Will the gruesome injury that befell Pacers star Paul George force the NBA to stop lending its top players to USA Basketball?
Speculations are ripe that many team owners will now balk at the idea of allowing their top stars to join the national team for international competitions after seeing George being carried off on a stretcher.
Yahoo! Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski quotes one prominent general manager as saying: "This could be a game-changer for international basketball."
Another general manager who has a player participating in the US Basketball pool was also quoted as saying: "The Olympics every four years is one thing, but the rest of this inconsequential [expletive] is ridiculous, We're not paying our guys 50 percent of the BRI so our stars can be exposed to injuries just to let the league [convince itself] that they're going to expand into European markets."
There has been grumblings among team owners and executives about allowing their players to participate in summer competitions like the FIBA World Cup and the Olympics, mainly for fear that their stars will get injured. The NBA season starts in October and lasts up to April, not counting on the playoffs and the Finals that stretch up to June.
Team owners thus are reluctant to see their players push themselves too hard in international competitions, increasing the risks of injury in the process.
Most recently, San Antonio Spurs guard Manu Ginobili was barred by his team from joining the Argentine national team in this year's FIBA World Cup due to a stress fracture in his leg. Ginobili has been a fixture in the Argentine national basketball team, but the Spurs made it clear that they would want him fresh for the upcoming season.
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