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When Team GB captain Drew Sullivan tells you everything will turn out fine, you’re inclined to believe him.It’s what years of international experience, a solid professional career and a voice soaked with plainspoken sincerity affords the guy.
But when Sullivan says he’s “very confident” Team GB will qualify for EuroBasket 2011, despite the loss of several key players, even the most trusting can be excused a measure of cynicism.
Joel Freeland, Nick George, Robert Archibald and Andy Betts will all be absent from the qualifying games in August for various reasons, a calamitous turn of events that leaves the team with a conspicuous hole in the frontcourt.
Yet the veteran swingman remains upbeat, looking to what GB has, not what it has lost.
“It’s not as though we’ve come from All-World to nothing,” he said. “Obviously we’re a better team with those guys but we’ve got quite a few experienced guys coming back.”
Pops Mensah-Bonsu is one of the experienced few and a player Sullivan believes will make up for any lack of depth inside. Then there’s a couple of NBA guys who should help out a bit, too.
“From what I understand Luol (Deng) will be playing this summer and quite possibly Ben Gordon, so you have to be encouraged of what could potentially happen,” he said.
“Playing with Luol, I know how he is as a player and a person. He’s the kind of guy who, yeah, wants to go out and do well personally, but wants his team to do well and wants the guys around him to do well.”
While Deng has got his Team GB reps, Gordon is somewhat of an unknown quantity. Sullivan squared off against him when the pair were in college - at Villanova and UConn respectively - but has never played alongside the Pistons guard.
“Obviously it’s going to be a little different this year with Ben coming in and not really knowing some of the other guys but chemistry has never been a problem with the team and I don’t believe it will be this summer either,” he said.
“I think (Ben) will have a huge impact. I don’t think anyone could ever question that. He’s on the fringe of being an NBA All-Star, he’s one of the best shooters in the league, he’s a scorer and he’s another very good ball handler, which is something that we need.”
Gordon’s presence could prove particularly valuable this summer considering the Olympic question that looms large over the qualifiers.
FIBA president Bob Elphinston indicated that Chris Finch’s men must make it into EuroBasket if they want to compete at London 2012.
However, it’s a proposition that doesn’t faze Sullivan in the slightest (“I don’t think there’s any pressure because we plan to qualify for Euros 2011 anyway so it doesn’t make a difference”), and a statement he doesn’t entirely swallow.
“Every time this team gets talked about with regard to the Olympics, we’ve got to do this or we’ve got to do that,” he said.
“When it all came around we had to show that we’re competitive and we’ve done that, I mean we almost beat Spain to knock them out of EuroBasket last year, so I don’t know exactly what’s true and what’s not.”
Olympics aside, Sullivan is hoping some of the younger players named to the squad, including Matthew Bryan-Amaning, Ashley Hamilton and Ogo Adegboye, can step up and “preview the future of GB basketball.”
But surely Ryan Richards, a recent NBA draftee and the crown jewel of Britain’s best young ballers, should be right there in the mix?
“I don’t really have an opinion on that,” he said. “I do think the kid has tonnes of potential, he’s going to be a very good player and pro in years to come.”
Sullivan spoke between visiting schools in Newcastle, his adopted hometown, as part of a drive to get kids interested in hoops, an initiative staged by Team GB sponsors Standard Life.
The 30-year-old returned to Newcastle last season in what was his third stint with the Eagles in six years.
With a young family settled in the area he is eager to stay on Tyneside, but has yet to decide where he’ll end up.
“My decision on whether I’m here or not is purely down to my family,” he said. “It’s not about money and it’s not necessarily about the prestige of the league.”
Sullivan also insists his choice will have nothing to do with the Eagles’ decision to stay out of the Eurochallenge competition next season.
Europe is always an attraction for players and a big selling point for team’s trying to lure talent, yet Eagle’s managing director Paul James felt the move could not work financially.
“That’s really nothing to do with me,” Sullivan said. “I’m a player, I have no say in where the team plays. If Paul decides that it’s not financially viable not to go into Europe this year, who am I to say he‘s wrong.”
For now, however, Sullivan is thinking country, not club. With EuroBasket, and possibly a whole lot more riding on the August qualifiers, these are tense times for Team GB.
But, if you’re inclined to believe the captain, everything will turn out just fine.
“We’ve got a lot of talent,” he said. “And we’ve got a very, very good chance of coming out of the group.”
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