Basketball
Deng Provides GB Advantage
20 August 2007
According to London United's Head Coach, and GB Assistant Coach, Tony Garbelotto (pictured), the Great Britain team will enjoy a psychological advantage courtesy of having NBA superstar Luol Deng in their lineup for the impending Eurobasket Division B qualification games.
Team GB are preparing to face Slovakia in the first of this summer's qualifiers at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham on Tuesday 21st August (tip-off 19.30), and the Chicago Bulls' star is likely to prove crucial in the campaign getting off to a good start.
"He has almost All-Star status in the NBA and will be one of the crucial factors on our team", said Coach Garbelotto. "He gives us a huge psychological advantage; our fitness coach went to a FIBA conference and was talking to representatives from Albania and Slovakia and they were both talking about him. So he's very, very important both in a psychological sense and of course in the playing sense."
Whilst future opposition spend their time worrying about the 6'9" forward, Ireland are already licking their wounds after GB, led by Deng, dismantled them in a pair of friendlies at the K2 in Crawley on Thursday and Friday last week. Deng scored 26 points as GB won 87-59 in the first game, and then added 28 as GB won 96-51 the next night.
Garbelotto, one of the BBL's most recognisable coaches, also spoke of his enjoyment of working with such a prestigious talent,
"Luol is an unbelievable individual, not just as a basketball player but as a person. He's a fantastic guy to coach and to be around, very positive and level headed. He has come into the squad and shown that he loves playing basketball, he loves learning and listening, so from a personal perspective he has been such an easy player to coach. He wants to get even better and will continue to get better."
Deng was a key component in the Chicago Bulls team that reached the Eastern Conference semi-finals in the NBA Playoffs last season. He averaged a commendable 18.8 points, 7.1 rebounds, and 2.5 assists per game during the regular season. In the Playoffs themselves he led the team with 22.2 points per game.
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