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Manu Ginobili has left ankle surgery

The San Antonio Spurs announced that earlier today Manu Ginobili underwent successful arthroscopic surgery to correct a posterior impingement of his left ankle.

The surgery was performed in Los Angeles by Dr. Richard Ferkel.

Ginobili will return to San Antonio on Thursday. He will be in a posterior splint – and on crutches – for three weeks. At the end of the three-week period he will be re-evaluated and begin his rehabilitation process.

Ginobili originally suffered the injury in the Spurs-Suns series in the 2008 NBA Playoffs. The injury hampered Ginobili for the remainder of the postseason. After a rehabilitation program Ginobili was cleared to play in the 2008 Olympics. He re-aggravated the injury in the tournament’s semifinal round in a game versus the U.S.A. on August 22.

Following the conclusion of the Olympic Games Ginobili returned to San Antonio. An MRI conducted last week confirmed that he had re-aggravated the injury and that there was no additional damage to the ankle or the ligament.

Ginobili could miss several months

The San Antonio Express-News (Mike Monroe) reports: Spurs star Manu Ginobili will have surgery next week on his left ankle and heel to repair ligament damage that has hampered his game for many months. Though Ginobili on Thursday told an Argentine newspaper he expected to return to action six to eight weeks after the operation, sources familiar with the procedure say it is much more likely he will be out for two to three months. That makes it unlikely he can be ready for action when the Spurs open the regular season Oct. 29 in a game at the AT&T Center against the Phoenix Suns.

Airline loses Ginobili’s luggage

The San Antonio Express-News (Mike Monroe) reports: After more than an hour on a runway in Beijing, another 12 in the air, an hour clearing customs at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport and three more waiting for a connecting flight, Spurs star Manu Ginobili arrived at San Antonio International Airport late Monday night and discovered the truth about heroes. When it comes to lost luggage, Olympic medalists get no special favors. Missing were three of the four bags he and his wife had checked in Beijing, where Ginobili collected a bronze medal as the leading scorer for the Argentine Olympic team. “I actually got 25 percent — three out of four (were missing),” Ginobili said.

Spurs should be angry at Ginobili

If I was the Spurs, I’d be really angry that a guy I pay an incredible amount of money continues to spend his summers playing in international competitions instead of resting and getting fully healthy for the NBA season.

Ginobili wasn’t fully healthy much of last season, especially in the playoffs. So what does he do this summer? Play in the Olympics, and get injured. This makes me want to look into contracts a bit more and find out how many players have control of whether they play summer international ball vs. how many have to get the OK from the team. Obviously insurance money is a factor, but I don’t know how much of one and now I want to find out.

In the ideal world, if a player participates in non-NBA activity like summer international competitions, and gets injured, his NBA team shouldn’t have to pay him while he heals.

Spurs re-sign Michael Finley

Jeff says: Finley, now at age 82, a full 23 years older than Greg Oden, is at the end of his career and I don’t think he should play more than a few minutes per quarter as a backup. That said, he’s probably still useful off the bench, plus his Spurs experience makes him more useful to them than many other ancient veterans would be. Here’s the news release:

The San Antonio Spurs announced today that they have re-signed guard Michael Finley. Per team policy, terms of the deals were not disclosed.

The 6-7, 225-lb Finley was one of two Spurs (Fabricio Oberto was the other) to appear in all 82 games during the 2007-08 season. He averaged 10.1 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 26.9 minutes and shot .414 (315-761) from the field, .370 (132-357) from three-point land and .800 (64-80) from the line. Finley scored in double figures 47 times and had 20-or-more five times on the season. The University of Wisconsin product saw action in all 17 of San Antonio’s playoff games, averaging 6.7 points, 1.9 rebounds and 1.0 assists in 23.0 minutes per game.

Finley was originally signed by the Spurs on 9/2/05. The two-time All-Star has also spent time with the Phoenix Suns and the Dallas Mavericks. Over his 13-year NBA career, he has appeared in 976 games and has averaged 16.7 points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.2 assists in 32.8 minutes.

Web viewing of NBA games may soon exist

The Oklahoman (Mel Bracht) reports: Say you’re working late and can’t make it to the Ford Center to watch Oklahoma City’s new NBA team play its game that night. Instead, you log on to your computer and watch streaming video of the team’s game broadcast. Sound far-fetched? Not if the NBA has its way. The league is aggresively promoting three new Internet elements — video streaming in home markets, interactive TV and video-on-demand — for the upcoming season. Ed Desser, a media consultant for Oklahoma City’s team, said many details have yet to be worked out, and didn’t expect the team to offer the Internet elements anytime soon.

