2008 Olympic Basketball: Rosters Please

I’ve been following the international games for a few years and get a daily email from FIBA on scores of all the “friendly” games before pool play begins.

Rosters are questionable for many teams because of injuries or family circumstances. Once Olympic play begins, the loss of a player does not allow you to put a reserve in uniform. Russia has announced their twelve team members but has been holding out for a key player, Viktor Khryapa, who sprained his ankle during preparations. If he recovers, he’ll be called in at the last minute to replace one of the players on the announced roster. Sasha (Alexandr) Kaun, the Kansas Jayhawk center drafted by the NO Hornets and traded to the Seattle Sonics (OK City) made the team and has signed a contract with CSKA Moscow, making his appearance in the NBA questionable for now.

I think if you watch the “friendlies” (preparation games before pool play begins) and you look at the numbers worn by players on each team, it gives an indication of who has made each teams Olympic roster and who is still being tested. Olympic rules require a team to dress players with numbers from 4 to 15. In the “friendlies” box scores, some countries’ teams have some Olympic jersey numbers assigned and other players are wearing numbers above 15. I don’t post my rosters until all Olympic numbers have been assigned and the team members officially announced.

From BasketballinChina, they show final rosters for Lithuania, Croatia, Spain, Greece, Germany, and USA. I haven’t seen changes in those rosters as I get the FIBA “friendlies” daily box scores.

Don’t know how reliable this will be or when final rosters must be announced.

I contacted FIBA to ask why the rosters seem to change from game to game and from one press release to the next. I asked when rosters had to be determined as final. I got this response from a FIBA rep this morning. Surprise! The response is below:

“Hi, the final rosters have to be decided on the day before the first game and will be published immediately on fiba.com

Best Regards
Wolfram Klug
FIBA – IT Manager”

Great! The day before the first Olympic game! I noticed as of yesterday that Sasha (Alexandr) Kaun is no longer on the Russian roster even though their press release said he made the cut! So now I track the Diamond Ball Games in China, which is just another form of “friendlies” for tune-ups. I didn’t see Sasha’s name on the game stats there. China’s point guard Wei Liu was injured in their last game and taken to the hospital. An MRI showed bruised ribs but they expect him back.

You’d think we were trying to get state secrets! lol

So my big question is: Did Team USA finalize its roster too soon? Should we still be playing 15 or 16 guys to determine who makes the Olympic roster or USA? Team USA isn’t traveling with their reserves; Tyson Chandler was the only reserve allowed to practice with the team stateside. If we lose a player to injury, are we sufficiently prepared to substitute?

TJ
FIBA – International Basketball Federation

The announcers on tonight’s USA v Russia game said rosters are finalized August 7 since the Olympics begin August 8. I misinterpreted the FIBA email to mean that rosters were set the day before the BASKETBALL games started (Aug. 10); I think the correct interpretation is rosters are set before the OLYMPIC GAMES are started. So check FIBA on August 7 for final rosters for all Olympic basketball teams. My bad!

When the final rosters are announced (August 7), Croatia will be without Damir Markota who exited with a torn meniscus during the FIBA Qualifying games. He was a key player for the Croatian Team. Damjan Rudez has been called up as his replacement. He was selected over the younger center Ante Tomic.

Angola has lost two players before the Beijing games. Emanuel Neto and Divaldo Mbunga have refused to join the team, giving academics as their reason. They are both in summer classes in the USA and won’t be available to play for their national team. Miguel Lutonda had earlier refused to travel to Spain with the team. It remains to be seen whether he will make the Olympic team for Angola. Angola has been able to field 12 players during the “friendlies”: Felizardo Ambrosio, Olimpio Cipriano, Milton Barros, Armando Costa, Carlos Morais, Eduardo Mingas, Carlos Almeida, Leonel Paulo, Joaquim Gomes, Luis Costa, Vladimir Geronimo, and Abdel Aziz Boukar.