Tag: National Basketball Association

Tiago set to play for Brazilian national team after insurance arranged

After concerns about who would pay for his insurance to allow him to play, Spurs forward Tiago Splitter has joined the Brazilian national team in the Olympic qualifying tournament in Argentina.

The Brazilian publication globoesporte.com reports the to allow him to play with them.

Splitter is the first of the Spurs’ foreign-born players to get their insurance concerns resolved to play in the tournament. Both Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker have said they most likely will not join their national teams unless their insurance is taken care of him.

Splitter will be participating in three exhibition games with his team, including two games against Mexico and one against an American team that consists of college players.

He was excited about his first day with his national team, but realized he had much to do to get in synch with his new teammates. Among those on the team are Anderson Varejao of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

“First day with national team, not much to say but a lot work to do,” after the first day of practice. 

With the insurance questions resolved, playing with his team will provide some much-needed experience for Splitter this summer.

And with the lockout in place, there would be little for Splitter to do if he remained in America waiting for the 2011-12 NBA season.

Blog brother looks at how the upcoming free agent class could help the Spurs

During a normal summer, the NBA cognescenti would be salivating about potential free-agent moves across the league.

With the extreme likelihood we wi’ll have a lockout on July 1, all of that speculation has gone dormant. Hardly anybody is talking about which teams need to pick which free agents to help them improve.

Thankfully, Robby Lim of Spurs World.com about the upcoming free agent class. He ranks the top potential big people and how they could help the Spurs.

It’s an interesting blog post as he head into the summer and consider what the Spurs could look like whenever the 2011-12 season finally begins with a key addition.

My other blog brothers and blog sisters also have been busy over the past few days. Here are some of their takes.

  • The CBS Sports Network provides an when he was  still playing for San Diego State.
  • Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News wonders if the George Hill trade was made .
  • B Diddy of Air Alamo.com and what he will provide to the Spurs’ rotation.
  • Wayne Vore of Spurs Planet.com describes .
  • Jesse Blanchard of 48 Minutes of Hell.com explains that Leonard could give the Spurs for when they signed Richard Jefferson.  
  • Paul Garcia of Planet Spurs.com opines on the next season as he inherits some of Hill’s playing time and tells us that it took two days for second-round draft choice Adam Hanga to .
  • Timothy Varner of 48 Minutes of Hell has a great post about the essays of Wendell Berry and how the Spurs are trying to that Jefferson has introduced.
  • Blair Kerkhoff of the Kansas City Star ranks Leonard as the but calls the drafting of Joseph with the 29th pick a surprise.
  • Janie Annie of Pounding the Rock.com says .
  • The Project Spurs.com guys make a visit to WOAI.com’s “Sports Roundtable” to .
  • Aaron “Hirschof” Preine of Pounding the Rock.com takes his readers into on the Spurs’ draft  night.
  • Milwaukee coach Scott Skiles tells the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel’s Charles F. Gardner is of former Spurs Benu Udrih and Stephen Jackson who are joining his team.
  • Justin “Scrappy Doo” Biehle of Pounding the Rock.com tells us about a .  
  • Homeowner Denise Mitchell tells the Corpus Christi Caller-Times that at her home are her 2005 and 2007 autographed commemorative championship Spurs basketballs.  
  • Alley Oop of Spurslocker.com gives us the heads-up onand the drafting of , ,  and.

Manu misses his trainer — for obvious reasons

The NBA lockout has thrown up a barrier between the league’s players and the rest of the employees of the team.

And in the process, these roadblocks can get in the way of some pretty strong friendships.

Manu Ginobili seemed to hint at that over the weekend when he to Spurs trainer Will Sevening.

Ginobili and Sevening have developed a strong relationship over the years, considering that Ginobili has missed 105 regular-season games and six more playoff games during his nine-season NBA career.

Sevening has been there for numerous cuts, abrasions, broken bones and bruises over the years from Ginobili, who is known affectionately among the Spurs as “El Contusion” because of all those injuries.

The two friends can’t converse as normal over the summer. No summer cookouts among their families. Not even a birthday e-mail.

For all we know, the NBA’s thought police might be monitoring Sevening’s ability to read tweets from Spurs players.

So we here at Spurs Nation are here to break that blockade.

Here is Ginobili’s tweet to Sevening:

“I wish I could talk to my friend and Spurs trainer Will and wish him a happy birthday…”

We’re more than happy to circumvent the NBA’s rules during this illogical lockout for all sides — particularly the fans in Spurs Nation.