Spain - Jose Calderon Says Americans Need to Send Top Players to Worlds

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Defending champion Spain is planning to have its best players for next year's World Championships in Turkey. The nation's top point guard is recommending that the Americans do the same.

"I think they've got to do that,'' Jose Calderon of the Toronto Raptors told FanHouse. "You cannot just play for the Olympics. I think that, if you want to be on the team, you've got to be in all the good tournaments, and that is a good tournament.''

Nevertheless, it remains to be seen how many members of America's 2008 gold-medal Olympic team will return for the World Championships. Several top players, namely Cleveland's LeBron James, Miami's Dwyane Wade and Toronto's Chris Bosh, are wavering about committing.

USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo is on a quest to convince Olympic holdovers the importance of the World Championships, an event Americans long have given little attention. Many top basketball-playing nations consider it more important than the Olympics.

But James, Wade and Bosh all can opt out of their contracts next summer and become free agents. For that reason, they might be unwilling to give Colangelo an advance commitment.

"It's important (for Team USA to have its best players), but they've got to take care of what they've got to take care of,'' Denver forward Carmelo Anthony, who already has committed to the Worlds, said about James, Wade and Bosh. "You don't really know what's going to happen with their free agency, and you've got to take care of your own first.''

The Americans haven't won the Worlds since Dream Team II clobbered foes in Canada in 1994. Following the original Dream Team's win in the 1992 Olympics, that was the second major international competition featuring NBA players.

NBA players didn't appear in the World Championships in 1998 in Greece due to the NBA lockout and a watered-down Team USA finished an embarrassing sixth in 2002 in Indianapolis. A solid American team managed just the bronze medal in Japan in 2006, which is why Anthony hopes all the top players from the Olympics eventually will return.

"We lost in the last Worlds, so it's good to go back and defend ourselves,'' said Anthony, a starting forward in both the 2006 Worlds and 2008 Olympics who can't become a free agent until 2011 at the earliest. "But I understand if everybody can't make it.''

Spain won the 2006 Worlds and took the silver medal in the 2008 Olympics after falling to Team USA in an epic finale. Calderon, who missed the gold-medal game due to a groin injury, wants another shot at a top American team.

"You want everybody to be there,'' said Calderon, who did not play for Spain when it won the European Championships last month but will be back for the World Championships. "You want to play against the best players. That's what you want. So hopefully everybody will come back (for the Americans). ... I think they have a great team. But now you can't just go out (anyway) and win every game. ... You've got to be ready to play every night. There's no easy game anymore.''

Calderon has yet to talk to Bosh, his Raptors teammate, about the Worlds. But Bosh agrees with Calderon that the Americans likely have to send a top team to win.

"We have to,'' Bosh said. "You have to send your best players.''

Bosh is one of the best, and he hopes to play. But he said it could be too dicey if his contract situation is unsettled.

Chris Tomasson can be reached at tomasson@fanhouse.com.