 Clark plies his trade for Estudiantes in the Spanish ACB league |
Great Britain forward Dan Clark has backed the decision to hold off from giving the team an automatic 2012 spot. Governing body Fiba wants assurances that the sport will receive long-term investment before awarding the side a place as Olympic hosts. A decision will be made over the weekend of 12/13 March and Clark told Fiba's website: "I think it's good they have put pressure on us. "If we get the place for free, we wouldn't change anything." The 22-year-old added: "We need to make the domestic league and everything better, in general, not just the national team, not just putting everything into that one team. "They need to put money into everything to make everything better."  | 606: DEBATE |
The Great Britain team was formed from the home nations in 2006 with the target of reaching the Olympics and they have since made significant strides, reaching their first European Championships in 2009. But it appears Fiba also wants more progress to be made in developing the domestic basketball scene. "I'm one of those people that doesn't understand why basketball hasn't made it in England," said Clark, who plays for Estudiantes in the Spanish ACB league. "Maybe there's not enough coaching, not enough whatever you need to be a good basketball country. "But I think we have the people who want to be good coaches, the people who want to help." Clark has only just turned 22 and had a big hand in last summer's qualifying success, averaging 9.3 points and 4.8 rebounds per game. His best performance came in Sarajevo against Bosnia-Hercegovina when he hit all five of his three-point attempts in scoring Clark 23 points.
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