The British Olympic Association (BOA) has today announced the 12 players that will represent Team GB in men’s basketball at the London 2012 Olympic Games.
It will be only the second time in history that Team GB will be represented in basketball at the Olympics, and the first time since the Games were last hosted by London in 1948. Since the formation of British Basketball in 2007, the strength of the squad has grown substantially and the squad is now prepared to compete with some of the world’s greatest basketball sides.
The selected athletes are
While all 12 players will be making their Olympic Games debut, they bring plenty of top level competitive experience with them. The most high-profile of the selected athletes is Chicago Bulls forward Luol Deng, who became the first ever British athlete to compete in the NBA’s All-Star match in February. Along with Pops Mensah-Bonsu, who recently joined Turkish giants Beşiktaş, and several other players that ply their trade in some of the strongest leagues in Europe, there is every reason to be optimistic that Team GB can pick up their first ever Olympic win on home soil.
The progress on the court has been strong in the years building up to the London Games. The British team qualified for EuroBasket for the first time ever in 2009, and at the 2011 event they secured their first wins at the tournament by defeating Poland and Portugal.
The team performed admirably at the Test Event last year, which was hosted at the Basketball Arena in the Olympic Park. Team GB beat China – ranked tenth in the world – and despite losing to Croatia, fourth-ranked Serbia and ninth-ranked Australia, the narrow margin of the scoreline suggests that the British men’s team has the potential to cause upsets against traditionally stronger basketball nations when the tournament tips off in London.
As yet, the squad still don’t know who their first opponents will be on July 29th as the qualifying campaign is not yet complete. However they will be determined to place in the top four of a group that will certainly contain Brazil, Spain, Australia and China in order to progress beyond their six-team group and into the quarter-final, where the competition relocates to the North Greenwich Arena.
The addition of the men’s basketball players brings the total number of athletes officially selected to compete for Team GB at London 2012 to 538 across all 26 sports.
Team GB Chef de Mission Andy Hunt said:
Performance Director Chris Spice said:
Head Coach Chris Finch said:
Luol Deng said:
Pops Mensah-Bonsu said: