American Nate Reinking will star on British Olympic basketball team

Chris Finch, a Houston Rockets assistant, will coach the British Olympic basketball team.

Mindaugas Kulbis/AP

Picture those American hoopsters playing basketball in London at the 2012 Olympics. The end of the NBA lockout and the return of pro basketball to the airwaves create a feast of talent for the mind's eye: Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Nate Reinking . . . Wait, who, please? Yes, Nate Reinking. No, he never played in the NBA and he's 38 years old, but you're likely to see the Kent State grad on the court in London -- and the crowd will likely go nuts for him.

Why exactly? Reinking is a member of the British national basketball team. The native of Upper Sandusky, Ohio has been an esteemed player on the other side of the Atlantic since he signed with the Leicester Riders in 1996, the year of the Atlanta Olympics. His travails in the British Basketball League have taken him to other teams in Derby, Sheffield and Mersey, his current team, as well as two teams in Belgium. He played on the British team at the European Championships in 2011.

Because it is the host nation, Great Britain will be one of the 12 teams represented in the tournament even though it has only appeared once in the Olympics, at the London Games of 1948, when it finished 0-5.

Chris Finch, a Houston Rockets assistant, will be the British team's head coach. NBA journeyman Paul Mokeski is an assistant coach there. Also, look for naturalized Brit Luol Deng on the team and, though he hasn't committed, possibly Detroit Piston Ben Gordon, who was actually born in Britain, before his family brought him to the States as a child.

By virtue of being the home team or host country, the British squads will receive automatic entry into the team-spot tournaments. Though the IOC leaves such decisions of host-country exemptions up to the international sport governing bodies, it is common practice to give the host country a free spot.

There are several team sports at the Olympics (this does not include team or pairs events within sports): basketball, field hockey, soccer, team handball, volleyball and water polo. In those sports, only the U.K. soccer and field hockey squads would likely qualify without the exemption.

This is nothing new for other teams representing host nations. Perhaps the most glaring example of exemption extremes took place in 2004, when a squad from Greece played in the eight-team baseball tournament at the Athens Games. The team from the United States failed to advance through a regional qualifying tournament and did not participate. Australia ended up winning the silver medal behind champion Cuba. Strong baseball nations such as Mexico, South Korea and the Dominican Republic did not qualify, but Italy and the Netherlands did, because Europe was awarded two other places in addition to the one reserved for the host.

With the task of forming a team, Panos Mitsiopoulos, president of the Hellenic Amateur Baseball Federation, told SI in 1998, "From American movies we know the baseball personalities Babe Ruth and Robert Redford. Mark McGwire, we know nothing. We have only 200 players and one abandoned field, at an old U.S. Army base. Also, Greeks are not so familiar with the equipment, mainly bats and balls." The Greeks were outscored 42-12 in six losses, but somehow overcame a 5-0 deficit to beat the Italians.

Here is a look at some of Great Britain's other teams that will participate in London:

Soccer/Football: Since London won the rights to host the Games, the topic of British participation has been a hot debate in this soccer-crazed land. Each of the countries that make up the U.K. (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland) has competed as a separate team in international soccer matches such as the European Championships and World Cup, run by FIFA. However, Great Britain has not participated as an international entity since 1972 and has not competed at an Olympics since 1960. The British men won gold at the Olympics with teams of Englishmen in 1908 and 1912. The Scottish Football Association refused to attend meetings at which a re-unified British team was first discussed. Still, the team will move forward, with some uncertainty about whether the non-English members of the U.K. team will choose to or be allowed to participate by their national federations.

Field Hockey: These teams are actually formidable. Competing as an independent nation, England won the men's European Championships in 2009 and took fourth at the World Cup in 2010, and the women placed third at their World Cup. Still, despite the teams' strong international standing, the matches are rarely shown on television outside of the World Cup. To raise awareness and funds, the sport's supporters are holding The Big Dribble, a promotional campaign in which school children across Britain dribble balls in 2012 places across the U.K. One of the men's team's top players, Ben Hawes, is known as Bionic Ben for the titanium plates that were inserted into his face following two severe injuries he suffered on the pitch.

Water Polo: Though the Brits are credited in some circles with inventing the game and their men won the Olympic gold four times in the sports early stages (1900, 1908, 1912 and 1920), the U.K. has not appeared at the Games since 1956, when they had a fine playmaker on the team aptly named Peter Pass. After London was chosen as Olympic host, the country finally put some money into the program in 2006, though funding was cut three years later. Apart from Welshman Dan Laxton, the team is made up entirely of Englishmen, since England is home to most of the U.K.'s water polo clubs. Captain Craig Figes, 33, admits his team will be at a disadvantage and hopes only for a platform to grow the sport after the Games leave his country.

Volleyball: Assistant captain Andy Pink is originally from the U.S., has British citizenship through his father and says his team should reach the quarterfinals in London. Still, the men entered the year ranked 89th internationally, while the women were 64th. As an example of the teams' limited funding, Nicky Osborne, one of the team's top players and one of the faces of London's campaign to sell tickets, only practices when she can get away from her medical residency.

Team Handball: Because there were fewer than 600 registered handball players when London was first awarded the Games in 2005, the national governing body was happy to land 19 players from various Scandinavian countries, where the sport is very popular. Officials from the two teams have been up in arms lately about the decision to re-name the Olympic Handball Arena as The Copper Box after the Games because it will limit name exposure for the sport when the Olympics leave and funding is likely to drop further.