Will they play for the USA?

USA Basketball announced Tuesday that it would hold a training camp for players July 19-24 in Las Vegas, a statement that led to a question: Will Kobe Bryant and Lamar Odom be there?

The only two Lakers invited to the camp have fought injuries most of the season, Bryant with well-chronicled swelling in his right knee and a sore joint in his right index finger, Odom with a sore left shoulder and, more recently, a slightly sprained right knee.

It’s a fine line. The Lakers can’t officially stop players from representing the U.S., but they also want healthy, rested players when training camp starts in October, “in particular when you have a player that’s injured,” Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak said.

“Our players that we’re talking about have been injured this year, and typically the summer is a time after a long, grueling season that they could use to rehabilitate, to rest, and to get well,” Kupchak said. “We’ve played well over 110, 115, 120 games in the last two years. It’s grueling. Injuries that take place in November, December and January, they don’t heal. The only time they’re going to heal, barring surgery, is during the off-season.”

If the Lakers advance to the NBA Finals for a third consecutive season, Odom and Bryant would have about four weeks to rest before the Team USA camp started.

“The prudent thing for everybody to do, since it is the very beginning of May, is to see how long we play and how healthy everybody is at the conclusion of the season,” Kupchak said.

Political talk

Lakers Coach Phil Jackson, who has never shied away from getting involved in the political arena, seems to have changed his course when he said teams shouldn’t “get involved in the political stuff.”

Jackson, who campaigned for Sen. Bill Bradley for president in 2000, was asked about Phoenix Suns owner Robert Sarver saying his team would wear “Los Suns” on their jerseys for Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals Wednesday against San Antonio.

Sarver said the Suns were doing it to “honor our Latino community and the diversity of our league, the state of Arizona and our nation.”

A law passed by Arizona legislators and signed by the governor has drawn national criticism from Latino and civil-rights groups that maintain it could lead to racial profiling of Latinos.

“Where we stand as basketball teams,” Jackson said, “I think we should just let that kind of play out and let the political end of that go where it’s going to go”

Not quite yet

Reserve guard Sasha Vujacic has started running on an anti-gravity treadmill that effectively lowers impact on the body, another step in his rehabilitation from a severely sprained left ankle.

Vujacic said he was “ahead of schedule for sure.”

“It’s going really well, actually,” he said. “If I get ready in time to help the team in this series, I’ll definitely come back as soon as possible.”

Vujacic has not played since April 14 and hopes to return by the end of the conference semifinals. He averaged 2.8 points and 8.6 minutes a game during the regular season.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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