Dirkster at the Olympics

[dude1394]

I couldn't find a thread dealing with the upcoming olympics for the dirkster. If you wanna move this feel free.

I hope for the dirksters sake that Kaman gets approved to play. That would be a nice front line.

Los Angeles Clippers center Chris Kaman should be getting the news within the next few days if he is going to be German citizen and therefore eligible to play for the German national team.

German basketball president Ingo Weiss is optimistic that Kaman, who has German roots (hs great-grandparents were German), will have his citizenship approved by the department for internal affairs within the next six days.

Kaman could pair up with Dirk Nowitzki, who is slated to be part of the preparations in three weeks in Spain, in the frontcourt of the German national team and certainly would boost Germany's chances of qualifying for the upcoming Olympics in Beijing.

Germany is going to face the Cape Verde Islands and New Zealand in the first round of the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament, which runs July 14-20 in Athens, Greece, and may have to face hosts Greece or Brazil (without injured Anderson Varejao but probably with the NBA's Nene and Leandro Barbosa) in the quarterfinals.

The top three teams from this tournament will join China, Spain, the United States, Argentina, Russia, Lithuania, Australia, Iran and Angola in Beijing.

Other notable players on the German roster for Athens include Ademola Okulaja (North Carolina) , Jan Jagla (Penn State), Patrick Femerling (Washington), Joe Herber (West Virginia), Yassin Idbihi (Buffalo), Julian Sensley (Hawaii) and Konrad Wysocki (Princeton).