Hinrich withdraws from USA Basketball’s training and competition

Featuring 15 of the 17 members who participated in the USA Team's July mini-camp, and adding one player to the Senior National Team program, 16 players are slated to assemble for the USA Senior National Team’s Aug.15-21 training in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The USA Senior National Team’s August training camp will be utilized to determine the 12 member USA squad that will compete Aug. 22-Sept. 2 in the FIBA Americas Championship 2007. Rosters for the FIBA Americas Championship must be submitted to FIBA Americas on July 21.

The FIBA Americas Championship, featuring 10 men’s national teams, is one of five FIBA Olympic qualifying zone tournaments and will determine the two men’s teams from the Americas zone who will earn a qualification spot for the 2008 Olympic Games that are being held Aug. 8-24 in Beijing, China.

USA Basketball Senior National Team managing director Jerry Colangelo announced that USA Basketball veteran and Seattle SuperSonics four-year 6-10 forward Nick Collison had been added to the USA Senior National Team program.

USA Basketball also announced that one other player besides Hinrich who participated in the senior squad’s July training, Shane Battier (Houston Rockets), and Senior National Team member Greg Oden (Portland Trail Blazers), who missed the July training after under going a tonsillectomy, have withdrawn from the August training and from consideration for the USA Team that will compete in the FIBA Americas Championship.

Collison, who averaged in 2006-07 career bests of 9.6 ppg. and 8.1 rpg. while shooting 50.0 percent from the field, has been tagged “Mr. USA Basketball” because of his participation on no fewer than eight USA Basketball teams. Collison was involved with a USA team every summer between the summer before his senior year in high school in 1998 through 2003. His last appearance came in 2003 when he helped lead the USA to a 10 0 record, the gold medal and a qualifying berth for the 2004 Olympics at the 2003 FIBA Americas Olympic Qualifying Tournament in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

“We are adding another ‘big’ in Nick Collison and he’ll participate in the August training. Nick was not available for the July 20-22 training because he was getting married. We’re excited about his addition, he has had a lot of USA Basketball experience. He’s physical, he handles the pick and roll as well as anyone, he’s been added to the Senior National Team for a reason,” said Colangelo.

In addition to Collison, members of the USA Basketball Men’s Senior National Team expected to participate in the Aug. 15-21 training include: Carmelo Anthony (Denver Nuggets); Chauncey Billups (Detroit Pistons); Chris Bosh (Toronto Raptors); Kobe Bryant (Los Angeles Lakers); Tyson Chandler (New Orleans Hornets); Kevin Durant (Seattle SuperSonics); Dwight Howard (Orlando Magic); LeBron James (Cleveland Cavaliers); Jason Kidd (New Jersey Nets); Mike Miller (Memphis Grizzlies); Tayshaun Prince (Detroit Pistons); Michael Redd (Milwaukee Bucks); J.J. Redick (Orlando Magic); Amaré Stoudemire (Phoenix Suns); and Deron Williams (Utah Jazz).

The USA Basketball Men’s Senior National Team will train 12-3 p.m. (PDT) Aug. 15-20 at Valley High School (2839 South Burnham Avenue, Las Vegas, Nev.).

Duke University Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski is head coach of the USA Senior Team program. Serving as assistant coaches are Syracuse University and Hall of Fame coach Jim Boeheim, Phoenix Suns head mentor Mike D’Antoni and Portland Trail Blazers head coach Nate McMillan.

FIBA Americas Championship 2007 all session tickets, which allow fans to attend every game on a specific day, are priced from $10 to $500 for preliminary round days; $15 to $750 for second round days; $30 to $1,500 for the Sept. 1 semifinals; and $50 to $3,000 for the Sept. 2 gold and bronze medal games. Tickets are available by logging onto , by calling 702-739-FANS (locally) or 1-866-388-FANS (outside Las Vegas), or by visiting the Galleria Mall, and all Station Casinos and Fiestas properties.

FIBA Americas Championship 2007

The USA was placed in the FIBA Americas Championship Group B and will open play against Venezuela on Aug. 22 (8 p.m. PDT), followed by games against the U.S. Virgin Islands on Aug. 23 (8 p.m. PDT), Canada on Aug. 25 (12 p.m. PDT) and Brazil on Aug. 26 (3 p.m. PDT). Placed into Group A were Argentina, Mexico, Uruguay, Panama and Puerto Rico.

The FIBA Americas Championship 2007 will be conducted in three phases. The first phase features the 10 teams divided into two groups of five teams each for the first round. The teams will play round robin within their groups over five days, with each team scheduled for one day off during the first round.

After conclusion of the first round and establishing first to fifth places for each group, the top four finishers in each first round group will advance to the second round. Teams finishing in the fifth position will conclude their participation in the tournament. The top four finishing teams of Group A and Group B will then form a single second round group, carrying with them the results obtained in the first phase.

In the second round, each team will play the four advancing teams from the other first round group. At the conclusion of the second round, the top four placed teams will advance to the third phase, and the bottom four teams will conclude their participation in the tournament.