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Portland Trail Blazers guard CJ McCollum was among the large group of NBA players declining their invite to take part on Team USA's quest for another gold at the FIBA 2019 World Cup. The veteran shooting guard explained the thought process of why these stars have dropped like flies over the course of the past two weeks, a near-comical chain of events, as managing director Jerry Colangelo has been forced to call up over 50 players to probe their interest.
“I think other guys looked at it like: ‘Why would I go and potentially be the face of a losing roster?,'” said McCollum on The Woj Pod. “Or the workload part. If we all play, the workload is less — 20-25 minutes, you get blowouts, you’re moving on. A lot of guys don’t play, your minutes might go up, your usage might go up, and that affects your summer as you go into March when that crash comes. January is where that crash comes before the All-Star break and then after the All-Star break, guys start to break down in March and April. Those extra miles and summertime hours… I’ve led the league in miles or close to it every year, I don’t want to run around in Australia or China and then come back and have to get ready for the season when I can be strategically planning my workload.”
The latter part of his explanation has a lot more to do with why players are dropping out. In an era of load management and crushing late-season injuries, players are putting their health and stamina before anything — especially in times when NBA contracts are going at exorbitant rates.
Being able to excel in one more playoff series could cost a player $10-$20 million in his next long-term contract, and some already established stars are looking out for their own interest instead of their national duty.
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