HoopsHype.com Rumors

The Timberwolves' Ricky Rubio, who says his surgically repaired left knee has recovered 100 percent, will play for Spain in the European Championship in September. Wolves guard J.J. Barea, who is signed for two more years, said he probably will play with the Puerto Rican national team, which will try to qualify for the World Championship at the end of the summer. St. Paul Pioneer Press

Minnesota Timberwolves, Ricky Rubio, Puerto Rico, Spain, World Championship, Jose Juan Barea, Eurobasket 

Dominique Wilkins today reflected on his time with USA Basketball: "That was a great time. Dream Team II was unbelievable. That was an unbelievable team and to be with a lot of those guys, who I call characters now, Shaquille was a character. That was an unbelievable team and that was a great time to be a part of USA Basketball, to stand on that podium, to receive those gold medals pretty much killing everybody. There was nobody even close to us in that World Championship series. It was fun." Facebook.com

Shaquille O'Neal, USA Basketball, World Championship, Dominique Wilkins 

Chris Tomasson: Portland big man LaMarcus Aldridge said he wants to play for Team USA in the World Cup in Spain in 2014. "Yeah, if they call me, I'm definitely interested in doing it,'' Aldridge told FOX Sports Florida. Aldridge had been a strong candidate for the 2010 team but dropped out just before the trials for what he called "personal'' reasons. But he was back in USA Basketball's good graces for the Olympics last year before he got hurt and had to bow out. Sulia

Portland Trail Blazers, USA Basketball, LaMarcus Aldridge, Spain, World Championship 

Ajani Williams, president of the Jamaica Basketball Association (JaBA), said his administration will begin talks with a number National Basketball Association (NBA) players who have expressed interest in representing Jamaica at this year's FIBA World Championship final-round qualifiers at the end of the month. Williams said his organisation will be holding talks with point guard Ben Gordon of Charlotte Bobcats, Indiana Pacers centre Roy Hibbert and André Drummond of Detroit Pistons. "We are going to make our best effort to get these players and then we will see how well things pan out," said Williams. Jamaica Gleaner

Charlotte Bobcats, Indiana Pacers, FIBA, Roy Hibbert, Ben Gordon, World Championship, Jamaica 

Yet one of the more interesting changes to the international basketball calendar involves the introduction of six planned qualifying windows for the 2019 World Cup that will be staged in November 2017, February 2018, June 2018, September 2018, November 2018 and February 2019. You'll notice, as you re-read that sentence, that four of those six windows take place at the same time that the NBA schedule calls for NBA players to play NBA games. ESPN.com

FIBA, USA Basketball, Schedule, Olympics, World Championship 

The notion of an international break in the NBA, however, is a complete non-starter. Even at this early juncture, one source familiar with the NBA's long-range thinking told ESPN.com that building breaks into the NBA's regular-season schedule is simply "not being considered." Not now and not later. ESPN.com

FIBA, USA Basketball, Schedule, Olympics, World Championship 

How big a deal is that? Not that massive, realistically, when viewed through a strictly American prism. USA Basketball will continue to field teams that qualify for every major tournament even if it has to trot out a pack of All-Stars from the D-League for most of the qualifying games starting in November 2017. As one longtime European coach told ESPN.com this week: "There's no way FIBA would go to a system that hurts the big countries. They want the stars playing in the biggest tournaments." ESPN.com

FIBA, USA Basketball, Schedule, Olympics, World Championship 

Basketball's governing body will try to lure NBA stars to play in some World Cup qualifiers after creating a new format with more matches in their home countries. The path to the revamped 2019 World Cup includes round-robin qualifying groups played in six separate fixture windows over a 14-month span starting November 2017. "Having the home and away games brings basketball back to the countries themselves," FIBA secretary general Patrick Baumann told The Associated Press in an interview. "Eventually this will benefit the whole sport around the world." ESPN.com

FIBA, World Championship 

FIBA agreed a new competition schedule at the weekend that removed some continental events from a packed four-year tournament cycle. "NBA owners were making it relatively clear that it was not a situation they would continue to support," Baumann said by telephone from Shanghai. "We were really filling the calendar so much that we felt players were either not at the top (of their form) or had to choose which summer to play." ESPN.com

