GBR – Deng says Brits won’t be in London just to make up the numbers

LONDON (2012 Olympics) - The Great Britain men have already prevailed in one big battle.

They proved their competitiveness on the basketball court and received a thumbs-up by FIBA to play in the London Olympics.

That decision was made in March at a Central Board meeting in Lyon, France.

Just taking part in the tournament, though, won’t be enough for the country’s most famous basketball player, Chicago Bulls forward Luol Deng.

He wants to do a whole lot more.

Might the British team even have a chance to make it to the podium?

"I don't know that," Deng said in an interview with bbc.co.uk.

"I really don't know that.

"But I do know that every game we go into, we are going to try and win."

Britain, who are coached by a rising star in the game Chris Finch, have qualified for back-to-back EuroBaskets by winning their Division A group each time.

In 2009 in Poland, they didn't win a game but it didn't help that Deng could not play because of injury.

The competition was fierce, too, with Spain, Serbia and Slovenia – three teams that made it to the semi-finals – the sides beating Britain.

Experience is a great teacher.

Finch, his players and British Basketball know from 2009 that an excellent preparation is essential just to have a chance of winning games, and it's important that everyone is ready from the start of the first training session.

In his recent interview with Basketball World News, Unicaja Malaga's Joel Freeland talked about the importance of this summer when Britain play at the EuroBasket in Lithuania against Spain, Turkey, the Lithuanians, Poland and a team that comes through the Additional Qualifying Round.

"We need to show where we're at," Freeland said.

"We need to show that we've got the strength to play, that we're a team that can compete against big teams.

"It's more of a test than anything to see if we can compete against them."

The Brits want to keep the winning habit that they developed last year when prevailing in six of their eight games, too.

Deng, who is getting ready to play in the NBA Eastern Conference Finals against Miami, led Britain in scoring at 22.6 points per contest in 2010.

"I don't think we are going to the Olympics, just to be in the Olympics," Deng said.

"I don't think any of us have that in mind.

"We're going to try and compete with every team.

"We know it's our first Olympics and other teams have been together longer than us but we're going to compete.

"We're going to be in games. It's not going to be easy for opponents.

"They're not going to look at Team GB and just circle that game as a win."

FIBA