The United States' Olympic basketball teams have agreed to play hosts Britain in two warm-up games before next year's London Olympics.
The Americans, who won the gold medals in both the men's and women's tournaments in Beijing in 2008, will play both British teams in Manchester as part of their preparations to defend their Olympic titles.
"The games are key components of the training plan for the 2012 USA Basketball men's and women's national teams," USA Basketball Chairman Jerry Colangelo said in a statement on Tuesday.
"I'm sure that both USA teams will feature some of basketball's best players and coaches, and I'm confident the games will be memorable events for all basketball fans."
The matches, scheduled for July 2012 in Manchester, are a further boost for British basketball after world governing body FIBA agreed this month to hand automatic qualification places for next year's Games.
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Britain has not been represented at an Olympic tournament since the last London Games in 1948.
"This is terrific news and there could not be a better prelude to the biggest year in British basketball history," British Basketball's Performance Chairman Roger Moreland told Reuters. "The Americans are the absolute best in the world."
Britain's top player, Luol Deng of the National Basketball Association's Chicago Bulls, will spearhead his country's challenge next year.
"I cannot think of a more exciting prospect for fans in the UK than to see Great Britain play the USA Basketball men's national team in Manchester in the lead up to the 2012 Olympics," Deng told British Basketball's website.
Britain's women's team, which qualified for this year's Eurobasket for the first time, will host Atlanta Dream of the Women's National Basketball Association in Manchester in May.
(Additional reporting by Martyn Herman)
(Reporting by Gene Cherry in Salvo, North Carolina; editing by Julian Linden. To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)
