TOMASSON: Colangelo wants U.S. team intact

By Chris Tomasson, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published January 8, 2009 at 7:45 p.m.

Text size  

• 1 Comment
• Email
• Print

Photo by Russel A. Daniels / Associated Press/2007

USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo, left, plans to solicit players, including Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony, about playing in the World Championships. The status of coach Mike Krzyzewski will be determined after the college season.

Like The Blues Brothers, Jerry Colangelo is on a mission to round up the old gang.

OK, it hasn't been that long since this group last performed. But it still might take some serious convincing by the USA Basketball chairman.

After Team USA won Olympic gold last August in Beijing, Colangelo vowed to give these superstars some space. But come the Feb. 13-15 All-Star Weekend in Phoenix, he plans to touch base with them.

Colangelo's preference is simple. He wants many of the top players back for the World Championships in Turkey in 2010 and the 2012 London Olympics.

"Take 2009 off, get it done in 2010, take 2011 off," Colangelo said of time before the Olympics. "That's the perfect scenario, if they're willing to do that."

With the U.S. having qualified for the World Championships because of its Olympic win, Colangelo said USA Basketball will have a camp this summer with young players. While not giving names, he's referring to up-and-coming pros such as Greg Oden, Kevin Durant, Derrick Rose and Michael Beasley.

But Colangelo wants the elite for the World Championships. Then he emphasized, if the U.S. wins gold in Turkey, the top players would have 2011 off since that would mean automatic Olympic qualification.

But Colangelo might have to do some serious salesmanship. Team USA star Dwyane Wade was asked if he would mind if young pros ended up playing in Turkey rather than Olympic holdovers.

"That's fine," Wade said. "We got a lot of great young players. (Wade's Miami teammate Beasley) could be one."

Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony, an Olympic starter at forward, didn't sound as if he already has gone online to read about Turkey.

"I'm not even thinking about that," said Anthony, who said during the 2008 Games he wants to play in London in 2012 but now says he wants to keep his options open.

Anthony does know that players from USA Basketball's recent core group need a break. Colangelo had players give a three-summer commitment, from the 2006 Worlds through the 2008 Olympics.

"I think so," Anthony said on whether a break is needed. "I've been four years with Team USA. I was with them every summer (since the 2004 Olympics with the exception of 2005)."

Colangelo, who said he won't look into whether Duke's Mike Krzyzewski might return as Team USA coach until after the college season, knows it's not realistic to ask top players to give another three-summer commitment.

"I want a two-year commitment, 2010 and 2012, and shame on you if you don't win in 2010," Colangelo said of seeking to avoid a 2011 Olympic qualifying tournament. "What we need to do is talk and get a feel for the lay of the land. . . . I'd like to put a lot of credence in the (World Championships) like the rest of the world does."

Since Colangelo was put in charge of the senior men's team in 2005, the only blip on his fine tenure has been the Americans not winning the Worlds in 2006 in Japan. They settled for a bronze medal. Team USA hasn't won the Worlds since 1994.

"I think, if they buy into this theory, they'll see the World Championships is as important in the eyes of the world (as the Olympics)," Colangelo said.

We'll see if top players buy into it. Another obstacle for the summer of 2010 is that several top players, most notably Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh, likely will be free agents and might prefer to focus on NBA futures.

For starters, Colangelo might want to bring brochures of Turkey to All-Star Weekend.

"I guarantee 90 percent of NBA players don't know where the World Games are," Nuggets coach George Karl said. "I don't know where the World Games are next year."

Karl was Team USA coach during its disastrous sixth-place finish at the World Championships in Indianapolis in 2002. He learned firsthand about not being able to attract top players for that event.

"The World games to the rest of the world is more important than the Olympics," Karl said. "We take off the World games."

But Colangelo can be a persuasive man. He said he has no timetable to finalize USA Basketball's next plan and said it's too early to say whether being available for the World Championships once again would be a requirement for players to be in the Olympics.

Going the extra Miles?

It would make perfect sense for the Nuggets to sign Darius Miles to a 10-day deal. If they did, the Utah Jazz likely would send a thank-you note.

If Miles, who has played in eight preseason and regular-season games and recently was waived by Memphis, appears in two more games this season, Portland would have $9 million go back on its salary cap this season and next and wouldn't be a major player in free agency.

That's because the Trail Blazers had gotten Miles off the cap because doctors once declared his career over because of knee trouble.

Neither the Nuggets nor the Jazz want to see up-and-coming Portland, a Northwest Division rival, have oodles of cap room. And since the Jazz has a full roster of 15 and Denver has just 13, it could fall to the Nuggets to try to stave off the Trail Blazers.

No on Billups call

If Detroit fans are eagerly awaiting public-address announcer John Mason to bellow his trademark "Chauncey Bbbbbbbillups" when Billups returns March 3 to the Palace of Auburn Hills, they can forget it.

"They won't allow me to do it," said Mason, who plans a regular announcement during lineup introductions but said nobody will hear him anyway because it will be so loud.

Billups, dealt from the Pistons to Denver on Nov. 3, faces his old team tonight at the Pepsi Center for the first time. Mason's call is right up there with what Billups misses about Detroit.

"Yeah, I miss it," Billups said. "That was sweet."

• January 9, 2009

  7:53 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  kmeissner writes:

  I agree that the Nugs should sign Miles. 10 game contract. Have him play a few minutes in 2 games and Portland has to pay him? Plus they won't have as much cap room next year? Sounds like a no-brainer. I did hear the Portland sent out a memo saying they would try to sue a team if they did that though. Can they do that successfully?

Featured

• DNC in Denver

  

  Complete coverage of the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

• The Crevasse

  

  A five-part series that examines one tragic day on Mount Rainier.

• Deadly denial

  

  Sick nuclear workers applied for government compensation but most haven't seen a dime.

• Final Salute

  

  The Rocky followed Maj. Steve Beck as he took on the most difficult duty of his career.

• 'Colorado's burning'

  

  Coverage of the state's worst wildfires.

• Columbine shootings

  

  Coverage of the April 20, 1999, shootings at Littleton's Columbine High School.

• The Crossing

  

  Colorado's deadliest traffic accident killed 20 children on Dec. 14, 1961.

• Osveli's journey

  

  Osveli Sales left Guatemala for a better life. Two months later, he came home in a box.

• Wake for an Indian warrior

  

  Oglala Sioux bestow a tribute to the first tribal fatality in Iraq.