LeBron James has received his share of criticism for, shall we say, a cavalier attitude he adopts for certain stretches of the regular season. Now, James has rankled Team USA managing director Jerry Colangelo with his recent comment that he’s “50-50” on joining his teammates for this summer’s Olympic qualifying tournament in Las Vegas.
Responding to James’ lukewarm assessment of the chances he’ll participate in the Tournament of the Americas, Colangelo told ESPN.com this week that he could jeopardize his spot on the Olympic team.
“Unless people have a legitimate reason for not participating, I expect them to uphold their three-year commitment,” Colangelo said. “I’m standing by my commitment and I expect people to stand by theirs. If someone chooses not to participate just because they’d rather not play, that person would put himself at risk as far as who ultimately represents us at the Olympics.”
By virtue of its third-place finish in last summer’s World Championships, Team USA’s spot in the 2008 Beijing Olympics is not assured. The U.S. must qualify for the Games beginning with the Las Vegas tournament Aug. 22-Sept. 2 – a development that has James and other players who competed in Japan last summer waffling on their commitments.
“Right now I’m kind of 50-50,” James said last month before a game against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden. “I’ve got a family. My girlfriend right now, we’re expecting another one in June. Health is always an issue. So you’ve got to re-evaluate things, go through the season go through the playoffs and look at it afterwards.”
If James loses his spot or opts out of Beijing, he could lose as much as $500,000 in endorsement bonuses, principally from Nike.
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Kevin Garnett’s future could be determined this summer when the Timberwolves field trade offers for the superstar who can opt out of his contract after the 2007-08 season. Garnett would look great in a Knicks uniform, and would give Isiah Thomas a legitimate scorer and all-around star to complement Eddy Curry.
The Knicks have the pieces to put together a decent offer for Garnett, at least in terms of bodies and salaries; Jamal Crawford, Channing Frye, Jared Jeffries, and Malik Rose, for example, would do the trick.
The only problem is, the Timberwolves need draft picks for Garnett because they owe one to the Clippers from the Sam Cassell trade and another to the Celtics from the Wally Szczerbiak deal. It is looking more and more like the Knicks’ first-round pick going to the Bulls will be a lottery pick, so they won’t have enough picks to lure Garnett.
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The best thing about the Knicks’ slump is that Nate Robinson is getting playing time and doing some things that show up on highlight shows, which appears to be his ultimate goal. Maybe he is doing enough to entice another GM to give up a decent player or draft pick for him this summer. Robinson has talent to fall in love with, but I can’t see him lasting here under Isiah Thomas.
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Two weeks ago, the Wizards were looking like one of the most interesting playoff teams in the East. Depending on seeding, they might’ve been involved in the most intriguing first-round series if they’d matched up with Shaquille O’Neal, Dwyane Wade and the defending champion Heat. Then, in the span of four days, they became a team with no chance to get out of the first round.
Caron Butler is out until at least the conference semifinals with a broken bone in his right hand. Gilbert Arenas, who would’ve gotten at least a few MVP votes, went down with a torn lateral meniscus in his left knee. Arenas underwent arthroscopic surgery on Thursday and is out 2-3 months. The playoffs just won’t be the same without Agent Zero, who was healthy enough to blog about his surgical experience. I love this line from Gil about being put under with anesthesia: "The best sleep I got in … wooooo … a long time."