Tag: Cory Joseph

Joseph drawing compliments in Canada

With Manu Ginobili playing for Argentina, Tony Parker for France and , first-round pick Cory Joseph has been the forgotten Spurs player in this summer’s round of international competition.

Drafted 29th by the Spurs in June, the newly turned 20-year-old Cory Joseph is drawing good reviews from his Canadian teammates since joining the team late last month. Joseph, a point guard and Toronto native, has impressed with his approach and work ethic,

“I’ve been most impressed with his attitude, not having a sense of entitlement (from being a first round selection),” Canadian forward Levon Kendall told the newspaper. “He understands guys have been here (a while), he’s got to prove himself before he gets that respect. He has to earn it to a certain extent so that’s what I’ve been most surprised (about). It’s nice to see that.”

No doubt that attitude will serve Joseph well once he’s finally able to join the Spurs, who — you might have heard — feature a few players even more accomplished than the Canadian national team.

Younger Spurs planning organized workouts during lockout

Several of the younger Spurs have met and plan to start organized workouts soon.

Spurs guard Danny Green told Jeff Garcia of Project Spurs.com that he has been in contact with several of his teammates . Several of them recently returned to San Antonio to map plans during the workout.

“I saw them actually about a week or two ago,” Green told Garcia. ” We all went back. We talked about dates we want to go back and work out with each other.”

The organized work could be a boon for Green, a former North Carolina standout who appeared in eight game during two stints with the Spurs last season after spending most of the season with the Reno Bighorns in the NBA’s Developmental League. Green scored a season-high 13 points against Phoenix in the regular-season finale on April 13 and averaged 8.7 points in his final four games with San Antonio. He also made the Spurs’ playoff roster, averaging 1.3 points in seven minutes of playoff action over four playoff games.

“The main guys we worked out with at the end of the summer were mostly the young guys,” Green said. “James Anderson, Da’Sean Butler, Gary Neal was there for a little bit, George Hill before he got traded. I’ve seen him (Hill) about two weeks to when I was in San Antonio for the WNBA All-Star game was there. We saw that game.

“Cory Joseph, I’ve kept in touch with him. Hopefully we will go back again, I think in about a week or two, to go workout again with each other. Me, Cory, Da;Sean Butler, James Anderson mostly the young guys. We keep in contact with each other, stay in shape, and we’ll see what happens from there on.”

The organized work will be critical for the young players, who will miss an opportunity to work with Spurs coaches and trainers during the lockout.

Green’s late-season spurt could help him challenge for a roster spot at either shooting guard or small forward if he keeps improving.

That’s why his summer work with other Spurs players will be so critical for him.

Parker not locked out of hoops in France

By Jeff McDonald
jmcdonald@express-news.net

It appears Les Bleus have their point guard.

The French Basketball Federation has obtained insurance sufficient to cover the contracts of its NBA players, paving the way for the Spurs’ Tony Parker to play in the Eurobasket tournament in Lithuania later this summer.

The announcement came via a post on the official website for FIBA, the sport’s international governing body.

The question of insurance for international players has been a hot-button issue since the start of the NBA’s lockout July 1.

Typically, the NBA agrees to pay to insure 80 percent of a player’s salary, with foreign federations left to foot the remaining 20 percent. With a work stoppage in effect, however, the NBA has been unwilling to pick up its share of the tab, leaving the often cash-strapped international teams to shoulder the full financial burden.

For the French federation, that meant securing coverage for more than $125 million worth of NBA contracts. Earlier this summer, Parker said he wouldn’t consider playing this summer unless his contract was insured.

That obstacle cleared, the 29-year-old Parker was set to join fellow French NBA players Boris Diaw, Ronny Turiaf and Nicolas Batum for the start of training camp Wednesday in southern France. Eurobasket, an Olympic qualifying tournament, begins Aug. 31.

News of Les Bleus’ success in obtaining insurance came following a Tuesday meeting in New York between NBA commissioner David Stern and FIBA officials, though it is uncertain if the resolution was a direct result of those talks.

“Even before the formalization of the NBA lockout … the French Basketball Federation began working on insurance contracts of employment of selected players, in particular by proposing a pooling of insurance for all the federations concerned,” read a statement posted to FIBA.com. “Thanks to this French initiative, the coverage of the players is finalized.”

As such, Parker becomes the second Spurs player formally insured to play in this summer’s round of Olympic qualifiers.

Brazil announced last week it had secured insurance for its NBA contingent, making Spurs center Tiago Splitter available for the Tournament of Americas, which tips off Aug. 30 in Mar del Plata, Argentina.

Meanwhile, Spurs guard Manu Ginobili and newly drafted point guard Cory Joseph are awaiting a resolution that would allow them to play for Argentina and Canada, respectively, in the same tournament.

In order for the Argentine federation to field its complete roster, which also includes NBA players Luis Scola, Carlos Delfino and Andres Nocioni, it must first obtain coverage for about $75 million worth of contracts.

In an interview on Argentine television earlier this month, Ginobili said he was “optimistic” the insurance issue would be resolved in time for the team to open training camp July 29.