Interbasket

In the middle of Canada’s run for an Olympic berth during the recent qualifying tournament held in Greece, Samuel Dalembert of the Philadelphia 76ers was dismissed from the team by head coach Leo Rautins for his supposed lack of commitment and dedication to team Canada.

One’s first instinct is to side with the coach and blame the player, especially one from the NBA.   Most would love to believe Dalembert as an NBA primadonna.  Imagining that Dalembert believed that he was above the team’s rules, skipping mandatory practices and media engagements, that he wasn’t dedicated to the concept and goal of Team Canada.

However, in light of recent interview given by the Haitian-born, Montreal-raised center, I tend to believe otherwise:

“I could never be late under his (Leo’s) clock, so I made sure I wasn’t. Then the issue became the team meal. There was nothing said that everybody had to be at the team meal. Sometime before the game, I chose this time to sleep instead of eating. He didn’t even show up at some team meals. Everything I did was called into question. He never told me I had to be there until later on. My high school coach was always at the team meal. He knows not to bother me because I have a routine. I was never late for anything. Coaches were. My high school coach made sure I was up and ready for anything and everything that I had to be present for. They kept saying “Sammy is late for this. Sammy is late for that.” “I was like dude, I’m never late. You don’t show up for team meal some of the time because you are with your wife. If things were mandatory, I should have been given the respect to at least known that. I wish it would have been said to me. As far as the team meal, I don’t eat pork. Most of the stuff over in Germany, was pork. I didn’t want to be different from anyone else, just in that regard. I wasn’t a prima donna. There’s NBA players who would have asked for this and that, but I made sure I paid for everything extra. I didn’t want to be uncomfortable. People were coming up to see me. I wanted to be in shape so I did what I had to do.” click here for the entire interview

And Rautins has somewhat corroborated Dalembert’s above story only with a much different perspective: “We’re at a tournament in Greece where every other team and their NBA players are visible, Dirk Nowitzki, Carlos Arroyo, Chris Kaman, Jose Barea, Rasho Nesterovic.  These guys are all there for our players to see how they handle their business.  They eat with their team, they socialize with their teams.  They compete.  They don’t talk about everything that they are giving up.”

Sounds like the facts are there (missing a team dinner, giving up Basketball without Borders), and there was a severe miscommunication between the two.  Dalembert seems genuinely confused and logical with his actions.  To me, it sounds as if Rautins held a grudge against Dalmebert from the get-go when Dalembert wanted to finish Basketball without Borders, and it went downhill from there.  “It’s been brewing for a while.” Rautins told Globe Sports.

Seems to me Rautins has done nothing but to trash Sam in public and spin the story his direction while Dalembert has been the bigger man “I’m disappointed.  I know how to differentiate between business and pleasure,” said Dalembert. “This is children’s stuff.  I don’t throw people under the bus.  I don’t trash the coach.”

“The only thing I can say is questioning any type of commitment on Sam’s part is ludicrous.” said Dalembert’s agent Marc Cornstein. “It’s been extremely difficult to get high level NBA players to become part of the national team program and Sam not only made the effort last year to get his Canadian citizenship, he committed his off-season last year to helping Canada qualify for Greece. And this summer, unless I’m mistaken, he was there at the beginning of training camp and hasn’t asked for any special treatment, so I don’t know why anyone would question his commitment.”

Add Samuel Dalembert to a list of players not on the Canadian National Team because they’ve been alienated by Leo Rautins - Jamal Magloire, Denham Brown, and Juan Mendez… and some may add Steve Nash to the list, but we’ll never know because Nash would never air his national team’s dirty laundry in public.

Links and Resources: Team Canada dumps Sam Dalembert (Interbasket), Samuel Dalmebert Speaks Out on his dismissal from Canadian National Team (theStartingFive.net), Dalembert, Team Canada go separate ways (Globe Sports), Canadian National Team Discussion (Fiba Forum), Rautins, Dalembert avoid details of disagreement (TSN), Olympic Qualifying Tournament Forum (Interbasket Forum), Can Leo Rautins lead Canada?