Luol Deng Cleared to Play For Great Britain In EuroBasket


Chicago Bulls swingman Luol Deng will represent Great Britain in the 2011 EuroBasket, adding another NBA name to the tournament. Deng’s participation was in doubt this week due to insurance reasons, but his attorneys have sorted everything out. Via LuolDeng.org: “We are thrilled to announce today that Chicago Bulls star Luol Deng will be competing for Standard Life Team GB in EuroBasket 2011 taking place from 31st August to 18th September in Lithuania. It is no secret that international players wanting to participate for their respective countries face significant liability issues and Luol’s team worked around the clock with Ron Wuotila and other Team GB representatives for the last month to ensure that Luol would be able to compete in his first ever Eurobasket. Luol is delighted with the outcome: ‘Playing for GB is always important to me so I’m really glad we could resolve this. It has been a long process but a great team effort. I can’t wait to join the team and prepare for Lithuania’… British Basketball’s Performance Director, Chris Spice commented on Deng’s inclusion: ‘It is great for basketball in Britain that Luol has signed up for our programme again this summer. He has always been a great supporter of the GB basketball programme and we are excited to have him on the court again this year after he played such a key role for us in qualifying last year. With Olympic tickets sold out it is fantastic that the British public will get to see Luol play in the Olympic Basketball Arena in the London International Basketball Invitational tournament in two weeks time.’ As promised Luol will still be in attendance at his summer camp in Loughborough and will join the team as they compete in the LOCOG’s Olympic test event tournament, he will then play in their final test-game in Latvia before travelling to Lithuania for the EuroBasket Finals 2011.”