USA Olympics basketball prospects threatened by the NBA lockout
The NBA lockout has plenty of far reaching consequences. Not only can it impact the long term popularity of basketball, incur massive financial losses on players and owners, and put in risk livelihoods of many lower staff associated
with the game, it can also jeopardize the United States Olympic bid in 2012.
One of the people worried about the lockout is USA Men’s Basketball team coach Mike Krzyzewski.
"We're obviously really concerned," the Duke Blue Devils' coach said as guest on ESPN Radio's Mike and Mike In the Morning show Wednesday. "What if there isn't a season? What if they expand (the season past June) if they start
playing?”
That is a very real concern for Team USA. The NBA could well expand the season to make up for lost time now if a deal is agreed any time soon. That, though good for the league and its fans, would place the USA team in a very tough
situation. All of the players in the USA team play in the NBA, and how will they report for training if they are still involved with games in July?
"We begin (Olympic) practice the 4th or 5th of July. The gold medal game is Aug. 12. If the NBA has to go into July, what does that do for us? If they don't have a season, will they play (in the Olympics)?" Mike said.
The prospect of not having a season is therefore equally worrying. Without having played for a year, it is hard to see how even the NBA super stars would be ready for two gruelling weeks of basketball in London.
"The main thing we're worried about is just the game. NBA basketball is the highest level in the world. … The thing I would worry about is injuries … the conditioning," Krzyzewski said. "So you worry about that, just, would anybody
get hurt?”
Not only will the players be at a greater risk of injury, not only will they be out of shape, they also won’t have any insurance cover. During the last Olympics in Beijing, NBA players on Team USA were covered by their NBA contracts,
if the lockout is still going on next summer, they won’t have that cover.
This could prove to be a serious problem for the United States because some players could get cold feet about playing in the Olympics if that were to be the case. Just this summer, Great Britain star Ben Gordon did not participate
in the EuroBasket tournament for exactly the same reason.
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