For Evbuomwan and Williams, 24, this double-header on Thursday in Switzerland and then at home to Slovakia in Newcastle on Sunday is set to mark their GB debuts at senior level.<\/p>\n
But how the duo have been able to sign up for the latest fixtures is all about timing.<\/p>\n
Four of GB’s six first-round qualifying matches for the 2027 Fiba World Cup were in November 2025 and March 2026, which clashed with the NBA season.<\/p>\n
But with this window opening in between NBA seasons, as well as those of its European counterparts, the stars aligned for Steutel and his team.<\/p>\n
“In the season, guys in the NBA [and] the EuroLeague, we struggle to get. There’s very little ability to be able to do that,” added Steutel.<\/p>\n
“We’re right before the start of the season and our general manager has done an incredible job communicating with the Boston Celtics. Tosan is closer to home now with Barcelona.<\/p>\n
“They’ve both been really supportive and want those guys to play, so [we’re] really excited.”<\/p>\n
GB’s coaching staff have long craved the opportunity to be able to cash in by adding recent NBA players to their squad.<\/p>\n
Dan Clark, who featured at the 2012 Olympics alongside two-time NBA All-Star Luol Deng, is now GB’s general manager and has stayed in contact with Newcastle-born Evbuomwan and Williams, awaiting the opportunity to be able to call on the duo.<\/p>\n
“It’s not just a ‘this window’ thing, it has taken years,” explains Steutel.<\/p>\n
“Tosan is someone who I’ve known for a long time and I’ve followed his journey. He’s someone who has communicated really well with us and Amari likewise. Dan Clark has been communicating with Amari for years.<\/p>\n
“We’re able to get the timing right now and get them in a GB jersey. It’s great for the team, but I think it’s great for British basketball on the whole.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For Evbuomwan and Williams, 24, this double-header on Thursday in Switzerland and then at home to Slovakia in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":871856,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-871855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=871855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/871856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=871855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=871855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=871855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}