Post by doc on Oct 12, 2008 13:31:28 GMT -5
This doesn't bode well for the national program. 
Source - Click here
Samuel Dalembert hasn't closed the door on playing basketball for Canada but says he won't don a Canadian jersey so long as Leo Rautins is coaching.
The six-foot-11 centre was in town Sunday as his Philadelphia 76ers faced the Toronto Raptors in an NBA pre-season game, just three months removed from his falling out with Rautins at the Olympic qualifying tournament in Athens, Greece.
"I think it would be very immature to just let one person ruin the great things that we have here," Dalembert said.
But asked if he would consider playing for Rautins, Canada's head coach, Dalembert said, "No. If you have one slap, you never know when you're going to get another slap."
Rautins dropped Dalembert from the team after a loss to Slovenia - and just hours before Canada's game against Korea - in the 12-country last-chance qualifying tournament in July. The Canadians needed two more victories to earn a berth in the Beijing Olympics.
"I was getting ready for the game which we were playing against Korea. I was already on the bus, sitting down, and he asked to talk to me," Dalembert said. "The timing was very bad. Stuff was going on. Stuff he said to me, I talked back. After that there was a gesture that he made that really upset me. After that we started talking, and things escalated.
"I was playing for me. I was playing for Canada. But obviously the bus wasn't going to leave if I didn't get off the bus. So I made the decision to get off the bus."
The six-foot-11 centre was in town Sunday as his Philadelphia 76ers faced the Toronto Raptors in an NBA pre-season game, just three months removed from his falling out with Rautins at the Olympic qualifying tournament in Athens, Greece.
"I think it would be very immature to just let one person ruin the great things that we have here," Dalembert said.
But asked if he would consider playing for Rautins, Canada's head coach, Dalembert said, "No. If you have one slap, you never know when you're going to get another slap."
Rautins dropped Dalembert from the team after a loss to Slovenia - and just hours before Canada's game against Korea - in the 12-country last-chance qualifying tournament in July. The Canadians needed two more victories to earn a berth in the Beijing Olympics.
"I was getting ready for the game which we were playing against Korea. I was already on the bus, sitting down, and he asked to talk to me," Dalembert said. "The timing was very bad. Stuff was going on. Stuff he said to me, I talked back. After that there was a gesture that he made that really upset me. After that we started talking, and things escalated.
"I was playing for me. I was playing for Canada. But obviously the bus wasn't going to leave if I didn't get off the bus. So I made the decision to get off the bus."
Source - Click here
