The former Bendigo Braves junior was a member of the Boomers for two Olympic campaigns in Athens in 2004 and Beijing in 2008 where they fell short of winning a medal.

Now a fireman in Sydney, Saville was on duty on Saturday night, but managed to watch the Boomers' defeat Slovenia in the bronze medal game.

"It still gives me goosebumps days later,'' Saville said.

"It's unbelievable. The group took the weight of the Boomers' history on their shoulders.

"They had to dust themselves off after a tough loss to the US that cost them the opportunity to go through to a gold medal.

"Then pinned their shoulders back, stuck their chin out and moved on to the next game.

"They had the opportunity to create history and to get that win was just unreal.

"Watching Andrew Gaze talk about it (after the game), if I wasn't emotional enough watching the Boomers win... I was a blubbering mess."

Saville was a Boomers' team-mate of Patty Mills and Joe Ingles when they first entered the national program.

Much has been made of the Boomers' culture which was driven by Mills, Ingles and Maryborough's Matthew Dellavedova.

Saville said the Boomers' culture was always strong in his international career.

"It probably wasn't at the level that Patty and some of the other players have taken it to now,'' he said.

"In recognition of Patty's indigenous background he wanted to not only make a connection to the Boomers of the past, but also make a connection to the country itself.

"From what I heard the team had all-Aussie music playing before the game, they had the name of the towns where they've come from pinned up in their lockers and the flags were up in the changerooms.

"That's been driven by Patty and some of the other players. It's become the new normal for the culture of the team.

"Over a course of a number of years now they've wanted to instill a connection with what the country and the Boomers are all about, then have that continue on.

"At some stage the older guys like Patty and Joe aren't going to be there, so it's important that the younger guys in the squad now carry that on."

Saville said he was in awe of Mills' individual performance to score 42 points under immense pressure in the bronze medal.

"On the biggest stage, it was our opportunity to create history after we'd finished fourth four times before that,'' Saville said.

"Fourth is still an amazing effort considering you're competing against 12 of the best teams in the world.

"For Patty to be able to take the spectacle of that and play like he did over the course of two weeks, it's not easy to maintain that energy over a two-week period, was pretty amazing.

"In the bronze medal game to carry that responsibility and score 42 points was unbelievable.

"He's the ultimate professional."

Saville said the bronze medal was just the start for the Boomers.

"I think even non-basketball people recognised what this means for Australia,'' Saville said.

"It's an amazing story with so much history with the Boomers.

"When you go to the Olympics and you can't bring home a token for your efforts it can be quite difficult. We're bringing home a medal this time.

"Now, using Patty's words, a medal is the 'new standard' for the Boomers.

"It's exciting that there's another opportunity to do it in three years' time."

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