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Injury buzzsaw trims Olympic squads

Posted May 4, 2008 at 10:25 PM by Os Davis

Section: Beijing 2008, Events, Basketball, Featured Writers, Os Davis

olympic logo basketball As Olympic squads begin to coalesce and take shape, it’s been a bit of a buzz saw this week. A rundown on some international goings on; for those that get queasy at the mention of doctors and health problems should probably just move on to the swimming column.

Spain. Confirmed for Spain this week was Jose Calderon, whose Toronto Raptors were mercilessly bounced out of the NBA playoffs by the Orlando Magic, four games to one. Not to play in Beijing is Calderon’s fellow Raptor, Jorge Garbajosa. Garbajosa spent the entirety of 2007-2008 on injured reserve, and the Toronto club is exercising its rights to block Garbajosa from the competition.

If you guessed this decision steams the Spanish Basketball Federation, you’d surely be correct. Bad blood already runs between the entities over Garbajosa’s participation in Eurobasket 2007 and concomitant insurance matters.

Australia. Definitely out for Beijing are team captain Jason Smith and old hand “Slammin’” Sam MacKinnon due to some ugly injuries indeed.

Longtime NBL player Jason Smith (Melbourne South Dragons) reportedly suffered a rotator cuff injury (!) in this year’s playoffs while with the Sydney Kings. An operation will keep him off the court for eight months.

Meanwhile, MacKinnon is suffering from blood clots on the lungs. (Ouch.) After taking home the NBL’s MVP award in his 14th season, the “greatest Australian basketball player to have not played in the NBA” has been prescribed blood-thinners and a regimen which includes no basketball for three months. (Double ouch.)

Cape Verde. Poor Cape Verde; ever since the islanders took the bronze medal at the 2007 Africa Championship, it’ll all been downhill. Not only will head coach Emannuel Trovoada miss the Beijing Games due to family issues, not only will the team be “have a transformed squad in July when they show up at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Athens,” not only does Ryan Gomes (Minnesota Timberwolves) appear unlikely to play, but the team itself may actually be denied funding to attend the Athens tournament.

According to a local report by AfricaBasket.com’s Pedro Gomes two weeks ago,

The Cape Verdean Basketball Federation has established a deadline of 15 days to decide whether the national team will participate in the pre-Olympic qualifying tournament to be held in Athens from June 14-29.

With only two months remaining before the start of the tournament, federation members have yet to receive any guarantees for the financing of the operation, which budgeted around 40 million Cape Verdean Escudos (approximately USD 576,000/EUR 362,000). ...

The Government had promised, when the team returned from Angola, all the necessary support for the participation in the pre-Olympic tournament, but as of now the national team has been guaranteed of CVE 2.5 million (app. USD 36,000/EUR 22,650), to be made available by the General Secretariat of Sports in the contract of programs signed with the federation. ...

The president of the Basketball Federation guarantees that, despite financial difficulties, almost everything has been prepared for the national team’s participation in the tournament.

As for Gomes, well ... while would-be teammates like Rodrigo Mascarenhas opines that the T-wolf “is more than welcome,” Cape Verde Basketball Federation president Kitana Cabral closed the door on that one recently with “There is nothing to say about Ryan Gomes.”

All right, then.