Injury Overreaction? Earlier this summer San Antonio Spurs point guard Tony Parker tweaked an ankle playing for Team France. While French doctors agreed it was just a mild sprain, the Spurs asked Parker to return to the States so their own doctors could see the injury and make their own decisions. After that review they agreed with the French doctors and Parker returned to Europe.
Last weekend Portland Trail Blazers small forward Nicolas Batum – also playing for Team France – injured his shoulder. French doctors decided he just needed a little rest, but the Blazers asked Batum to return to Portland so their own doctors could look him over. In the end they determined it was a shoulder contusion and allowed him to return to Europe as well.
Both teams have good reason to be worried. Besides the fact teams have a lot of financial obligations tied up in these players, they have other reasons as well. The Spurs were burned last season by Manu Ginobili's decision to play in the Olympics despite not being fully recovered from an ankle injury, and the decision really cost Ginobili most of the season.
Batum injured that shoulder earlier in the season with the Blazers, but it turned out this new contusion was completely unrelated.
But really, what's the deal here? Why so much mistrust? Do the NBA teams think the national teams are trying to pull one over on them and not disclose the true nature of a serious injury to the player or to the NBA team? Or do they not trust the players themselves to tell the NBA team the truth? Or do they not think the other doctors are qualified enough to give accurate diagnoses that would give the player the right information to avoid a possibly more serious injury?
It really doesn't matter what the answer is there – it points to the fact the NBA teams want to be in complete control of their assets.
The Dallas Mavericks also decided earlier this summer to not allow Dirk Nowitzki to play for the German national team. Nowitzki and the German representatives accepted the decision, but the unsaid implication from both is they would rather have him playing.
Is this fair to the players and the national teams? In a sense the NBA teams should have control, since the players' contracts are guaranteed. If Parker can't play this year, the Spurs are out their starting point guard and serious chunk of change, for example. National teams have purchased insurance on their NBA players in the past for big tournaments, like the Olympics or World Championships, which helps slightly.
Perhaps the deeper item to address here is will it always be this way? Are NBA teams going to simply get more and more controlling? Or is there a way to get around it? If the contracts weren't guaranteed like in the NFL that would probably solve the issue from an NBA point of view (few players would risk injury playing internationally), but morally that doesn't seem like the right answer either.
Is there a solution here – one that doesn't involve players like Parker and Batum having to fly from Europe to the States and back in a short span of time for what turns out to be nothing? Leave your thoughts in the comments below and start the conversation. For our international readers, it would be illuminating to hear your perspectives as well.
Delfino-Johnson Trade Official: The trade of Carlos Delfino and Roko Ukic from the Toronto Raptors to the Milwaukee Bucks for Sonny Weems and Amir Johnson is now official. Here is the press release from the Raptors:
The Toronto Raptors announced Tuesday they have acquired forward Amir Johnson and guard-forward Sonny Weems from the Milwaukee Bucks for guard-forward Carlos Delfino and guard Roko Ukic. The Raptors facilitated a sign and trade with Delfino.Aldridge Extension Talks Ongoing: The Portland Trail Blazers are more than ready to check off the next item of their 2009 Summer Checklist: working out an extension with power forward LaMarcus Aldridge.
"After drafting DeMar DeRozan and trading for Marco Belinelli, Hedo Turkoglu and Antoine Wright, Carlos made it clear he would prefer to play elsewhere if he were to return to the NBA," said Raptors President and General Manager Bryan Colangelo. "There were limited sign and trade scenarios available, but acquiring Amir Johnson in this deal gives us another long, talented young big man whose best basketball is ahead of him."
Johnson, 6-foot-9, 210 pounds, spent his previous four seasons in the NBA with the Detroit Pistons. Last season, Johnson appeared in a career high-tying 62 games, with a career-best 24 starts, and led the Pistons in field goal percentage at .595. He had a career-high 14 rebounds, with 10 points and three blocks in a career-best 38 minutes versus Sacramento on January 2, 2009 and a season-high 12 points, with 13 rebounds and three blocks in 32 minutes versus New York on November 26, 2008.
Johnson averaged 3.5 points, 3.7 rebounds and 0.97 blocks in a career-high 14.7 minutes in the 2008-09 season. In 24 games as a starter, he averaged 4.8 points, 4.9 rebounds and 1.04 blocks in 19.6 minutes. He recorded 17 games with two or more blocks shots.
The 22-year-old was selected out of Westchester (Los Angeles) High School by the Pistons in the second round of the 2005 Draft.
Weems, 6-foot-6, 200 pounds, was originally drafted by Chicago in the second round of the 2008 Draft. The University of Arkansas product was dealt to Denver on draft night. Weems played in 12 games with the Nuggets as a rookie, averaging 1.6 points and 4.6 minutes.
Weems also appeared in 21 games with the Colorado 14ers of the D-League, averaging 20.5 points (17th in the league), 4.5 rebounds and 3.0 assists in 28.2 minutes. He led the 14ers to the D-League championship, averaging 22.8 points in the postseason.
Delfino played in Russia last season after seeing action in 82 games with the Raptors in the 2007-08 campaign. He averaged 9.0 points and 4.4 rebounds for Toronto. Ukic made his NBA debut last season following six seasons overseas. He averaged 4.2 points, 2.1 assists and 12.4 minutes in 72 games.
"We're ready," Trail Blazers President Larry Miller told The Columbian. "We'd do it right now if we could."
All-Star guard Brandon Roy, he of the recent five-year maximum extension himself, also wants his buddy from the draft class of 2006.
"…now it's time to get LaMarcus signed, because I think he's a huge part of what we're trying to do," Roy said. "I think he's a future all-star for years to come."
Roy's extension – and Aldridge's once it's worked out (and it will be) – will kick in for the 2010-11 season. Such an extension also makes them poison pill players (Toronto's Andrea Bargnani is in this group as well). All this means is that if the player were to be traded during 2009-10 – while under the last year of his rookie scale contract – his trade value would be the average of all the dollars left on his contract. Given the fact the teams want to lock these young players up, it's unlikely that even becomes an issue.
Aldridge's agent, Arn Tellem, is currently on vacation, but when he returns it's likely this gets wrapped up quickly.
Hoops Still Number One Among Youth: This probably isn't a huge surprise, but according to Jon Show of the Sports Business Journal basketball is still the top team sport among American youth.
According to survey by the Sporting Goods Manufacturing Association 26.2 million kids played basketball in 2008, far ahead of baseball (15 million) and outdoor soccer (14.2 million).
Again, it's not a surprise. Of the top team sports basketball is the only one you can practice by yourself efficiently and become better. One can work on a jump shot for hours; it's not quite as easy to practice shooting goals in soccer (all that ball chasing) and when you throw ground balls off the garage door there is a legitimate chance of getting yelled at by your parents (not that I would know or anything). With hoops as long as you can scrounge up a ball and find a neighborhood hoop you are good for hours.
But there is reason to worry. While some sports – lacrosse, paintball, and cheerleading – are rapidly growing, the numbers of youth participating in team sports is down overall.
"It's worrisome to all of us in youth sports," said Jon Butler, executive director of Pop Warner. "I think it's an ominous sign."
The cause of this is attributed mainly to the growth of the video game industry and poor physical education programs in schools, but also to the fact Americans have become more sedentary as a whole.
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