Grizzlies’ star Pau Gasol will have surgery tomorrow on the broken fifth metatarsal in his left foot, an injury he suffered during his team’s semifinal game in the FIBA World Championship. The recovery time for this type of surgery is usually three months.
Boy, how times have changed. Back in the day, NBA owners just had to decide whether or not to let their players compete in international play for Team USA. Most owners allow their players to do so, if only to avoid seeming unpatriotic. But now, with the influx of international players into the league, owners are pressured into allowing their players play against Team USA in international competition. Talk about a quandary.
Put yourself in Mark Cuban’s shoes. You’ve got an NBA franchise that depends heavily on the health of your star player, Dirk Nowitzki. And every other summer – either at the World Championship or the Olympics – he takes off to play an unknown number of games against great competition with national pride on the line. If he suffers an injury like Gasol’s, the Mavericks are in a bad way. No longer are they fighting for home court advantage in the playoffs, now they’re just hoping to make the playoffs.
But Cuban allows Nowitzki to compete, probably because the Big German wants to play for his country. Or at least he says he does. If Nowitzki announced that he wasn’t playing in the World Championship, the Germans would be enraged, asking, “Who does he think he is?” (Of course, they would ask it in German.) So he says he wants to play, but is he just placating the German fans? Only Dirk knows for sure.
Cuban wants to keep his star happy, but he’d feel a lot better if Nowitzki stayed in Dallas for the summer. It would actually be a patriotic move if he could keep Nowitzki – one of the world’s best players – out of international competition. Of course, his worldwide reputation would take a hit. He’d be viewed as an arrogant American hoping to help Team USA win by attrition.
So it’s really a no-win situation. Cuban lets his star compete and can only pray that he doesn’t get seriously injured. Just ask Michael Heisley, the owner of the Memphis Grizzlies, if that’s a good plan.
