Luol Deng prepares for an opportunity to shine in front of home crowd – NBA News
As Luol Deng trains with United Kingdom team in Houston for the upcoming London Olympics, he can’t help but feel excited about the opportunity that is about to present itself to him.
Deng will be representing his home country of Great Britain for the first time in the Olympics, in front of home crowd. And he knows that such an opportunity is provided once in a lifetime.
"It's a huge opportunity for us to show that British basketball can compete with the rest of the world," said Deng.
Deng is the most important member of the British Basketball team. Most of the plays that Coach Chris Finch is running are centred around Deng. He is the only player in the British basketball team who plays in the NBA. He is with
the Chicago Bulls, who just finished the last season tied for the best record in the league.
Considering the status he holds in the basketball world and the stardom he carries, Deng is a very down to earth and humble person. Participating in training sessions, Deng puts in the same amount of work and his other teammates
and would rather prefer to lay low.
“I would rather be with my friends and lay low. But at the same time I appreciate when people come up to me and just thank me for what I do, or say that they enjoy watching me,” says Deng.
Luol’s teammate on the British team, Pops Mensah-Bonsu has been carrying the team for a long time before Deng came in and all of sudden it is all about the Bulls star. However, Mensah-Bonsu never found Deng as someone who would
get lost in the glitter;
“There's no clash whatsoever. He doesn't have an ego. You would think someone of his talent, his calibre, could easily have one, but I think the one thing that defines Luol, as a person and even more as a player, is the fact that
he's so down to earth,” said Mensah-Bonsu.
Deng knows that the hopes of the British nation rest on the shoulder of him and Mensah-Bonsu, and wants to accomplish something for basketball in Britain. He will face tough competition from favourites USA, Spain and France. There
are people that call him a ‘plastic Brit’ because he was born in Sudan and later fled civil war to move to the United Kingdom, where he was granted nationality. But Deng wants to prove to everyone that he is as much a British as anyone else by performing for
his country at the grandest stages of all.
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