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[QUOTE="JoePgh, post: 2659946, member: 1131"]
This whole situation seems similar to what Erin Phillips, another Aussie, had to deal with in the runup to the 2008 Olympics.  She started playing for the Connecticut Sun in 2006 as a 19-year-old, and clearly felt a lot of loyalty to Mike Thibault and her Sun teammates.

But the basketball "establishment" in Australia leaned on her hard, suggesting that training with the Olympic team (rather than playing for the Sun) was her patriotic duty.   They may also have suggested that playing for the Sun in 2008 might have adverse consequences for her basketball future in the WNBL.  So she ended up not playing for the Sun until after the Olympics that year.  Ironically, even after doing that, she hardly played any minutes in the Olympics.

It seems plausible to me that Ezi may have been prevailed upon using similar strong-arm tactics.   She may be sacrificing personal preference to national duty, not to mention professional survival in Australia.
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