DENG TO HELP GB IN "SOME CAPACITY" THIS SUMMER -- March 15, 2009, Basketball 24/7, by Ian Whittel
Luol Deng will fly in the face of advice from his personal coach and, most likely, his club the Chicago Bulls and play for Great Britain in this summer's European Championship Finals.
The 6'9" forward is currently sidelined with a stress fracture in his right leg that may require minor surgery, the latest in a series of niggling injuries that have plagued the Sudanese-born Deng since his international debut.
Deng, 23, missed just four games out of 164 in the two seasons before his first game for the newly-formed GB team in the summer of 2007.
...Deng's concession of playing fewer warm-up games could potentially disappoint GB fans who had hoped to see him play in a tournament planned for London in August.
And GB will still have to negotiate the Bulls' understandable dissatisfaction that their highly-priced asset is about to spend two months of the close season on internatonal service.
However, as long as the British federation covers the insurance for the $62 million remaining on Deng's contract, the Bulls will be powerless to prevent Deng from playing for his country.