Tag: Manu Ginobili

Ole! Argentina attains insurance for Ginobili, other NBA players

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.

Lockout red tape keeps Ginobili waiting

The Argentine senior men’s basketball team will begin training today in Buenos Aires in preparation for the FIBA Americas Olympic qualifying tournament, but Spurs guard Manu Ginobili’s participation remains clouded by the NBA lockout.

According to the ESPN Deportes website, the availability of Ginobili and fellow NBA players Luis Scola (Rockets), Carlos Delfino (Bucks) and Andres Nocioni (76ers) remains uncertain because the Argentine basketball federation has yet to secure insurance to cover the contracts of the NBA players.

Ordinarily, NBA teams are required to insure 80 percent of the contract of any player participating on a national team in a FIBA-sanctioned event. Because of the lockout, the entire burden of insuring the contracts falls on national federations, an expensive proposition for nations with multiple NBA participants.

German Vaccaro, president of the Argentine federation, is quoted in the ESPN Deportes article expressing confidence that the insurance, estimated to total $500,000, will be paid so the four players can join their national team for the tournament Aug. 28-Sept. 11 in Mar del Plata, Argentina.

“One way or another, we are going to solve it, and NBA players will be able to play with the team,” Vaccaro told ESPN Deportes. “If we have to pay it, we’ll pay it, but I am very optimistic.”

In an interview with the Express-News in June, Ginobili said playing in the Olympic qualifying tournament in his homeland was “very, very important.” Equally vital to the Spurs All-Star guard: the opportunity to reunite with six teammates from the team that won the Olympic gold medal in Athens in 2004.

“I know I only have this one and probably the next one to play with all my great friends on the team, Luis (Scola) and Fabri (Oberto) and (Andres) Nocioni and (Carlos) Delfino and the rest,” Ginobili said in June. “It is really exciting.”

Bogut out: Milwaukee Bucks center Andrew Bogut will spend his time during the lockout as assistant coach of the Australian national team that will face New Zealand in an Olympic qualifying series.

Bogut hoped to play for Australia in the best-of-3 series, the winner of which will qualify for the 2012 London Games. But Basketball Australia was unable to insure his multimillion dollar contract, and instead the former No. 1 NBA draft pick will assist coach Brett Brown, the Spurs’ assistant coach, on the bench.

Brown joked Thursday: “He’ll be my richest assistant coach. He’s fantastic about wanting to play, but with injury and insurance issues with the NBA lockout, he’ll play his role from the bench next to me.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Would it really be the Olympics with no NBA players next year in London?

The start of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London is exactly one year away.

Since the introduction of the American “Dream Team” in 1992, men’s basketball has been one of the Olympics biggest and most anticipated events. And it figures to be that way again in London.

That is, if NBA players choose to represent their countries.

The Olympics are a huge part of David Stern’s globalization of the sport. And the league has its fingerprints all over USA Basketball, starting with managing director and former majority Phoenix Suns owner Jerry Colangelo running the show.

But if the lockout stretches through at least one season through the early summer next season, it’s extremely doubtful that the players would give in and join up with their national teams.

This promises to be perhaps the United States’ best team since the original “Dream Team” in 1992. Kobe Bryant has committed, eager to match Michael Jordan for his second gold medal. The United States has a deep collection of transcendent young talent like Kevin Durant and Derrick Rose along with emerging superstar players like LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. 

Other countries look similarly stacked. The Spain team still has the Gasol brothers, but could also add international icon Ricky Rubio and Serge Ibaka. The Argentinians are stacked with veterans who helped them win in 2004, including Manu Ginobili and Fabricio Oberto. France will have Tony Parker along with Joakim Noah and Boris Diaw

But Yahoo.com columnist Adrian Wojnarowski doubts we’ll see any NBA players if the .

It’s just another part of the equation as owners and players sit down next month to settle their differences when negotiations continue. 

No doubt the executives at 30 Rock for NBC-TV have the fingers crossed for an eventual resolution, too.

Because there’s only so much synchronized swimming, field hockey and dressage they can force feed to the American public in their search for ratings.