Britain's basketball authorities said yesterday that they had assembled their most talented squad as they summoned Luol Deng and Ben Gordon, the NBA stars, to bolster their hopes of qualifying for the 2012 Olympic Games.

Even though London is hosting the event, the Great Britain team, who did not enter for a place at Beijing in August, are not guaranteed an automatic passage to the Games because they have not qualified for enough leading tournaments since the team reformed in 2005.

Deng, 23, and Gordon, 25, his Chicago Bulls team-mate, will join the squad for the London selection camp in August. Chris Finch, the team's coach, said: “It is by far the strongest list of names put out in the history of any of the home countries or GB, we're really fortunate to have such a quality group.”

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