(UPDATED) Follow-up to Deng and his insurance

It looks like Hanley blatantly ripped off this article from this Times (or vice versa, I guess) today, which seems to close the book on Deng playing for GB:

Great Britain Basketball [GBB] officials fear that the insurance problems that are preventing Luol Deng, the Chicago Bulls forward, from playing for his country will rule him out of the 2012 Olympic Games in London and even put Britain’s involvement in the tournament in doubt.

The sport’s governing body has seven days to find $500,000 (about £272,000) for an additional insurance premium if Deng, who is an ambassador for London 2012, is to take his place in the qualifying campaign for next year’s European Championship A division finals, starting against Israel in Tel Aviv a week today.

The root of the problem lies with MetLife, the NBA’s insurer, which covers the top 150 salaries in the American league on a group policy. Under the terms of its agreement with the NBA, MetLife has the right to exclude 14 high-risk players every year, a decision based on the individual’s injury history and the amount of money remaining on his contract.

Deng came under the company’s spotlight when he signed a new $71million, six-year contract at the start of this month, the fourth-highest contract in the league at present in terms of outstanding money. MetLife subsequently used an MRI scan taken last November when Deng, 23, injured his back and missed three games to exclude him from the coverage.

Exhaustive work has produced a quotation of $500,000 for supplementary cover and GBB officials are working on the assumption that they will have to unearth a similar fee every summer between now and the London Olympics to allow Deng to play – a total cost of $2.5million for a programme that runs on an annual budget of about £1.5million.

"This is a devastating blow," Chris Spice, the GBB performance director, said. "If Luol doesn’t participate this season or any other season leading up to London, there is no question our involvement is in doubt. The world governing body [Fiba] has not been very specific, but we know from discussions that we need to be playing in the A division tournament in Europe to be given a place in the Olympics.

Interesting that Deng is deemed ‘high-risk’ for an injury that didn’t cost him much playing time. I’d guess when the next round of contracts come in next summer he’ll be pushed off that ‘top 14’.

My guess is doctors saw some evidence on the MRI to think there might be something degenerative. Doesn’t mean it will be, of course, but it’d explain why they’re more concerned about him than, say, Emeka Okafor or Tyson Chandler who have, ironically enough, both missed significant time with back issues before signing their new contracts.

Of course, maybe they’re uninsured and it was just kept quiet.

Couldn’t Deng, who got got a $71M deal, pay for his own insurance if he really wants to play?

I wouldn’t conclude that there is necessarily anything seriously wrong with Luol. The insurance company may have simply had space on their Risky 14 list and decided to add Luol because of the money more than the seriousness of the injury. Just a thought.

So says that UK basketball site:

Luol Deng was on flight for Europe on Thursday night after Great Britain Basketball chiefs apparently won their battle to free him to play for the national team.
The 23-year-old Chicago Bulls star had been sidelined after being put on an exclusion list by the NBA’s insurance company.
But GB bosses have managed to find the £250,000 needed to take out additional insurance on an old back injury and Deng was heading to GB training camp in Turkey last night.
The GB star still has to complete formalities but the Bulls are understood to have agreed to his release – the biggest potential stumbling block left in winning his release.
The news comes as a massive boost to Chris Finch’s team as they start the qualifying campaign for Eurobasket 2009 with a visit to Israel in Tel Aviv next Wednesday