Tag: National Basketball Association

Insured: Parker can play for Les Bleus

The French Basketball Federation has obtained sufficient insurance for its NBA players, clearing the way for Spurs guard Tony Parker and others to play in the Eurobasket tournament in Lithuania later this summer.

During the ongoing NBA lockout, the league has been either unable or unwilling to offer its standard share of insurance for international players to play in FIBA events.

As a result, the full burden of securing pricey insurance for players’ NBA contracts has fallen to the often cash-strapped foreign federations. Earlier this offseason, the 29-year-old Parker said he would not play for France unless his contract could be insured.

, France has accomplished that mission, lining up insurance for the roughly $130 million in NBA contracts on its roster.

Expected to join Parker for the start of Les Bleus camp today are fellow NBAers Boris Diaw, Nicolas Batum, Ronny Turiaf and Kevin Seraphin.

Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah is also free to join the team, but could be held out due to an ankle injury. Phoenix’s Mikael Pietrus will skip the tournament while recovering from knee surgery.

News of the French federation’s success in solving the insurance issue came after a , though it is uncertain if it came as a direct results of those talks.

Battier says ‘magical run’ carried Grizzlies past Spurs in playoffs

Even a couple of months after the upset occurred, Memphis forward Shane Battier remains a little suprised the Grizzlies stunned the Spurs in the first round of the playoffs.

The Grizzlies’ six-game series victory over the Spurs was only the second time since the NBA went to a best-of-seven series for all rounds of the playoffs that a No. 8 seed toppled a No. 1 seed.

And it still is a, he said in an interview with radio station WFAN in New York City earlier this week. (Hat tip to Sports Radio Interviews.com)

“We knew that we had a favorable matchup in the Spurs,” Battier said. “Did we think we could beat them and take the Thunder in second round to seven games? I’d be lying to say I knew that was going to happen.”

The Grizzlies had never won a playoff game, much less a series before their matchup with the Spurs this year. But after splitting four games with San Antonio earlier in the regular season, Memphis has confidence coming into the playoffs, Battier said.

“We knew we had a chance against the Spurs. We felt that we matched up great against them,” Battier said. “We were younger and we were more athletic.

“After we won that first game in San Antonio, we all looked at each other and said ‘hey guys we can do this.’ We went on a magical run, the city was behind us, it was simply electric, and it was a fantastic lightning in a bottle run for us.”

It also didn’t hurt them that Manu Ginobili missed the first game of the series with what turned out to be a broken arm. But the Grizzlies took advantage of his absence in that game and held serve by winning the rest of their home games to claim the upset.

Battier said he hopes that the labor impasse between owners and players will be short. And he made an interesting comment that the NBA can’t go through an extended lockout like the NFL has endured.

“I’m cautiously optimistic that we will get something done before missing any games. We all know what’s at stake,” Battier said. “We can’t afford to go through what the NFL is going through and we can’t afford to lose the fans. I just think we have a perspective after going through this in ’99 that it’s in the best interest of everybody to hammer out a fair deal.”

One word for $1 million? When talk ain’t cheap

It is the basic rule of thumb for NBA players and coaches when it comes to drawing technical fouls. If you’re going to get teed up, make sure to get your money’s worth.

A tech, after all, results in a fine of at least $2,000.

Then there’s Chad Buchanan, the new general manager of the Portland Trail Blazers, who nearly got his team fined $1 million for saying one word.

“Yeah.”

This, (via ):

Witness a recent interview with Trail Blazers acting General Manager Chad Buchanan. When it was observed that it’s too bad there is no summer league scheduled, Buchanan replied, “Yeah.”

Shortly thereafter, the league threatened Buchanan with a $1 million fine, according to one source.

While the NBA lockout is in effect, the league office has dictated that team employees refrain from publicly talking about any aspect of it. That, apparently, includes agreeing with someone else’s observation. No word yet on how high the fine might have been if Buchanan had simply nodded his head at the Portland Tribune reporter. Or winked. Or offered a pre-arranged series of elaborate hand gestures (“Three claps means, ‘Yeah.’ “)

In the end, it appears the Trail Blazers weren’t actually assessed the $1 million fine. It was just David Stern’s friendly way of reminding team employees to keep their traps shut.

All this is to explain why you won’t be hearing so much as a peep from the Spurs front office for as long as the league’s labor impasse lingers. Not exactly the most gregarious types when it comes to discussing their roster plans with the media, general manager R.C. Buford and his band of mystery men are probably happy to have Stern prohibit them from conducting press briefings for the time being.

As far as we can tell, however, TV analyst Sean Elliott is free to continue to complain about officiating while on the golf course.