Samuel Dalembert was kicked off the Canadian National Team after the country's first Olympic-qualifying round loss (to Slovenia). He got into an argument with coach Leo Rautins following a subpar performance (1-for-8 shooting) in Canada's opening loss to Slovenia in Athens, Greece.
Rautins, apparently upset at Dalembert spending more time with his friends than his teammates, as well as Dalembert's inattentiveness and lack of punctuality, declined to allow Dalembert to join his teammates for the bus ride to the second game -- a come-from-behind win over South Korea -- and kept him sidelined the rest of the tournament, in which Canada did not qualify for the Olympics. Rautins repeatedly questioned Dalembert's commitment in explaining his decision, and said the rest of Canada's players were in agreement.
"There's 12 players on this team and everybody felt that (it was best) to not have Sam play," Rautins said.
Dalembert disagreed, saying, "I heard that I'm a prima donna. Anyone who knows me knows I don't do that."
Dalembert also emphasized that the Haiti-born center became a Canadian citizen to try to help the team into the Olympics.
Sixers head coach Maurice Cheeks, who was Rautins' teammate in Philly on the 1983-84 squad, arranged to speak to four reporters individually to say that the things he heard about Dalembert, who he had yet to speak to, didn't jibe with his experiences over the past three seasons with the Sixers.
"I don't know what happened over there," Cheeks said. "I don't have a reason to talk to Leo and I'm not going to question his way of doing things. I'm just saying that I've been around Sam the last few years and Sam's been very good, very attentive and certainly involved in the things we've tried to do. That's what I can speak on."
