"The Argentine senior men's basketball team will begin training today in Buenos Aires in preparation for the FIBA Americas Olympic qualifying tournament, but Spurs guard Manu Ginobili's participation remains clouded by the NBA lockout.

According to the ESPN Deportes website, the availability of Ginobili and fellow NBA players Luis Scola (Rockets), Carlos Delfino (Bucks) and Andres Nocioni (76ers) remains uncertain because the Argentine basketball federation has yet to secure insurance to cover the contracts of the NBA players.

Ordinarily, NBA teams are required to insure 80 percent of the contract of any player participating on a national team in a FIBA-sanctioned event. Because of the lockout, the entire burden of insuring the contracts falls on national federations, an expensive proposition for nations with multiple NBA participants.

German Vaccaro, president of the Argentine federation, is quoted in the ESPN Deportes article expressing confidence that the insurance, estimated to total $500,000, will be paid so the four players can join their national team for the tournament Aug. 28-Sept. 11 in Mar del Plata, Argentina.

"One way or another, we are going to solve it, and NBA players will be able to play with the team," Vaccaro told ESPN Deportes. "If we have to pay it, we'll pay it, but I am very optimistic."

In an interview with the Express-News in June, Ginobili said playing in the Olympic qualifying tournament in his homeland was "very, very important." Equally vital to the Spurs All-Star guard: the opportunity to reunite with six teammates from the team that won the Olympic gold medal in Athens in 2004."