PUR - Boricua Peavy down and out for season

SAN JUAN (FIBA Americas Championship/FIBA Basketball World Cup) - Nathan Peavy's confidence was soaring as he went into this season with Alba Berlin.

The Puerto Rico international, having played for his country at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT), had been offered a chance to compete for one of Germany's giants and make a first-ever appearance in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague.

But Peavy, who averaged 9.7 points, 5.3 rebounds and two assists per game for Flor Melendez's team at the OQT in Caracas, Venezuela, will instead have to spend the year watching games from the sideline.

He was playing for Alba in a pre-season game against Italians Varese when he ruptured his right anterior cruciate ligament and suffered a broken femur.

Doctors have said that Peavy can expect to miss the entire German and Euroleague season.

His participation with Puerto Rico at the FIBA Americas Championship in Caracas next summer, a tournament that will serve as a qualifying event for the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain, looks to be in jeopardy, too.

Mithat Demirel, who works as the sports director for Alba Berlin, said: "This news hits Nathan and us very hard shortly before the start of the season.

"He was a central player to our concept this season."

Peavy had been a vital man for Artland Dragons last year in both Germany and the EuroChallenge.

The 27-year-old averaged almost 14 points and more than six rebounds in the Bundesliga, and almost 14 points and four rebounds in the EuroChallenge.

Peavy's first major tournament with Puerto Rico came in 2010 when he played at the FIBA World Championship in Turkey.

FIBA