Owners Watch Nervously as Europe's Best Square Off

Late summer may be the doldrums for NBA fans, but it's high season for international basketball — and that has general managers nervous.

In the old days, this was never an issue. The league had few players from outside America, and the talent disparity between the U.S. and other countries was so great that we dispatched our collegians to knock off the foreign sides in international tournaments.

But those days are long gone. Pro players have replaced college ones on all the American teams, while the increasing prestige of international tournaments has placed greater demands on players of all nationalities to participate. And as they've become more competitive, the time demands have only increased — several weeks of practice are now the norm, whereas in the past they'd roll out the balls a week or two before the tournament.

With the increasing importance of these tournaments has come the increasing realization of the risks to NBA franchises. Namely, the players can get hurt.

Look no further than the Memphis Grizzlies, whose Pau Gasol suffered a broken bone in his foot during last year's world championships. That injury knocked him out for the first half of the season, and by the time he returned, Memphis's season already was effectively over.

It can't make the Grizzlies happy, then, that Gasol is suiting up for Spain again this September. He's playing for his country in the Eurobasket tournament in Madrid right now, even though Spain doesn't need to do well because it has already qualified for the Olympics as World Champions. (Yes — freaking Spain is the champion of the world in basketball. It's kind of like saying Columbus, Ohio, has the world's best tapas, except this actually happened.)

Nor can the Toronto Raptors be too excited to see Jorge Garbajosa suiting up next to Gasol. When we last saw Garbo, he was suffering a Theismannesque ankle injury in a game against Boston that knocked him out for the year. The Raptors were hoping Garbajosa would undergo another surgery this summer to fix some lingering problems, but he wanted to play for the national side instead.

Teams do at least have some defense against injuries, in the form of insurance policies that national teams take out on players. Thus, if Garbajosa were to "twist" his ankle once again, Toronto would at least save some dough by getting a check to help cover his salary. But it would do little to ease the impact on wins and losses, and the revenue decline that would likely result.

That's why Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has been so outspoken about the potential negatives of these tournaments. Certainly, he has a horse in this race — his star, Dirk Nowitzki, is also gung-ho about playing for the German national team and is trying desperately to get them into the Olympics as we speak.

But there's a valid point here, and it's a dilemma soccer has dealt with for years: How do pro teams deal with the fact that most players will gladly play for free for their country during the off-season, even if it imperils their fitness for the following season?

It's a question with no easy answers. As free, sentient beings, the players have every right to play for their country over the summer. And as many have pointed out, it's not like the players would be idling otherwise.

Most players are working out and playing competitively by this point in the off-season anyway, and that comes with its own injury risks. The Clippers' Elton Brand, for instance, popped his Achilles during an individual workout a few weeks ago and will miss half the season. Ironically, he played for the U.S. team last summer and escaped without harm.

And thus far, the major NBA players in this year's Eurobasket tourney have escaped unharmed — much as the league's stars did in the U.S. team's tournament in Las Vegas two weeks ago.

So perhaps we should cross our fingers, sit back, and enjoy. Certainly the Eurobasket tournament is laden with talent. Gasol, Nowitzki, San Antonio's Tony Parker, Utah's Andrei Kirilenko, and Mehmet Okur are among the All-Stars taking part, as well as several less prominent NBA talents. (But no locals are in it: New Jersey's Nenad Krstic and Bostjan Nachbar decided to skip on playing for Serbia.)

For that reason, the European tournament is again the cream of international pre-Olympic competitions. The top three finishers will qualify for Beijing, as will the Spaniards, but what makes it so interesting is how competitive it is. Several teams — Spain, Greece, Russia, Slovenia, France, and Lithuania, for instance — are evenly matched, making for some compelling basketball.

Don't think the American side isn't looking on with some interest. Along with Argentina, the top European sides represent the most credible threat to the U.S. team's chances of winning gold in Beijing.

There are the usual suspects, of course — the pesky, tough-defending Greeks are always a threat despite not having one NBA player (as the U.S. learned the hard way a year ago); the Spaniards have a smooth inside-outside attack with Gasol and guards Jose Calderon and Juan Carlos Navarro; and Lithuania doesn't play any defense but can shoot the lights out.

But this year we may be seeing a couple new contenders take center stage. Slovenia has several NBA players but never seemed to put it together in international play; that's changed dramatically this year. The Slovenes have yet to lose a game and will play the tournament's only other unbeaten, Lithuania, today for the top spot in their group.

Then there are the Russians. Like Slovenia, they've underachieved for years, but they're moving up the world ranks thanks to some American help. Coach David Blatt has taken over the team and made it a more cohesive unit, especially on D, while naturalized American J.R. Holden gives them a steady hand at the point.

Throw in the shot-blocking and all-around play of Kirilenko, some European vets on the front line, and one or two NBA prospects — file away the name Anton Ponkrashov for future reference — and you have yourself a strong contender for Beijing next year.

In the meantime, NBA employers will keep their fingers crossed for a few more days. By Sunday, the Eurobasket tourney will be over and they can go back to their other worries … until the drill begins anew next summer in the run-up to the Olympics.

jhollinger@nysun.com