GB well-beaten by Tall Blacks

GB's new look line-up suffered a heavy defeat to New Zealand at a packed Copper Box Arena.

Hesson in action for Great Britain

After a disappointing summer for GB's women and youth teams as well as the notable absence of the GB men's team from the Eurobasket tournament, it continued the recent trend of poor form for GB.

An 84-63 defeat on the Olympic Park marred a milestone for GB captain Drew Sullivan who was making his landmark 100th appearance for his country.

Myles Hesson top scored for GB in a strong performance from the German-based player with 14 points and a great all-round effort.

It leaves Joe Prunty with a lot of choices and a lot to think about with a number of young players involved, who will continue to move forward with GB and who needs to be cut adrift - if money is even there to continue the program.

A funding reprieve from Sport England will surely keep the team going but without being able to afford big names - such as Luol Deng, recent NBA-departee Joel Freelance, Pops Mensah-Bonsu among others - the teams success will inevitably be limited.

If the team are only able to stagnate as seen against New Zealand and previously against Iceland and Bosnia and Herzegovina, then the minimal funding received from Sport England will still dry up.

The biggest thing to come from the defeat to the Tall Blacks is perhaps not any on-court lessons to be learned, but lessons off the court and the increased need for sizeable sponsorship.

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