Bucks sign Francisco Elson

The Milwaukee Bucks have signed center Francisco Elson to a contract, General Manager John Hammond announced today. Per team policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed. Elson (7-0, 240) comes to the Bucks after splitting the 2007-08 season with San Antonio and Seattle.

“Francisco is a player of high character who will bring length and athleticism to the front line,” said Hammond. “In addition, he has extensive playoff experience and has been part of an NBA Championship team. He knows what it takes to be a part of a winning team and we welcome a player with his level of experience.”

Elson, 32, began last season with San Antonio and appeared in 41 games with averages of 3.5 points and 3.3 rebounds before a February trade sent him to Seattle. He played 22 games for the Sonics and posted averages of 3.0 points and 3.0 rebounds.

Elson was originally drafted by Denver in the second round of the 1999 NBA Draft (41st overall). He went overseas to play four years in Spain before joining the Nuggets, spending time with FC Barcelona (1999-2001), Pamesa Valencia (2001-02), and Caja San Fernando (2002-03). He joined the Nuggets prior to the 2003-04 season and went on to play three seasons in Denver before signing with the Spurs prior to the 2006-07 season. He posted career-high averages in points (5.0) and rebounds (4.8) while appearing in 70 games in his only full season with San Antonio. He appeared in all 20 of San Antonio’s playoff games (8 starts) during their run to the 2007 NBA Championship. He logged 230 minutes of playing time and posted averages of 3.3 points and 3.1 rebounds while also becoming the first Dutch player to win an NBA title.

In five NBA seasons, Elson owns career averages of 4.1 points and 3.8 rebounds in 334 games. He has 30 games of playoff experience with Denver and San Antonio, and owns playoff career averages of 2.9 points and 2.8 rebounds.

Prior to entering the 1999 NBA Draft, Elson enjoyed a two-year stint at the University of California, which included an NIT Championship during his senior year in 1999. In two seasons with the Bears he averaged 5.4 points, 4.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks in 59 games. He played his first two seasons of college basketball at Kilgore Junior College.

Elson is a native of the Netherlands and is fluent in Dutch, Spanish, German, South American Suriname and English.

James Gist signs in Italy

The San Antonio Express-News (Mike Monroe) reports: James Gist, the power forward from Maryland the Spurs made the 57th selection in the 2008 draft, signed a contract Monday to play for Angelico Biella, according to the Italian League team’s Web site. Gist, 6-foot-9 and 235 pounds, played well for the Spurs’ summer league team in Las Vegas and Salt Lake City. However, he likely would have spent most of the season with the Spurs’ D-League team in Austin had he signed an NBA contract. By playing in Italy, Gist can get significant playing time without costing the Spurs a roster spot.

How to determine schedule for any team

The Oklahoman (Mike Baldwin) reports on a team’s 82-game regular season schedule: “Four games against division opponents. Four games against six out-of-division conference opponents. Three games against the remaining four conference teams. Two games against teams in the opposing conference. A five-year rotation determines which out-of-division conference teams are played only three times.”

Rumors Talk: InsideHoops on overseas signings

July 26: I don’t think it’s particularly big news that an overseas team offered Mike Finley a contract. Chances are, every player in the NBA who is either an aging veteran or a young guy who isn’t a lock to stay in the league gets multiple overseas offers. It’s just that now, with Bostjan Nachbar going overseas (a slight surprise) and Josh Childress going there as well (a pretty big surprise), overseas offers are getting more publicity, and writers and columnists are asking agents more about that stuff than before.

Chances are, Finley got overseas offers in the past, too, and he’ll get them in the future.

As has been reported by lots of outlets, and confirmed by people we at InsideHoops.com talk to, there isn’t a big reason to think tons of players on the level of Childress will ever wind up going overseas, because the money isn’t there. Teams in Europe don’t have massive TV deals and marketing profits that NBA teams do. They’re much smaller operations. So don’t expect lots of good NBA sixth men or prime bench guys to leave the league.

I’d guess there could be another couple of good NBA bench guys (probably not as good as Childress) that go overseas this or next year, but not much more than that. Nothing that would shake the league up in any real way.