NBA Fiba

ESPN has assigned its Spanish-speaking correspondent Alfred R. Berrios to keep up a weekly ranking of the NBA's Latinos for its ESPN Deportes property. Celebrating the game's Central and Southern American tentacles is a positive thing, and the NBA has long sought to integrate the multitudes of Spanish-speaking sports fans in the United States and abroad into its fold.

But ESPN's list is just weird in terms of inclusion and exclusion.

DENVER -- Defending champion Spain is planning to have its best players for next year's World Championships in Turkey. The nation's top point guard is recommending that the Americans do the same.

"I think they've got to do that,'' Jose Calderon of the Toronto Raptors told FanHouse. "You cannot just play for the Olympics. I think that, if you want to be on the team, you've got to be in all the good tournaments, and that is a good tournament.''

Nevertheless, it remains to be seen how many members of America's 2008 gold-medal Olympic team will return for the World Championships. Several top players, namely Cleveland's LeBron James, Miami's Dwyane Wade and Toronto's Chris Bosh, are wavering about committing.

Tip-Off Timer counts down the days until the first game of the 2009-10 season. On Thursday, there are 19 days remaining.

No one who crawled out of bed in the wee hours to watch the live broadcast of the 2008 Beijing Olympics gold medal men's basketball game between Spain and the United State will soon forget the action. Between some ridiculous play from LeBron and Wade, a vicious comeback run by the Spaniards and a devastating coffin-slamming by Kobe, it was a simply divine spectacle -- well worth the sleep deprivation.

At the risk of sounding superficial, let me note that Olympic basketball was not always such a show. In fact, in the first gold medal game held for men's basketball back in 1936 in Berlin, the game was downright ugly. Team USA beat Canada ... and got the gold after scoring only 19 points in the championship game.

DENVER -- It seemed an obvious enough question.

Rio de Janeiro was just named host for the 2016 Summer Olympics. Is Denver Nuggets' center Nene, a native of Brazil, expecting to then play for his home country?

"In seven years, I'm retired in seven years,'' Nene said in an interview Saturday with FanHouse.

Nene, entering his eighth season, turned 27 last month, and would seem to still have some good years left in 2016 and beyond. Is he serious about retiring before the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, when he will be just 33?

"Oh yeah,'' he said. "I'm serious.''

FIBA's final international tournament of the summer, Eurobasket, ended with Spain winning its first continental championship. Pau Gasol won the tournament MVP award as Spain knocked off Serbia in the title game. Spain, the No. 3 team in the world according to FIBA's rankings, won the 2006 World Championship, but had never won Europe.

Spain actually coasted through the early rounds before obliterating Greece in the semifinals and Serbia in the finals. Serbia may have been the surprise of the tournament, though. After taking gold at the 2002 World Championships, the Serbs have been on a shocking downward trajectory ... until this tournament, where the team cut through competition with ease. (Serbia actually kicked off the tournament with a big win over Spain in round play.)

In August 2004, Team USA played a pair of exhibition games in Turkey before heading to Athens for the Olympics. One morning, seven miles from the team's hotel in Istanbul, two bombs went off, killing two and wounding 11.

The incident summed up the 2004 Olympic team. Numerous top players had dropped out before the Games due to terrorism threats. As for those who did make the trip overseas, they, well, bombed.

Team USA settled for a disappointing bronze medal in Athens. But that set the stage for the Jerry Colangelo era.

Colangelo, now USA Basketball's chairman, rebuilt how American international teams are chosen and brought back enthusiasm that had waned following Dream Team I in the 1992 Olympics and Dream Team II in the 1994 World Championships.

Argentina, which won the Olympic gold in men's basketball in 2004 and took home bronze in 2008, is ... having a bad summer. Manu Ginobili is not playing with the team due to injuries. (Injuries aggravated by last summer's Olympic run, we should note.) Andres Nocioni is out. Carlos Delfino didn't have a contract until a couple weeks ago, so he demurred from national service. It's up to Luis Scola and Pablo Prigioni and ... it hasn't gone well at FIBA Americas.

Canada, meanwhile, lost Samuel Dalembert due to an internal spat early last summer. Steve Nash still won't give up his summer for a team on the third tier of international competition. There is one current NBA player on the Canadian roster: Joel Anthony, who lost his starting job on the Heat to a decrepit Jermaine O'Neal. Yet, here's Canada, 2-0 and through to the quarterfinals after blowing out Mexico and the Virgin Islands.

When Canada and Italy fought during a "friendly" last month, the whole thing was more notable for what didn't happen. (Namely, Raptors Andrea Bargnani and Marco Belinelli stayed out of the fray, and initial aggressor Stefano Mancinelli (miraculously) avoided punishment. The fight was pretty mild, all told.)

Not the case for their South American counterparts. Mexico and Urugay, preparing for FIBA Americas 2009, got into a scuffle Saturday. Well, at least it started as a scuffle. As you'll see after the jump, it quickly evolved into a full-fledged battle royale. (And Romel Beck is the champion, apparently!)

The news that Mark Cuban forced German superstar Dirk Nowitzki to skip this summer's Eurobasket tournament was tempered by the fact that Cuban and Nowitzki brokered that deal last summer on the basis that Dirk has given his summers to the national team forever. But the case of Puerto Rican Maverick J.J. Barea isn't quite as tidy.

Barea had shoulder surgery in May, and feels as though he is back to 100%. He's eager to represent FIBA Americas host P.R., hoping to help his team win a place in the 2010 World Championships. But Cuban has denied Barea permission to participate. Barea told a Puerto Rican newspaper that the Mavs decree was "the worst news I've been given."

This basketball offseason has been filled with bad news, what with the lockout threats, Yao Ming's injury, devastating financial losses, Greg Ostertag's continued unemployment. But Carlos Arroyo, former guard for the Orlando Magic, is here to pick you up with a Spanish summertime jam. It's called "Oculto Secreto," which translates to "Hidden Secret," which makes wonder what Carlos is hiding. You can hear the single at Primera Hora's website.

The great thing isn't the singing (which is deep beneath so much autotune an earthworm would have trouble finding it). And it's not that Arroyo wrote the song himself, which is awesome but ... Chris Webber produced two Nas tracks, so, writing a reggaeton song isn't so notable, right? The great thing is that Carlos Arroyo timed his single's release to coincide with the start of the FIBA Americas Championship, which will be held in Puerto Rico this month. When Luis Scola and Al Horford and Eduardo Najera arrive in San Juan later this week, they won't be able to escape "Oculto Secreto!" The definition of a viral release.