Filed under: Other Sports, Olympics
The point may be lost on the British sporting public for now, but the basketball tournament in London next summer will be one of the highpoints of the 2012 Olympic Games.For billions of people from the USA to China and most points in between and beyond, basketball is, by some margin, the blue riband event of the games, and has been since 1992 when the NBA, the IOC and world governing body FIBA started allowing the world's best players to appear in the tournament.
Unfortunately for the hosts, Great Britain are still far from certain of being allowed to play in the competition meaning that basketball may be the only sport in London in which there is no home interest.
Since basketball was introduced into the Games, 17 Olympiads ago in Berlin, every host nation has been granted a place in it. However, FIBA , having stated in 2005 that GB would only have to prove they could field a competitive team to be awarded a spot, will make a final decision at a meeting in Lyon, France on Sunday.
The GB team was actually only formed in 2006, a year after London was awarded the Games, and with Chicago Bulls forward Luol Deng an early recruit to the team, they instantly became a credible force near the top of the European game.
Inevitably, as GB improved, more and better players committed themselves to the team with Deng's fellow NBA star London-born Ben Gordon, of the Detroit Pistons, the latest to say he will make his international debut when GB play in the European Championship Finals, for the second successive event, in Lithuania in September.
Still, this has not been enough for FIBA who have consistently shifted the demands and requirements needed before they will hand the Brits a place in London.
Latterly, they have wanted proof that there is a "legacy" in place for the sport in the UK and also insisted that the separate bodies of England, Scotland and Wales Basketball merge into a Great Britain Basketball federation.
Furious politicking behind the scenes by GB Basketball seems to have placated FIBA on a number of fronts but the recent announcement of how the 12-team Olympic field will be determined also indicates one of the "problems" that FIBA have with gifting a place to GB.
Only two European teams - the gold and silver medalists from this summer's European Championships - will be guaranteed a place in London.
In contrast, with holders USA assured a place and two more American countries (Brazil and Argentina will be favourites) advancing from this year's Tournament of the Americas, there is the guarantee of three nations from North and South America being in attendance.
(As an aside, all Australia have to do to book their place in London is beat New Zealand in a two-team play-off!)
Although FIBA will determine another three places (four, if they do not grant GB an automatic place) via a 12-team qualifying tournament before the Olympics next summer, there is the real danger of numerous European powers missing out on a place in the Games and the political and financial clout that some of these countries bring to the FIBA table is another factor working against GB.
It is a complex picture but one which GB coach Chris FInch believes needs to go this nation's way for the good of the sport in this country.
"We're excited about Sunday," said Finch. "It's what we have prepared ourselves for throughout the brief history of this federation and this team. It is what has inspired us to achieve every one of the on-court goals that FIBA has set us.
"It would be an incredible shame if we were to be denied a place at our own Olympics especially given the resources that have been put into the programme and the effort from so many people."
Last weekend at the O2 Arena, which will hold the Olympic basketball final in August 2012, the NBA played its first ever European-based regular season games when the New Jersey Nets and Toronto Raptors sold out two sucessive nights - meaning over 37,000 were in attendance to watch two poor NBA teams in action.
The backing for the event merely cemented the strong feeling in NBA circles that bringing GB into the tournament is a must.
"I think it's very important GB has a team in the Olympics," said Nets coach Avery Johnson. "If you look at the building the last two nights, there wasn't an empty seat in here."
"For the sake of the Olympics, it makes a lot of sense to have the home side there who the fans can cheer on like they did for us," added Jay Triano, coach of the Raptors.
For now, Great Britain can only hope FIBA share those sentiments.
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Source: http://www.fanhouse.co.uk/2011/03/10/basketball-moment-of-truth-looms-for-gb-london-olympic-dream/
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