Olympic Legends - Andrew Gaze

LONDON (Olympics) - For any athlete, to compete at an Olympic Games is the ultimate honor.

Yet there is one thing that's even better.

Nothing is so grand as being asked to carry the nation's flag at an Opening Ceremony.

No one was a better fit for that role in 2000 for Australia when the country hosted the Olympics in Sydney than the nation's basketball star, Andrew Gaze.

The scoring machine had represented his country in Los Angeles, Seoul, Barcelona and Atlanta and was, at the age of 35, going to make his fifth and final appearance for the Boomers in Sydney.

When it came time for Australia's 628 athletes to discover who among them would carry the flag at an emotionally charged pre-Olympic ceremony just days before the start of the Games, Gaze's name was called.

The 2.01m guard, wearing a stunned look, climbed onto the podium and gave the sort of acceptance speech that endeared him to his countrymen.

"This is a very, very humbling experience," he said.

"When you walk around and see all the volunteers and you see the flag raised, you see what it means to them and see how passionate they are and how revved they are just to see you and say, 'G'day.'

"That makes you feel very welcome and very proud to be an Australian."

Gaze's Olympic statistics were spectacular.

After averaging 10 points in his first Games in 1984 in Los Angeles, when he was just 19, Gaze turned it up several notches.

In Seoul four years later, he poured in 23.5 points per contest and in 1992 in Barcelona, he averaged 20.9.

In Atlanta, Gaze averaged 23.8.

In his final Olympics, when Gaze led the Aussies to a fourth-place finish for the third time, he averaged 19.9 points.

In a Semi-Final defeat to France, he set the record for most men's Olympic basketball games played.

It was his 39th game at the Olympics and Brazil legend Oscar Schmidt had played 38.

He finished with 40 after competing in a bronze-medal defeat to Lithuania.

FIBA