FIBA, World Championship 

Jerry Colangelo on Tuesday was re-elected chairman of USA Basketball's board of directors for 2013 to 2016, a period which includes the 2014 men's FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain and women's World Cup in Turkey and the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Colangelo has transformed the U.S. men's team after a disappointing bronze medal and disinterested effort at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Since Colangelo joined USA Basketball in 2005 as managing director of the men's national team, the U.S. men are 62-1 with gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, 2010 world championships and 2012 London Olympics. The men did not lose a game at those three events under Colangelo and U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski. USA Today

Jerry Colangelo, USA Basketball, Mike Krzyzewski, World Championship 

The men's World Cup of Basketball will skip 2018 and be played instead in 2019, serving as a qualifier for the 2020 Olympics. The former world basketball championship also will expand from 24 to 32 teams, basketball's world governing body said Sunday. Normally played every four years, the next World Cup of Basketball will be held in 2014 in Spain. It will continue to be held every four years starting with 2019. FIBA says the qualification period for the tournament will be held over two years starting in November 2017. ESPN.com

FIBA, World Championship 

Most importantly, though, is that FIBA will qualify teams for the World Cup and Olympic tournament much as its football brothers do: through multiple qualification periods through the year. These periods will, for the 2019 World Cup, be in November 2017, February 2018, June 2018, September 2018, November 2018 and February 2019. You may note that the NBA is typically in session in November, February and, for two teams, June. Whether this means that NBA players will no longer participate in global basketball remains to be seen. If so, it's a huge dent to the sport. SB Nation

FIBA, World Championship 

You were of course part of the 2010 team that won the world championships in Turkey that gave USA the spot in London. Did it hurt not being at the Olympics as you took them technically to the Games? Rudy Gay: It hurt, of course it did, I loved playing in Turkey for Team USA but at the end of the day it's not my choice. It is what it is, you have to roll with the punches and think about what happens next, and of course for me, that was the NBA season with Memphis. TalkBasket

Memphis Grizzlies, Rudy Gay, USA Basketball, World Championship 

Jorge Sierra: Pau Gasol asked about the 2014 Worlds at Nike event. Answer hints he'll be there. Twitter

Los Angeles Lakers, Pau Gasol, Spain, World Championship 

Manu Ginobili doesn't know if he'll play with the National Team the World Championship in Spain in 2014. "The only thing I know is that I'll be 37 years old and the situation is not the same with that age," Ginobili told LU2 radio show. El Periodiquito

San Antonio Spurs, Manu Ginobili, World Championship 

Andres Nocioni: (The group of old guys at the Argentinean National Team) has a future. We're still going to compete. Most of them will stay and there will be no big changes. I saw that most of the guys have made the decision to continue playing. I hope the group remains to give it one more try. I wish we have another chance at the World Championship in Spain. Ole

Andres Nocioni, Argentina, World Championship 

Manu Ginobili: I'm not playing the World Championship qualifying tournament next year. But after that, we'll see. La Nacion

San Antonio Spurs, Manu Ginobili, World Championship 

Former world champion Jorge Garbajosa of Unicaja announced on Wednesday that is retiring as a player at age 34. Garbajosa played for four different Euroleague teams in a 17-year career: Tau Ceramica, Benetton Treviso, Unicaja and Real Madrid, as well as Khimki Moscow Region in the Eurocup and Toronto in the NBA. Garbajosa reached the Euroleague title game in 2003 with Benetton, the same year that he was named to the All-Euroleague First Team. He was subsequently a second-team selection with Unicaja in 2006, just before he won the World Championships as a member of the Spanish national team. Euroleague.net

Toronto Raptors, Real Madrid, Jorge Garbajosa, World Championship, Benetton Treviso, Khimki Moscow 

NBA commissioner David Stern has been vague on the league’s motivation for pushing to enter an under-23 team for future Olympics and shifting the sport’s biggest stars to participation in the world championships, but the change of course is largely motivated by financial benefits, league and international sources told Yahoo! Sports. Yahoo! Sports

David Stern, World Championship 

For months, the NBA has been discussing an end to the Olympic basketball Dream Team movement and delivering its superstars to a proposed rebranding of the world championships called "The World Cup of Basketball." For the use of its most marketable players, the league office and many NBA owners are determined to create a financial partnership with FIBA for a World Cup that would allow the NBA to significantly share in the windfall of revenues. "The owners would be a lot more comfortable letting star players play internationally if they’re sharing in the revenue," one league source told Yahoo! Sports. Yahoo! Sports

David Stern, World Championship