International Play, Go Away

The Bulls are many things- young, exciting, short- but one often overlooked aspect of the crew John Paxson has assembled is their diversity. While that sounds like a positive thing, it leaves the Bulls vulnerable to one major problem: they are always going to have to worry about their players being overworked in the offseason due to national team obligations.

Last season, the NBA saw just how big of an impact not having enough offseason rest can affect players and teams. By all accounts, last season was one of the most dismal in NBA history. The two best teams in the league met up in the second round of the playoffs, the Stoudemire, Diaw suspensions even crippled that series, and the Finals got about as many viewers as Fresh Prince reruns (yet were far less entertaining). But because of all that, it’s easy to forget that some of the leagues best players couldn’t make it through the season- could it be because they overworked themselves in national team play over the summer? I’m sure all the extra summer miles had something to do with Dwayne Wade only playing 51 games last year.

So that brings us to the Bulls, who were excited to learn that Andres Nocioni will not be playing for Argentina this summer. That’s great news for the Bulls after they invested $38 million in Noce, whose play was severely affected by a foot injury late last season. He will be able to rest all summer so his planter fasciitis doesn’t act up again during next season. But still the Bulls are sending three guys to national play this summer- Hinrich for the US, Deng for Great Britain, and Thabo for Switzerland- and one day could potentially be sending three more in Noce (Argentina), Gordon (Great Britain), and Joakim Noah (France). Those are six of the Bulls top 8 players working hard all summer for a number of years, all to make their home countries proud. It’s not like national team obligations will end this summer or after the 08 Olympics either; all of these players are still very young and could be playing for their national teams for the next 10 offseasons. And who knows, maybe Tyrus Thomas one day is able to make that jump and play for Team USA. How is so much summer work going to affect the future of the Bulls?

While the immediate reaction is likely negative, this can help the Bulls too. Their best players will be playing and competing with the best players in the NBA year-round. You can argue that playing with LeBron, Carmelo, and D-Wade last summer made Hinrich a better player, as he is coming off his best season as a pro. Competing against the best players in the world helps bring out the best in youngsters like Hinrich, and the Bulls will likely profit from his continued development.

But it’s not Hinrich I worry about, it’s everyone else. The problem with playing for national teams outside the US is that unlike we Americans, they actually care about this stuff. Luol Deng is going to be the best player on Great Britain. He has to carry that team, that country, in every game they play and especially in the Olympics. Same goes for Thabo, and potentially for Noah and Gordon (who would team up with Deng). That is a lot of extra stress, pressure, and work those guys are accepting in the offseason by playing for their national team for no money. All that work has to have a negative impact on the Bulls, doesn’t it?

So what are the Bulls to do about all this? Well, there’s nothing they can do, of course. Matt from Blog-a-Bull has a nice little solution, however:

I don't think it'd be wise for the Bulls (especially after the headband fiasco) to unilaterally bar their players from competing internationally. But if I were an owner I'd certainly put on a nice suit and call a meeting to discuss an NBA-wide policy regarding this. Right now, the policy seems to be bending over backwards to support USA Basketball, an organization that only seems to bring negative publicity to the league when the team is beaten in a single-elimination tournament (which can, ya know, happen) and then gets ripped apart by people who otherwise wouldn't give a crap who wins.

For the Bulls, and the NBA, it would be ideal to bar NBA players from competing internationally. Can you find one person who likes basketball who would be against this? How about a Team USA led by Derrick Rose and Chase Buddinge? Americans would love that- it would give us back us back the coveted underdog role, and our favorite players and favorite teams wouldn’t suffer because of it.

Unfortunately, that isn’t going to happen any time soon. There is nothing the Bulls, or the rest of the NBA can do about the international play debacle but accept it and pray no one gets hurt. Hopefully it won’t cause a premature end to a Bulls team that looks to be competitive for a long time.