Luol Deng Never To Play For Great Britain?

The Times is reporting that Great Britain officials are worried that Luol Deng will not be able to play in the 2012 Olympics in London. They also fear that they will not be able to even qualify in 2012 without Deng.

Apparently now the NBA insures it’s top 150 contracts with MetLife. MetLife has the right to exclude 14 of those contracts from their coverage. Apparently Luol Deng is one of those guys excluded from coverage. This is just speculation on my part, but I would imagine a guy like Dwyane Wade is one of the exclusions as well, but that USA Basketball probably has a greater budget, so they are able to cover any insurance issues within their budget. As noted by The Times, Great Britain basketball only has a 1.5 million euros a year budget.

The cost for supplemental insurance would be $500,000 based on quotes Great Britain officials have received. They assume that they will have to pay this supplemental insurance every year, which would run them $2.5 million for Deng’s commitment through the 2012 London Olympics.

Now I have no power to tell someone how to spend their money, and wouldn’t like someone telling me how to spend my money, but why doesn’t Luol Deng foot the bill, or at least part of it? You would think with that $71 million contract, potentially $80 million, he would be able to pay $2.5 million over the next 5 years.

If Luol Deng really cares about spreading basketball to Great Britain and playing for their national team, is there really any reason we shouldn’t expect him to pay the insurance fee so he can play for Great Britain? If I had that much money, and wanted to represent my country, I know I would.

Source: The Times