It wasn’t all that long ago that NBA teams would strongly suggest to their international players that they turn down the opportunity to represent their country in global basketball events held during the offseason.
With so many players from outside the United States now in the league, though, along with the fact that contracts of teams’ best players are insured against injury, that practice has ended, for the most part.
But when you hear of players suffering injuries in international play -- especially during exhibitions -- well, you can see where team personnel might be coming from.
From Dan McCarney of the San Antonio Express-News:Details were extremely limited, but French sports daily L’Equipe reported that Spurs point guard Tony Parker is scheduled for an MRI on Tuesday after injuring his right knee for the second time in exhibition play leading up to next month’s EuroBasket tournament.
The injury does not appear to be serious. ... The injury was not referenced in a wire story about the game, nor did Parker address it in comments published by L’Equipe.We’ll hope for the best where Parker is concerned, but the Spurs can’t be happy with even a slight injury to their All-Star point guard, considering that he was playing at less than 100 percent during the team’s Finals matchup with the Heat a little over two months ago.