Ben Gordon Confirmed Out…Again

By Sam Neter on July 1, 2012

Ben Gordon Great Britain Basketball Olympics

Ben Gordon has been confirmed out of this year’s Great Britain Olympic side yet again as they returned to London from their Houston training camp earlier today.

It puts an end to the ongoing saga which has seen Gordon named on preliminary squads since 2008 but not take part in a single practice session. He was recently traded to the Charlotte Bobcats from Detroit.

Talking to Sportsbeat, British Basketball Performance Director Chris Spice said:

“We are moving on without Ben.

“We’ve had a lot of dialogue with him but, unfortunately, he was not in a position to commit and we have to focus on building our team. We could not afford to wait anymore.

“It’s disappointing because we thought this was the year he would definitely play. He had a lot of chances to reach out and I think we wanted to but there were lots of changes going on in his life, he’s just got traded and has a big season coming up.

“We need to focus on the guys that are here now. Integrating players is always difficult and integrating extremely talented players can be even trickier. That is why we needed Ben in early to give ourselves the best chance of the best preparation period.”

British Basketball have submitted their final Olympic roster, which will be officially announced on July 5, to the BOA this weekend. It is understood Matthew Bryan-Amaning, Myles Hesson and perhaps most surprisingly, Devon van Oostrum, have all been released.

DVO, one of GB’s rising young stars, took to Twitter to express his frustration, saying:

End of a dream… Didn’t get no opportunities… Been a rough year, going to rethink my approach to life and basketball…

— Devon Van Oostrum (@DevonVanOostrum) June 30, 2012

Matthew Bryan-Amaning also took to the micro-blogging service to tweet:

When 1 door closes another opens..dreams shut down..b4 i was even a sleep..next step in my career..got a journey and nowhere near the end!!

— Matthew Bryan (@MBALIVE11) June 30, 2012

All three players did not dress for the team’s final game against Lithuania, and/or played limited minutes/did not dress in the side’s other four games.

Thoughts on Ben Gordon and the cuts? Let us know in the comments!

Image Credit: Getty Images

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