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NEWS: A recent post on SLAMOline.com cites some comments made my Tony Parker that lead us to believe that Eva’s husband might not be joining us for the World Championships in Turkey this Summer: “I think it’s finally catching up with me a little bit…What it tells me is I’m going to have to make decisions about my priorities. At the end of the season, I’m definitely going to sit down and look at what happened this year, and make sure it doesn’t happen again.” Parker played 31 minutes per game for Team France during this offseason’s Eurobasket in Poland and admits it might have contributed to his deteriorated health in 2010 (ankle, hip, plantar fasciitis-all this season). He’s missed 10 games in all and most recently was a victim to food poisoning (they say pierogis don’t really digest for like…at least 7 or 8 months).

IMPACT: Well this sucks for France, who would very much like to qualify for the 2012 Olympics being hosted just a hop, skip and a chunnel away in London. Hopefully, they’ll have the likes of Ronny Turiaf, Boris Diaw, Nicoloas Batum, Ali Traore and maybe even Joakim Noah (injuries also a question with JoNo), but none of them play point guard. You know who does? Antoine Diot, who averaged 27 minutes 15.5 points, 3.5 rebounds, 2 assists and 2.5 steals in France’s final two Eurobasket games against Turkey and Croatia. Also of note should be the stellar play of Nando de Colo in the ACB this year for Valencia (13 points, 3 boards and 3 assists). Also, this might accelerate the evelopment of 20-year-old Edwin Jackson, who at 6’3″ plays more like a shooting guard but, hey, what are you gonna do? All of this is just me trying to find a solid Plan B, because Tony Parker is not only the best player on the French team (by a long shot) but also one of the best players in the world, and each of the aforementioned youngsters would benefit from his presence. Tony did say in the same interview that he really would like to play in the Olympics, and France’s chances would take a big old hit if he cannot.