Team USA chairman Jerry Colangelo believes many may have missed the point of Mark Cuban’s tirade against the International Olympic Committee, writes Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Still, Colangelo didn’t weigh in on whether or not he agreed with Cuban’s stance, as Price notes, though he emphasized that NBA owners aren’t allowed to dissuade their players from joining their national teams as long as they’re healthy enough to play at the outset.
“I think people need to read between the lines, which is basically he’s not against international competition,” Colangelo said. “He’s against international competition when he believes the beneficiary — being the IOC — is getting the money. So he’s basically saying it’s OK for our players to play internationally if the money goes to the NBA and to the team owners. That’s the difference.”
As Paul George‘s injury shines a spotlight on the relationship between national teams and the NBA, here’s more from around the league:
- The Knicks are fond of Pablo Prigioni, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com, even though they’re thinking of packaging him in a deal that would send Wayne Ellington away. It simply appears as though the Knicks won’t be able to find a taker for Ellington by himself, as Stein explains.
- The Wolves have 15 fully guaranteed deals, as our roster counts show, but they hope to create a spot for Glenn Robinson III, who remains unsigned after Minnesota drafted him 40th overall this summer, notes Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune (Twitter link). There’s a chance they’d be able to accomplish that if they offload more players than they receive in a Kevin Love trade.
- There are bonuses tied to Jordan Adams‘ body fat percentage in his rookie scale contract with the Grizzlies, reports Mark Deeks of ShamSports. It’s an odd incentive clause for this year’s No. 22 overall pick, though it’s not unprecedented, since Marcus Williams once had body-fat stipulations in his deal, too, as Deeks points out (Twitter links).
Eddie Scarito contributed to this post.
NO! Not Pablo!!!