Dwight Howard was injured the Playoffs during the Pistons series. The injury, a stress fracture of the sternum, generally takes 6-8 weeks to heal and Howard is currently in week 6. Coach K expects Howard to be full strength by the time team USA meets back up for mini-camp on July 21st. If he’s not, Team USA will be a bit thin up front (Via ESPN):

Still, the injury is worrisome for the Americans, who are planning to go to Beijing with just three big men — Howard, Chris Bosh and Carlos Boozer. If Howard were to aggravate the injury, that lack of front-line depth could become a major issue.

It’s a big deal if Howard is hampered by the injury. He’s the third heat that Team USA needs down low.

After the jump, Mark Cuban complains about commercialism, patriotism and Slobobianism.

Via Blog Maverick:

This is my original post on the NBA and the Olympics. One thing I will add to it is for each and every blogger who so desires to undertake a simple test. On your blog, add a picture of the Olympics 5 Rings and a picture of your favorite player in their Olympic uniform. Underneath the pictures, add the caption, “My Official Olympics Update” and then chronicle that player in the Olympics with pictures from the official Olympics website. Show your patriotism and pride… that is until the you get a takedown letter or a Cease and Desist ordering you to take it down.
Thats how much about country and pride the Olympics is these days….

I would do that, but Janero Pargo didn’t make the team.

A 2nd item to generate some thought is the concept of players and coaches “And 1ing” their nationalities in order to be able to participate or to better market themselves. Whats “And 1ing” ? Being born and/or raised in one country but leveraging a ancestral link to another country where your odds are better to make the team. So for instance, your great, great grandfather was born in Upper Slobobia. in order to play on the Upper Slobobian basketball or handball team, you get a passport from there. Thats “And 1ing”. Adding a nationality so that you can play on their team.

I assume he’s talking about Becky Hammon, but she’s from Lower Slobobia.

Or what about giving up citizenship from your native country to come here and play on our team. Is that what we want to root for as we face an onslaught of commercials on one of who knows how many cable networks that GE will be filling with Olympic programming ?
Are we sure the Olympics is about patriotism and pride ? Or is it about commercialism ? Im certaintly not against GE and the US Olympic Team making as much money as they possibly can on the game. More power to them. But lets not lie to ourselves about what is going on.

What more would expect from the company that brought you the Trivection Oven?

You can continue reading Cuban’s original thoughts on the Olympics from 2004 at Blog Maverick.