First, when we look at the Redeem Team, we see the best of the best, spearheaded by Dwayne Wade, LeBron James, and Carmelo Anthony, anchored by Kobe Bryant and Jason Kidd, I mean, the “worst” player on the team is arguably Carlos Boozer or Tayshaun Prince. These are all, well-known household names, generally icons for whatever NBA franchise they play for, usually one of the best players on whatever franchise they play for. If one of the members couldn’t play due to injury, we go down the list and call up Caron Butler or something. Even if we look at the list of players not playing we see the likes of Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan. One of the most common excuses I’ve heard is that because other teams like France don’t have as many superstars, the superstars (like Tony Parker or Dirk Nowitzki) have to work that much harder, whereas with Team USA everyone works easier than they normally do. Beyond showing a certain level of disrespect to international competition, the excuse leveled doesn’t curtail the simple risk of getting on the basketball court. That is why I greatly appreciate the hypothetical example of Jerry Buss pulling Kobe Bryant out of the Redeem Team to rest him. What would US fans think of that?

The second issue is the inherent assumption that basketball players don’t play basketball if it’s not in official leagues. Certainly the level of play is different, but the inherent risk of jumping in pickup games is the same as stepping onto a court during international play, I would argue more dangerous because it isn’t really organized. A lot of players play pick-up games with each other, and run the equal risk of pulling a muscle, landing on an ankle funny, or taking a charge the wrong way as they would in any sort of organized international competition. Are we now to say that LeBron can’t play pickup games in his own camp? He can’t touch a basketball at all during the offseason?

It’s a fairly ridiculous comparison, but to me, it’s kind of like asking teachers not to travel during summer vacation because they might come back too tired and drained to effectively teach their students when the school year starts back up. I have yet to see a school board enforce something like that, but somehow when it comes to entertainment in the form of sports owners feel compelled to bubble-wrap their superstars? Certainly there is a risk of Tony Parker playing internationally, he doesn’t have a Tim Duncan to take some of the offensive load and attract the opposition’s defense. There certainly is a risk of Tony Parker not playing too that no one talks about, that being that he feels like he’s letting his country down and thereby mopes through the entire season, having his performance suffer drastically, it runs both ways.

Owners I think need to remember they own the team and the contracts, not the players. This is a good point that fans need to remember too. What would you do if your employer suddenly told you; “You can’t do x, y, and z on your vacation because it might impair your performance when you get back.” Certainly there are rules built into the contract, like mopeds and motorcycles and things, but remember this, players like the rest of us are people too.

I mean, is it really much better for an owner to have a player injured playing “for him” than for their country? they still lose that player and worse probably dont have insurance for the contract (which they require for internationals). injuries suck, but they happen. Its a physical sport with a long season.
in the end the current system works fine. teams know which players are hurt/fragile and which arent. whether they play for their NT shouldnt affect their worth as employees, and Im 99.99% sure that players like Lebron, Kobe, Gino and Dirk would always be able to get an equal offer from another team without the “no olympics” clause.

Most Players from different countries take pride in representing their country and they want it to have the best lineup/talent as possible. (even the US assembles teams of allstars right).

For the sake of patriotism and respect for the game it should be this way….

Now NBA owners might not all agree (they are paying alot of money for these stars). But when they signed them to a contract, they know that there is that possibility (Playing for the country)…

Injuries happen along the way and players also don’t wan’t them to happen it is a thing that is sometimes beyond our (players and owners alike..) control.

Now one can argue that with rest (instead of playing competitive basketball) a potential injury might not happen (as in Manu’s case). But the reality is Injuries can happen all the time and If you are a player with great skills and talent and you’d love to represent your country how would you feel if it is denied?

Ultimately, I think ? I should always be the players’ prerogative because:

1. He knows his body more than anyone.

2. Despite playing Internationally, a player would
always have the caution to take care of himself.
(He knows that skills and talent is the product
he sells and has to take care of it)

3. No one should deny anybody the honor, pride
and great feeling of competing for your own
country…

(Did you guys see how happy Argentina celebrated when they won the Gold?… those are moments that money can’t buy…)

In a way I think there’s a huge communication problem too – it should have been Dirk saying he wasn’t going to go to the Euro, and giving whatever excuses he wants – not Cuban who now looks like an inhibitor.

From another point of view I would seriously reconsider the motivation of any player who would choose to opt out of national team play for more money. As has been pointed out many times, if you want to have the best competitors in one field you can’t ask of them to be competitive one day and not the next – these guys step up to the next challenge, whatever it may be.

Finally as you pointed out a flat out rule that NBA players can’t play for their home country would have quite a few consequences, including a battle with FIBA that would leave pretty much everyone in a worse situation than right now. Look at the number of young players in Europe who don’t even WANT to come play in the NBA after being drafted, often because of the rookie scale or the fact that they’ve been pros for many many years before being drafted, unlike US players – but also because it’s just more appealing to play for a top Euro team than for the bottom of the NBA (which is actually the majority of franchises right now). The NBA has a good product but it’s definitely not as dominating as it once was either.

Still, considering how rich he already is, I imagine public opinion is more important than a few more millions at this point in his career.

The NBA can help, though, by being more flexible. In order to make it easier to recruit overseas players, they need to adjust the cap rules. If a player is injured, an insurance policy could cover the financial loss, but the team should get cap relief to bring in some help if that happens.

With those types of changes, I can see players that are adamant about playing for their national team accepting a lower salary for that concession. The NBA team could use the savings to purchase insurance against his injury. Then, if the player gets hurt, the team should at least have the salary space cleared from the cap calculation so they can bring in someone else to replace him. If they feel strongly enough about the situation, a clause of the contract could be that, if the player is injured in non-NBA play, the team can void the contract altogether.

A player who is not so adamant about playing for his national team may be willing to accept a bump in salary for his concession.

There are all sorts of things that can be done. Contracts could be tailored for specific players, with their specific wants and needs, and for specific organizations with their wants and need.

And of course Manu being branded a traitor is a financial loss for him. If he’s hated, his sneakers won’t sell so well back home.