The way has been cleared for Spurs guard Manu Ginobili and his fellow NBA teammates on the Argentine senior men’s national team to play in the FIBA Americas Olympic qualifying tournament that is scheduled for their homeland in late August and early September.
According to a report on the FIBA Americas website, Argentine Basketball Federation president German Vaccaro confirmed that the federation successfully had secured insurance to indemnify the players against loss of the remainder of their NBA contracts because of long-term injury.
“At this moment I am just very happy to have managed this,” Vaccaro told the FIBA Americas site. “It has been a very exhausting process of endless meetings, moments of uncertainty and some disappointments. But as I said at the outset, we will send the best team possible to Mar del Plata.”
Some details of the insurance deal won’t be finalized until next week, so it is uncertain when the NBA players will be allowed to begin training with the national team, which opened its training Friday in Buenos Aires.
Vaccaro said the insurance company, Sancor, will become a sponsor of the team.
In an interview with the Express-News in mid-July, Giobili emphasized the importance of competing in the tournament in Mar del Plata, Schedule for Aug. 28-Sept. 11, as a final opportunity to compete in front of Argentine fans for himself and the teammates who have been together for a decade, including a run to the 2004 Olympic gold medal in Athens.