The seemingly annual dance to secure Luol Deng’s insurance for international competition took a mildly confrontational turn on Saturday.

Chris Spice, performance director for British Basketball, accused the Bulls of pressuring Deng to withdraw from his Olympic commitment because of his wrist injury. Spice’s statement also decried the NBA’s lack of support.

NBA and Bulls officials declined to respond.

“Luol Deng is hugely committed to the British Basketball program and he has maintained this stance despite recent pressure for him not to play after injuring his wrist during the highly-demanding shortened NBA season,” Spice’s statement said. “We admire and support his stance. Luol is a true professional and manages his body extremely well as shown by the high amount of minutes he was able to play for his club after sustaining the injury in January.

“Our medical expert opinion remains that his back is no worse than others in the NBA but we have had to continue to cover this as we are contracted to do. Unfortunately, we have had no support from the NBA, which remains a constant disappointment.”

via K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune