Luol Deng Can Play, But Not Without Cost

The Chicago Bulls have reportedly backed down from their insistence that Luol Deng will skip the Olympics and have surgery on his injured wrist, however, the insurance payout British Basketball will need to cough up for Deng to suit up this summer is likely to be in the region of £300,000.

The Telegraph’s Brendan Gallagher reports:

“The apparent softening of the Bulls stance this week means that Deng is free to join the Great Britain party in camp in Houston next month and play in London after which a decision will be made as to whether he underoges surgery straight away or whether he rests the wrist completely for up to three months.

“The Bulls compliance will come at a cost however. Most NBA players appearing in a sanctioned FIBA tournament are covered by a blanket NBA insurance but because Deng will undeniably be going into the Olympics with a pre-existing injury further damage to the wrist would not be covered. A one-off premium therefore must be paid to cover his £10m+ annual contract and it is also likely that the Bulls will request he plays a limited number of minutes in Great Britain’s warm-up matches.

“It’s not new territory for GB Basketball who in past seasons have had to make a similar one-off premium payments in the region of £200,000 to insure against an old back injury Deng once suffered, which has nonetheless never shown any signs of flaring up. GB Basketball have learned to somehow put a “war chest” for such contingencies but these latest demands over and above what they normally pay will stretch them to the very limit.

“Deng has now resumed the holiday he interrupted to meet with the Bulls but in his absence the haggling over the exact amount of the insurance payment will continue. Great Britain firmly believe that Deng, who played the majority of the season for the Bulls with the injury, will make a full recovery with rest after the Olympics and that surgery will not be required.”

Talking to the BBC, GB’s Performance Director Chris Spice added that the insurance agreement would mean if Deng was to permanently injure himself this summer, they would need to be able to pay the Bulls £10million.

Meanwhile, in a statement released on British Basketball’s official website today, Spice voiced his disappointment at a lack of support from the NBA over Deng’s insurance issues:

“The insurance to cover Luol is always expensive due his high value, and due to the back exclusion placed on him by the NBA’s insurers some years ago. Our medical expert opinion remains that his back is no worse than others in the NBA but we have had to continue to cover this as we are contracted to do. Unfortunately, we have had no support from the NBA regarding this issue which remains a constant disappointment.

“His wrist situation will make this exorbitant premium even more expensive and we will have to make sacrifices to all our other programmes if we are to make this happen. It is difficult, but there is only one Luol Deng and there is only one London 2012 Olympic Games.”

The issues around Luol and this summer are dominating headlines in the US, with a number of different journalists around the web chiming in – a few links for your reading:

Deng Should Skip Olympics – Chicago Tribune
Spirit of a Champion: Luol Deng and the debate around his commitment to the Olympics – Slam Online
Luol Deng’s Olympic Decision – ESPN
Bulls Must Respect Olympics are A Big Deal for Ailing Deng – Chicago Sun Times
British Reporter: We Need Deng to Play in Olympics – CBS Chicago

Thoughts?
Image Credit: 2012 NBAE (Photo by Gary Dineen/NBAE via Getty Images)