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Last update - 12:05 02/09/2008
Britain's basketball team gears up for Israel game
By Yaniv Orgad, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Israel, London Olympics, U.K. 

Britain's basketball team held a practice session here on Monday ahead of its game against the Israeli national team as part of the European championship qualifying round set to take place on Wednesday.

Basketball in Britain has taken many steps forward in recent years, but the U.S. import is still ranked a pitiful eighth among sports on the isles, far behind indigenous pastimes like soccer, cricket and rugby as well as boxing, car racing, snooker and even track and field.

"Basketball's status in Britain is surprisingly similar to that of football [soccer] in the U.S.," British basketball journalist Ian Whittel says. "Many children ... play it at school and courts in their neighborhoods, mostly in the big cities." But otherwise it suffers from a low profile, he says.
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Whittel himself works freelance for most of the big British papers because none have designated reporters covering the sport.

Despite its low following, some U.K. basketball organizers dream the sport will one day match rugby or cricket in popularity. To achieve this, they are trying to find a local player to act as an ambassador, similar to how China's Yao Ming propelled the sport into one of his country's most popular overnight.

At the moment only two players with British citizenship play in the NBA, Ben Gordon of the Chicago Bulls (who will not take part in the team's qualifying matches) and his Bulls teammate Luol Deng.

Deng almost didn't arrive in Israel with the national team because of the high costs of his insurance.

The Sudan-born, 2.03-meter small forward has recently signed a $71 million contract with Chicago, but because he is considered injury prone, MetLife demanded $600,000 a year for insurance.

Whittel says the British Basketball Association will have to pay $2.5 million over the next four years, which is equivalent to their entire annual budget.

"If Deng can't play then it will be difficult for us to stay in the top tier in Europe," U.K. team coach Chris Finch says. Finch has been plagued by player withdrawals. First Richard Archibald presented a letter from his doctor declaring him injured and unable to take part in the game against Israel.

But Archibald showed up last week for practice with his team Malaga and seemed to be perfectly fit. Three other players left the team's training to sign contracts with teams for the next season and didn't return. Another three players, including key player Andrew Betts, are injured. So far Britain has a 4-4 record in its preparatory games. "When I think of all we've gone through in the past months, that's a pretty good record," Finch says.

Whittel believes a good scorer is what the British team lacks most. He says the absence of Chicago's Gordon would particularly be felt because of his experience. Still, coach Finch is happy to have at least one NBA player on his squad.

"It's great having Deng," he says. "We have to harness his enthusiasm and en ergy. Just having him here automatically increases expectations of a respectable performance in the London Olympics, but first we have to qualify for the European championship."

Team Israel aims for first place

Meanwhile, Zvika Sherf's players tried to keep focused ahead of the game Monday. Veteran scorer Meir Tapiro stayed after training for a couple rounds of practice shots with young talent Omri Casspi.

"We have to start this campaign on the right foot, hold on to our home team advantage and show that we are serious contenders for the first place on the table," Amit Tamir declared.

Big man Ido Kozikoro added: "It's hard to believe we'll have a chance of qualifying for the European championship if we don't hold on to our home advantage."

Maccabi Tel Aviv's power forward Yaniv Green, whose participation in the game was uncertain due to an injury, on Monday took part in the team's practice and will probably be fit to play come Wednesday.

Back in the British camp, coach Finch scolded journalists who came to watch his team practice on Monday and placed staff members at the entrances to the auditorium in order to keep them out. Later, he expressed his anger with the media by canceling the planned pre-game press conference.
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