Leo Rautins defends his son and wants important points answered

LAS VEGAS -- FIBA, the world governing body for basketball, may look at this and see nothing more than frustration from a father upset at the bad break that has befallen his son. Leo Rautins, head coach of Canada's national men's team and father to guard Andy Rautins, whose Olympic qualifying tournament came to a sudden end Wednesday night when he partially tore his ACL and MCL, admits frustration but the fact remains the circumstances that surrounded the injury to his son may have been prevented had FIBA shown a little more concern for the health of the players it desperately wants to attract to these tournaments. Trying to stay with the ultra-quick Leandro Barbosa midway through the second quarter of Wednesday's 75-67 loss to Brazil, the younger Rautins' knee went one way and his body went the other. A sickening popping sound heard by Rautins and a handful of his teammates on the bench nearby confirmed for the elder Rautins the worst-case scenario had just transpired. But what Rautins the coach can't understand is the wanton disregard for the players' health FIBA shows by its scheduling, its roster rules and even the power it allots TV networks whose schedule seems to supercede all other concerns. As Rautins arrived at the Thomas and Mack Center last night for Canada's game with Venezuela, his first order of business was to confront officials of the FIBA Americas Olympic qualifer and ask them why Canada's warmup the night before had been cut to just eight minutes. Tournament officials told him they had a schedule to keep but would endeavor to make sure it didn't happen again. And can you get that barn door now that the horse is out? Whether the abbreviated warmup contributed to the injury, no one will ever be able to say for sure, but asked point blank by his father how he felt going into the game, the younger Rautins replied, "tight." "We had an eight-minute warmup (the normal minimum is 12)," Rautins said. "Now, I can assure you if that were the U.S. it wouldn't have happened. That's what bothers me. You get into these international competitions and things just aren't on a level playing field. If you're going to do eight-minute warmups then let's do eight minutes. Don't have player intros, don't have exchanges of the pins. Nobody cares about that and certainly we don't need to have the anthems at this point. If you are that far behind ...." Rautins isn't blaming the short warmup totally for his son's injury, but it's just another instance of FIBA failing to protect the players' interest and it's certainly not the only one Rautins has come across. "There are a few things that I don't understand," he said. "One is in the NBA you carry those extra guys so if someone gets hurt you make a change. This isn't a minor injury. He's done and we can't replace him. The fact that we can't have someone on standby just doesn't make sense. Especially in this environment. I mean, there's nothing like it. There's no where you play four games, take a day off and then play four more. Some of these teams will play eight straight. To me it's illogical. "I think people have to sit down and realize there's a reason people don't play. There's a reason NBA teams don't want their guys to play. And if you want to continue to have the best guys play in this tournament, you might want to do some things like not cut the warmups, have extra bodies available and you may want to space (the schedule out) or change the format so you don't kill people in order to play." If all of this ever occurs, it will come too late for Andy Rautins, who has a high basketball IQ. His tournament is over and he's expected to be a medical red-shirt for Syracuse this coming collegiate season. The immediate questions the Rautins have to answer is who is going to do the surgery, when it is going to be done and where will it be done? The questions FIBA might be asking itself this morning are what could it have done or what could it do now to make sure the next time an injury occurs like this in its tournament, no one can point a finger at FIBA and suggest it didn't do everything it could to prevent it. Next story: It's official, Garbajosa out Advertise! Canoe Klix Downtown Mazda ? Your Downtown Dealer Bye Bye Bad Credit - Go To YouAreApproved.ca East Court Ford - TO's Family Store