Baumann Reemphasises Unity

By Sam Neter on August 18, 2011

FIBA Secretary General Patrick Baumann has once again called for the individual home nation governing bodies to unite as one.

FIBA granted Great Britain the right to play in the London 2012 Olympics as the host nation in March, but only on the condition they decide the governing body structure they will go forward into the future with by June of next year-will they remain as England Basketball, Basketball Scotland and Basketball Wales, or will Great Britain become the overriding governing body.

In a lengthy interview published on Sporting Life, Baumann said:

“They need to decide the best model for them. For us, so we can grow, keep getting the best players to come, keep getting the funding, and keep building for the future, that is as one.

“If you don’t have that, it will go back to the old situation where you have an English team, a Scottish team and a Welsh team occasionally playing at the Division B level in Europe, and you would have to be content with that.

“It would not be a top team, a British team that can compete in the big tournaments.”

He went on to say it was very unlikely GB would have been denied entry to the Olympics, but it was necessary to make them take full advantage of the opportunity London 2012 brings:

“The likelihood of us not allowing them to have at least one team play was very small, but there were questions, particularly over the seriousness of the women’s team, and the seriousness of the basketball family’s willingness to engage in the long-term after the Olympic Games.

“We never felt comfortable on that issue, which is why we were quite pushy, nasty to some extent, to get them to understand this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

“We never doubted they could put a good team together and have some success. We were more doubtful of their willingness to really push, to understand this is about a decade to come and not just two weeks.”

“It’s still too early to say what will happen, what their ideas are, but there’s no doubt the home nations are now taking this extremely seriously.

“I would struggle right now to find another country around the world doing the same kind of self-analysis. Whatever decision they take at the end of this journey, they will take it understanding very clearly the pros and cons of what they do.”

Baumann also seemed to make a slight dig at Luol Deng and Ben Gordon for not joining up with the team as of yet, saying “I have been educated in a way whereby when a country calls you, you’re there”.

Read the full interview over at Sporting Life.

Thoughts?

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