Hesson: Proud and confident ahead of GB EuroBasket double-header
Myles Hesson goes into the November EuroBasket Qualifiers against France and Montenegro feeling a mixture of confidence and pride.
The Great Britain co-captain is set to feature in back-to-back games in Pau, France as part of a team buoyed by a convincing win over Germany in Newcastle last time out.
And, despite the two ‘home’ games being played in a central Covid-secure bubble overseas, Brummie Hesson will feel no less pride at representing his country for the 41st time after making his debut against Nigeria in Houston in 2012.
The explosive 6ft 5in forward, who is in his second season with French outfit Elan Chalon, loves playing for the national team.
He told Basketball England’s Timeout podcast: “It’s actually hard to put into words. It’s a humbling experience.
“You can’t take it for granted and when I look back on my career in a few years, I think I’ll appreciate it even more.
“I play with pride every time I put on that jersey. Anything that I do in life, I want to be at the top of my game and to be able to represent your country, not a lot of people get to do it. It’s something I hold very close to my heart.”
Hesson, 30, believes the impressive 81-73 win over Germany at a packed Eagles Community Arena in February illustrates the united spirit in the GB squad.
“We deserved it,” he said. “And it was good to get what we deserved because there are too many times when we’ve been in games and we should have won, or we should have done this and that, and we’ve fallen short.
“But this one was a good one because we didn’t give up when we were down, and we were the better team and we showed that in the end with the result.
“Everyone is starting to play at higher levels in Europe for their club teams and when we get back together as a group, because we’ve been together for a while now, everyone knows each other and we get on really well.
“We’re really gelling on court and we’re realising that we can beat these teams and we should beat them, so we’re doing what we can to get results.”
GB went down by seven points when they played Montenegro in Podgorica a few days before the Germany game.
But Hesson, who has averaged 10.1ppg for GB during his international career, believes the team has hit their stride, adding:
“The Montenegro game was tougher game than the Germany one but the fact we were in that game and we could have won it has shown we are good and we can get these results.
“Going into the Germany game we were confident as a unit, everyone pulled their weight and we got a good win.”
GB play France on November 27 and Montenegro on 29 November before the final return qualifiers against France and Germany in February 2021.