USA - League reminds teams not to discourage playing internationally

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The NBA reminded teams this week they are not allowed to discourage their players from competing in international competitions, shortly after Manu Ginobili said the Spurs did just that.
A memo dated May 2 was sent to all NBA clubs. According to a person familiar with the document, it read: “This is a reminder that, under the NBA’s agreement with FIBA, NBA teams are required to permit their players to play in certain major national-team competitions, provided that adequate insurance is obtained.

“These include the Olympics, world championships, continental championships (such as the European Championships), and relevant qualifying tournaments.”

That person requested anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the memo.

Ginobili recently announced that he wouldn’t play for Argentina, the defending Olympic champion, in this summer’s regional Olympic qualifier in Las Vegas. He wrote on his Web site that San Antonio requested he skip the event, saying that coach Gregg Popovich gave “rather understandable arguments.”

“We told him we didn’t want him to go,” Popovich said Friday after practice. “Why would we want him to go?”

Popovich, who also coaches Ginobili’s Argentine teammate, Fabricio Oberto, is aware of the policy and knows it’s the player’s call if he wants to participate.

Rasheed: ‘We’re on a mission’

Rasheed Wallace and the Detroit Pistons respect Chicago, particularly after the Bulls swept Miami, and expect the upcoming series to be competitive.

Wallace, however, likes Detroit’s mind-set over Chicago’s entering the matchup.

“I think they’re happy to be here,” he said. “We’re on a mission to go ahead and win it.”

Game 1 in the Eastern Conference semifinal is today at The Palace of Auburn Hills.

The Bulls have advanced in the playoffs for the first time since 1998, when Michael Jordan led them to their sixth title.

Detroit has assumed its usual position by making it to the second round for the sixth straight year, and seems to be highly motivated to at least reach the NBA finals for the third time in four years. The playoff-tested Pistons are coming off their first series sweep since the Bad Boys era, disposing of the Orlando Magic with four businesslike wins.

Suns the new No. 1

The Phoenix Suns awoke Friday as the new top seed in the NBA playoffs.

The Dallas Mavericks’ stunning first-round loss to Golden State has given the Suns (61-21) home-court advantage throughout the playoffs.

Dallas’ upset loss has also seemingly raised the stakes for the second-round matchup between the Suns and the San Antonio Spurs, which tips off Sunday at U.S. Airways Center.

“I think it’s a Finals-type matchup, but there’s still a lot of teams left to play, and a lot of the teams left can create a lot of problems for everyone,” Phoenix point guard Steve Nash said.

Stern criticizes study

NBA commissioner David Stern criticized a study regarding racial bias among league officials and the New York Times for printing it, saying racism “doesn’t exist in the NBA.”

Stern said of the report: “My major concern about it is that it’s wrong.”

“This is a bum rap, that’s all,” Stern said. “This is a bum rap, and if it is going to be laid on us it should be laid on us by basis of some people who are purported to be scholars in a publication that purports to hold us up to a higher standard — a little bit more should have been done.”

Justin Wolfers, an assistant professor of business and public policy at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, and Joseph Price, a Cornell graduate student in economics, found that white referees called fouls at a greater rate against black players than against white players.

The study, conducted over a 13-year span through 2004, was based on information from publicly available box scores, which show only the referees’ names and contain no information about which official made a call.