FanHouse Pops Mensah Bonsu

You knew it would come to this eventually: the Bulls, who agreed to pay Luol Deng a handsome sum of money through 2014, have decided the player, who missed several months of 2008-09 action with a leg injury, is not healthy enough to play with Great Britain's national team this summer. The Daily Mirror reports the Bulls won a struggle to keep Deng off the nation's roster for the Eurobasket 2009 tournament.

It also may effectively end Great Britain's chances to field a team at the 2012 Olympics in London. Host nations are typically granted automatic bids, but that supposes a reasonable level of competitiveness in the sport. The Queen's roster is not exactly loaded without Deng (Pops Mensah-Bonsu is the top player remaining), and Great Britain sits in a tough group at Eurobasket in September, one featuring Olympic runner-up Spain, talented Slovenia and Serbia. Without Deng, a good showing here -- and momentum for a 2010 FIBA Worlds berth -- seems unlikely.

Here's a look at the top ten players we saw at the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas.

1. Jerryd Bayless: Who cares that him running point was like a Ben Stiller movie or that he managed so few assists his teammates almost decided to bring their own ball on the court to play catch? The kid was transcendent. Floaters, fadeaways, dunks, steals, you name it. If it's got flash, Bayless was unleashing it on someone this week.

2. Kevin Love: You know how some people's college game just doesn't transfer to the pro game? Yeah, Kevin Love won't be having that problem. Tough, resilient, with a range of moves and offensive versatility to go along with the sweetest, yes, outlet pass we've seen, Love was incredibly impressive.

3. Anthony Randolph: Youth and athleticism rules! The lanky Warrior started the week off with a bang and played solid throughout. His impressive handle really made him stand out, along with a tenacious effort on defense.

Notes from a trip to the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas.

Pops Mensah-Bonsu is an insane athlete who attacks the rim like it insulted his mother. Unfortunately, guys like that with dreams of playing in the NBA are a dime a dozen, which is why he spent most of 2006-07 in the D-League (winning All-Star MVP honors along the way) and last season in Italy.

He's already agreed to a contract to play in Spain next year, but in a last-ditch effort to keep his NBA dream alive he's here in Las Vegas playing for Minnesota's summer league team. In three games, he's averaged 12 points and 4.7 boards in 23 minutes a game. I talked with Pops after his first game with the T'Wolves on Thursday about what his future holds and what his first impressions were of his summer league teammates.

Matt Watson: I was just reading that you signed with a team in Spain. What's going on with that?

Pops: I signed with a team in Spain a few days ago but they gave me an NBA out until July 22nd, so that's why I'm playing with the Timberwolves. If I get signed or picked up by an NBA team, they won't have to buy me out over there. I have until the 22nd to get signed. Hopefully that works out. If not, I have no problem going back to Spain.

Even though Ben Gordon grew up in New York, the fact that he was born in London makes him eligible to represent Great Britain in the Olympics. In fact, British Basketball has been recruiting him for the 2012 Games for quite some time, hoping that he'll join current teammate Luol Deng in representing his English roots. As Deng explained it last year, Gordon was putting off a decision in hopes that he might be able to represent the U.S. instead.

At least, that was the plan; sometime in the last 12 months reality apparently set in and Gordon realized that representing the U.K. will be the only chance he gets to be an Olympic athlete. From the AP:

British Basketball named Gordon and Bulls teammate Luol Deng to its 33-man squad Tuesday to play in Eurobasket qualifiers.

"He has been very positive about playing and we are going to meet with him again in Chicago within the next two weeks," British Basketball performance manager Ron Wuotila said of Gordon.

Oddly enough, Great Britain will be the thing is that Gordon already represented the U.S. once in college when he participated in the 2003 Pan-Am Games. There will be some (near) NBA-caliber talent on the roster beyond Gordon and Deng: former Maverick Pops Mensah-Bonsu, who's currently playing in Italy, and former Blazers first-round pick Joel Freeland, who's playing in Spain, are also on the list.

The Mavericks just made it official -- Pops Mensah-Bonsu will not be returning this season. This wasn't a surprise given the team's bloated roster and their signing of Brandon Bass last month, but it still stings for us Pops fans. If you weren't already on the Mensah-Bandwagon, you really need to watch this nasty dunk mix:


(See also: blocking lottery picks in the summer league.)

Given his talent and crowd-pleasing abilities, I'm going to speculate that the real reason the Mavs passed on him was his recent admission that he is a Spurs fan!