the parochial AFL echo chamber you might even hear a few Australian Rules diehards arguing their non-playing AFL All Star team or even those playing that bizarre Gaelic hybrid are the standard bearers.

Hell, before they get to the baggage carousel in Auckland some have even been known to suggest the Wallabies deserve the title.

But after some time in exile an old contender has re-emerged as a national favourite and legitimate title contender.

The Australians beat the USA for the first time in Melbourne before the World Cup got underway. ( AAP: Scott Barbour )

The Boomers' now typically resilient 87-82 victory over their one-time nemesis Lithuania at the World Cup in China on Thursday night left the undefeated Australians at the top of their the pool after the initial stages.

More significantly it ranked among the greatest performances by a team that swims in deep sporting waters.

Yes, the World Cup ranks second to the Olympics in the pecking order of international basketball.

Yes, the USA has sent a third or possibly fourth string team to a competition that bares unflattering comparisons with the NBA which crowns its best franchise "world champion".

But, undeniably, the breadth of international basketball is such that Australia's victory over the highly rated and talent laden Lithuanians deserves enormous kudos for the result itself and, as much, so for its wonderful execution.

Those who kept the Australian basketball flame flickering during that dark period when the national league floundered and public interest waned predicted a time when a supremely talented generation of players would capture the public's imagination.

But the show produced by the Boomers' household names — at least in houses occupied by kids with PlayStations — Joe Ingles, Patty Mills, Matthew Dellavedova, Aron Baynes, Andrew Bogut and their co-stars exceeded the expectations even of those who had been drooling in anticipation of the assembly of this talented and pugnacious Boomers team.

Aron Baynes and his fellow NBA stars are household names among the Playstation generation. ( Reuters: Kim Kyung-hoon )

Mills' game-clinching three-pointer merely punctuated a performance made even more remarkable given that, publicly at least, the lead-up to this World Cup was not without its share of controversy both genuine and concocted.

There was the rather distracting taxpayer funded visit of Ben Simmons to Australia during the Boomers' lead-up games, the misfortunate being Simmons' appearance in Melbourne in an ambassadorial role only heightened the disappointment he had chosen not to play in China.

Then there was Seatgate, the bungled floor-level seating configuration for the Boomers' games against the USA at Docklands Stadium that resulted in one of the biggest scandals in Australian sporting history — Russell Crowe couldn't see the game very well.

Subsequently Rusty gave the event a big social media thumbs down which unfortunately overshadowed the Boomers first victory over the USA.

Yet, happily, none of this seems to have diminished enthusiasm for the Boomers quest to win a first medal at a major international tournament. And, when it comes to our choice of Australia's Team, it is often the quest as much as the team itself that arouses public interest.

Even more so, like the the Socceroos' quest for World Cup qualification or the quest of various billionaire's quest to win the America's Cup, it has only rarely or never been fulfilled.

In that context, the Boomers' quest for that first championship medal has not seemed the most urgent. Not until now when the proliferation of Australians playing in the NBA has made the goal as plausible as Mark Viduka, Harry Kewell et al made the Socceroos' World Cup dreams.

The stars playing for the Boomers has meant that a World Cup win is not out of the question. ( AAP: Scott Barbour )

Perhaps the best indication of the public investment in this Boomers team is not the raw viewing figures for the subscriber-TV event but the number of complaints about the commentary for the first game against Canada.

Fox Sports used the FIBA world feed which featured an English caller who seemed to be quoting from a copy of "Basketball for Dummies" and an expert who seemed to be combining that role with her main job as leader of the Canadian cheer squad. This provoked an understandably fierce reaction from Australian viewers prompting Fox Sports to use local commentators for subsequent games.

This might seem relatively trivial in the context of a major sports tournament. But little things like outrage about parochial commentary — theirs, not ours! — provides an indication of how Australians who once pushed domestic and even international basketball to the side of their sporting plates have a renewed passion for the game at all levels.

Now, suddenly, the Boomers are providing the kind of fare you might expect from an outfit vying not only for that long awaited championship medal but also for the title of Australia's Team.

Catch up on all the results and issues from the sporting weekend on Offsiders at 10:00am on Sunday on ABC TV.