Chicago Bulls and Great Britain star, Luol Deng admits that he is nervous over Great Britain’s prospects for being given an automatic birth for next year’s Olympic Games in London.
Great Britain find out on March 13th, if they are awarded a place at the Olympic Games, which was in-doubt, following concerns that Team GB would be able to field a competitive team. There were also worries over the long-term future in basketball in Great Britain, despite recent television deals to air British Basketball League games and in addition, Euroleague games.
Despite the recent improvements, Deng is still a little anxious.
“We did what we had to do so it’s weird, definitely,” Deng told morethanthegames.co.uk. “We did everything they asked so I don’t know where we went wrong. I feel like we worked very hard to be in a position to compete but it’s out of our hands and we just have to wait and see what they decide. I have no idea when we’ll get an answer.
“If we end up having to qualify, we’ll have to just go through that process but a lot of us aren’t going to be happy. We came from Group B and went all the way to win our group last summer. We did everything they said.”
Great Britain have recently qualified for their second straight EuroBasket, and barely missed an opportunity to qualify for the FIBA World Championships held in Turkey last year, via a wildcard entry.
Great Britain head coach, Chris Finch has asked his players to report to pre-EuroBasket training in the summer, which will reportedly be held in the United States, before competing in a tournament in Brazil from August 4-11.
John Hobbs for TalkBasket.net
