Playing in front of 450 spectators in Sussex is a long way from megastardom in the US with Chicago Bulls, but for Luol Deng, it is just as important.
On Thursday night the Chicago Bulls star made his home debut for Great Britain against Ireland in Crawley, in a warm-up match ahead of key Euro-basket games against Georgia and Croatia.
But the 22-year-old hopes it will be the first step on the road to the 2012 Olympic Games, and the start of a revolution in British basketball.
When the London Games come around, the Sudan-born player will be 27, and on the basis of his current form, would walk into any Olympic team in the world.
Last season he was the National Basketball Association's Sportsman of the Year, and is poised to sign a new four-year contract, which would put him above Premier League stars such as Wayne Rooney and John Terry in terms of earnings.
But for £70 a day, Deng has chosen to play for Britain, a country which, in its one previous Olympic basketball tournament - also in London, in 1948 - lost all three games.
source : news.bbc.co.uk
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