NBA: Knicks Rookie Joins Growing List Of NBA Stars Skipping FIBA World Cup

The big news the past weeks was the withdrawal of certain NBA stars for USA Basketball at the 2019 FIBA World Cup set to be held in China. But it looks like Team USA is not the only one having problems with several other cagers pulling out due to personal reasons or injuries. The latest casualty is incoming New York Knicks rookie RJ Barrett.

The third overall pick of the 2019 NBA Draft will reportedly not play for Canada as he is currently sidelined due to "management of a mild calf strain sustained during Las Vegas Summer League," in a report by Shams Charania citing league sources. His absence is expected to be a big blow considering he has represented the country in the past. That included the FIBA Under-19 World Cup squad which bagged the gold medal back in 2017, NBA.com reported.

If his numbers are to be considered, Canada will be missing the 19-year-old's contributions of 15.4 points and 8.6 rebounds per game. These were his averages after 5 games in the Las Vegas NBA Summer League. Team Canada will start training camp on August 4 in Toronto at the OVO Athletic Centre before playing two exhibition games against Nigeria. Canada is grouped with Senegal, Lithuania and Australia.

While most would consider his calf injury as something that could eventually heal up by the time the FIBA World Cup games come around, taking a cautious approach as he makes his NBA debut with the Knicks makes sense. Also, Barrett got his share of criticism for his Summer League performance, struggling with his shooting stroke and turnovers. Somehow, the injury could explain the reason behind it all - at least for now, the New York Post reported.

With Barrett also out, it means that two of the top three picks have pulled out of the FIBA World Cup 2019. Earlier, top pick Zion Williamson also withdrew from Team USA as he opted to focus on the coming NBA season with the New Orleans Pelicans. As of this writing, Andre Drummond of the Detroit Pistons is the latest NBA star to pull out from USA Basketball, forcing the hand of head coach Gregg Popovich to add Bam Adebayo of the Miami Heat, USA Basketball reported.