Team USA can be occupational hazard

[#1MavsFan]

Friday, August 9

Team USA can be occupational hazard

By Frank Hughes
Special to ESPN.com


Does it come as any surprise whatsoever that Jason Kidd has bailed out of the World Championships in Indianapolis in late August?


The wear and tear of the Olympics caught up with Gary Payton in the 2000-01 NBA season.
Yes, he suffered some sort of groin injury in the playoffs and aggravated it in some recent training, but it certainly didn't look like it affected him that much during the NBA Finals, when he was the only member of the New Jersey Nets to play at a consistently high level against the Los Angeles Lakers.

It doesn't matter what the injury really is, does it? Kidd could have been suffering from a hangnail and it would have been a good excuse to bail.

Look, here is what Kidd is facing. Nine straight months, from October's training camp to June's run to the Finals, of hard-core basketball that culminated in the most intense ball of all, playoff basketball, where there never is a night off.

The Nets get swept by the Lakers, Kidd gets a month and a half off, and then he goes straight into training for the World Championships, where he competes until Sept. 8, just in time to get ready for, you guessed it, the beginning of training camp a few weeks later, where he plays at least another eight straight months, and possibly another nine if the Nets return to the Finals. That's a lot of basketball with no breaks, especially for a guy like Kidd, who at this stage of his career has some mileage on his legs.

Kidd has his Olympic gold medal, so why waste his time, energy and possibly another run to the Finals on the less-then-magnanimous, foregone-conclusionist World Championships?

A few years ago, Gary Payton had competed in the Olympics in Sydney, Australia. That next season, Payton had played in 356 consecutive games, the best streak in the league. But in the first game of the season, after getting virtually no time off from the end of the Olympics to the start of camp, he ripped his groin, which ultimately led to back problems which then led to a strained abdominal muscle.

Payton had missed only two games his entire career. The guy is notorious for ignoring pain. One of Nate McMillan's favorite stories is about how Payton got his foot caught up under the rotating advertisement signs on the sidelines during one playoff game. His ankle swelled up to more than twice its size, and guys like Hersey Hawkins said they were suprised Payton could even attempt to walk on the thing. Still, he came out two days later and led the Sonics to a victory, playing the entire game.

But that 2000-2001 season, McMillan finally forced Payton to the bench because of his abdominal muscle. (Of course, as a caveat, Payton's consecutive-games streak was broken when McMillan suspended him for conduct detrimental to the team, but that's another story.) For two games, Payton sat. He had missed two games his entire career to that point, but missed two straight because of an injury he suffered that could be traced directly back to the his participation in the Olympics.

It is a once-in-a-lifetiime experience, one that most players would love to have the opportunity to go through. But this is why you are seeing younger rosters being put together by USA Basketball, because the oldsters have realized that the additional toll it takes on their bodies is not worth it.


And Payton, who never complains -- at least not about his own health -- even admitted that the additional competition took its toll on his freak body. When Scottie Pippen was playing, he often said that his back problems were a result of all the additional time he spent competing in the Olympics.

It is an honor, to be sure. And it is a once-in-a-lifetiime experience, one that most players would love to have the opportunity to go through. But this is why you are seeing younger rosters being put together by USA Basketball, because the oldsters have realized that the additional toll it takes on their bodies is not worth it when it comes to what essentially amounts to two straight seasons of basketball with very little break.

And don't be surprised if you see guys like Ray Allen and Michael Finley and Andre Miller and Paul Pierce suffer some nagging injuries this coming season -- though they are fortunate that the World Championships are taking place in Indianapolis and not half a world away, like the 2000 Olympics.

As for the reason Reggie Miller is still on the team?

I guess he needed to babysit Jermaine O'Neal.

Frank Hughes, who covers the NBA for the Tacoma (Wash.) News-Tribune, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.