<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Shortly before the Jazz's NBA season ended last month, injured point guard Raul Lopez held out hope that he would be able to represent his native Spain in next September's European Championships. "Maybe," he said when asked about playing in the international tourney, a qualifier for next year's World Championships in Japan. "We'll see." Even before Lopez underwent season-ending knee surgery earlier this year, however, Jazz brass squashed the notion of their under-contract point playing in September. Today, the team still feels that way. With one knee twice reconstructed and the other just repaired, the case for ensuring that the former first-round draft choice does not sustain any additional damage during international play seems quite compelling. "I think he has to realize that when he (tore the right knee) both times, he was playing (internationally)," Kevin O'Connor, the Jazz's senior vice president for basketball operations, said after last Thursday's announcement that coach Jerry Sloan will return next season. The Jazz do not, however, have a problem with any of their three other European players taking part in Eurobasket 2005 at Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro. That includes Russian forward Andrei Kirilenko, whose 2004-05 NBA season was cut short by a broken wrist. "They're entitled to do whatever they want," O'Connor said. "I would never discourage a guy from playing in it," added Jerry Sloan, himself a former Summer Olympics assistant coach. "Those games are lifetime experiences, and I'm not that selfish. I think they deserve that opportunity."</div> Source
The Jazz will try to take as little risks as possible with Lopez. He has a injury history, and the Jazz could consider giving up on him. He has played a full 82 game season, however.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Stockton:</div><div class="quote_post">The Jazz will try to take as little risks as possible with Lopez. He has a injury history, and the Jazz could consider giving up on him. He has played a full 82 game season, however.</div> If they get anything more at all out of Lopez, it'll be a miracle. He'll never hold up and I've said before, his productive playing days are all but over. Tank
