FIBA ranking Appearances 2 Light Dark Location United Kingdom National federation British Basketball | FIBA zone FIBA Europe Appearances 4 Coach Joe Prunty Joined FIBA 2005 | |
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The Great Britain men's national basketball team, known as Great Britain or GB, is the national team for Great Britain in basketball. The current governing body for the Great Britain team was formed by the national basketball organisations of England (Basketball England), Scotland (Basketballscotland) and Wales (Basketball Wales) on 1 December 2005 to provide a competitive team for the 2012 Summer Olympics. Although Wales subsequently choose to remain independent, Scotland and England decided to continue with the formal merger. This structure also does not include the basketball association of Northern Ireland; Northern Irish players normally represent the Ireland national basketball team, though they are also eligible to compete for Great Britain and Northern Ireland at the Summer Olympic Games.
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History
British teams have rarely made an impact on the international scene, only featuring in two Olympic games, both of which were hosted in London (1948 and 2012). The team at the 1948 tournament only won one game (vs. Ireland) and at the 2012 tournament only won one game (vs. China). However, the England national basketball team did qualify for EuroBasket 1981, surprisingly winning the game against the elite team of Greece.
After London won the right to host the 2012 Summer Olympics, the organisers wanted competitive teams at every sport, including basketball. The new Great Britain side was formed on 1 December 2005 from the existing teams from the UK. The new team secured the help of NBA's Chicago Bulls' star Luol Deng, and he led the team to promotion from EuroBasket Division B to Division A. FIBA had stated that Great Britain must prove their competitiveness prior to being granted the spot in the Olympic tournament that would normally be reserved for the host nation.
In Great Britain's first season at the Division A level in 2008, the team finished on top of a group which also included Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic and Israel to qualify for EuroBasket 2009.
EuroBasket 2011
During August 2010 Great Britain began their qualification campaign for EuroBasket 2011. Britain were drawn into a group containing Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Macedonia and Ukraine. They finished top of their group and qualified for back to back EuroBasket tournaments for their first time.
On 13 March 2011, Fiba voted 17–3 in favour of Great Britain receiving their host nation spot at the 2012 Olympic games with one condition, they have until 30 June 2012 to decide on whether to merge the three nations that make up the team or disband after the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
On 21 June 2012, Basketball Wales confirmed their intent to reject the proposed merger on the grounds that the arrangement was always intended to be temporary in the build-up to the London Olympics, and that it would not be in the best interests for the sport in Wales for the country to forfeit its national team, when the GB team contained no Welsh players.
At EuroBasket 2011 Great Britain recorded their first EuroBasket win en route to a 2–3 record, good enough for 13th in the first 24 team EuroBasket tournament.
London 2012
For the 2012 Olympics in London, Great Britain were awarded automatic qualification. In the group stage, they lost to Russia, Brazil, Spain and Australia.
The British team would be eliminated in the group stage but was somewhat of a surprise only falling to defending and eventual runners up Spain by 1, and Brazil by 5, they also led Australia by 10 at halftime before fading late. In the final group game they faced China, both teams already unable to progress to the knockout stage. They won the game 90–58, making it only the second Olympic victory for Great Britain. Throughout the tournament Luol Deng played 173 minutes, more than any other player, and also came in the top ten for points and assists.
EuroBasket 2013
In June 2013, Brooklyn Nets assistant coach Joe Prunty was announced as the new coach, following the resignation of Chris Finch.
Having participated in the previous Olympic tournament, Great Britain qualified automatically for EuroBasket 2013 in Slovenia. They went into the tournament short-handed: Luol Deng was recovering from illness, Pops Mensah-Bonsu did not participate due to an injury and Joel Freeland was also absent, citing commitments with his club. Despite this, Great Britain won their first game against Israel in overtime, but subsequently lost to France and Belgium. Winning their fourth group game against favoured Germany put them on the verge of advancing to the second round of the tournament for the first time in their history. The team went into their final group game against Ukraine needing to win, but Ukraine had been performing better than expected and dispatched Britain 87–68. They finished equalling their record from the previous tournament, with Daniel Clark leading the team in scoring and defence.
Following their tournament exit it was announced that the governing body for British sports, UK Sport, were to cut the funding for the team after failing to reach the agreed-upon minimum final placing in the tournament. Funding from UK Sport would have been used to aid the team's efforts to qualify for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
EuroBasket 2015
A defeat to Iceland on 20 August meant the team had failed to qualify for EuroBasket 2015. This outcome was largely attributed to British Basketball no longer receiving funding from UK Sport; efficiencies were having to be made, including cancelling training camps and being unable to secure the participation of players such as Luol Deng due to insurance costs, which has in turn affected performance, and put the future of the Great Britain team in doubt. Forward Kieron Achara spoke out about how the financial struggles had affected the team.
Current roster
The roster for the EuroBasket 2017 qualifiers.
2012 Olympics squad
The 12 players selected for the Olympic tournament. Note that the players' details and clubs are those during the time of the games.
The following is the Great Britain roster in the men's basketball tournament of the 2012 Summer Olympics.
2014
The roster for the EuroBasket 2015 qualifiers: