The folks at FIBA are referring to the upcoming 2010 World Championship tournament in Turkey as a “Giant Get-Together,” but with every passing day it seems the meeting gets just a bit smaller.
In seemingly the first mention of such an exclusion, USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo lumped Kobe Bryant in with confirmed or near-confirmed Team USA no-shows such as Dwyane Wade, Dwight Howard, Chris Bosh, and Carmelo Anthony in the ‘paper on Friday.
According to the Post, Colangelo is not counting on Kobe’s participation and that “he could very well have surgery after the playoffs,” and whoa, BallinEurope has a hard time believing the Black Mamba would give up another opportunity to get his name in the historical record again.
On the other hand, Colangelo is suddenly optimistic about the possibility of LeBron James possibly suiting up in the navy blue and white for America.
Nike representatives will be holding a press conference on Wednesday to formally announce a friendly match between Team USA and Team France in New York City this summer. Hopefully, they’ll spare the bad news.
In addition to the above USA NBA players, the list of confirmed no-shows for the FIBA World Championship includes (and is surely not limited to) Andrew Bogut, Danilo Gallinari, Pau Gasol, Manu Ginobili, Yao Ming, Tony Parker, Rony Turiaf and perhaps even Sasha Vujacic. Sad but true.
Then again, BiE supposes it could be worse. Like if the entirety of Team USA pulls out…
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