Chicago Bulls: Why Luol Deng Should Honor His Contract and Skip London Olympics

Luol Deng’s decision to put off his wrist surgery to play in the 2012 London Olympics is wrong because it will force him to miss the first part of the 2012-2013 NBA season.  Deng would be ready to start the season on time if he undergoes surgery now so his intentional choice to put it off until after the Games could cost the Bulls a high playoff seed and the chance to contend for an NBA Championship.

Deng is a great, hard-working player and the heart and soul of the reinvigorated Chicago Bulls.  Earlier this year, I wrote that he should be a serious contender for the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award.

His desire to play for England, the country that took him in from a life of poverty and gave him the opportunity to rise to such impressive heights is clearly understandable.

But none of that changes the fact that Deng’s most important obligation is to his employer, the Chicago Bulls, who will pay him $13,326,700 to play 82 games for them next season.  The Bulls are paying him that money because his presence will help them contend for a championship.

Deng’s decision to play will directly and intentionally sabotage the Bulls’ quest for a title.  That is why it is wrong. 

If Deng has surgery now, the three- or four-month recovery period will be over by late summer.  He will be ready for training camp and the start of the season.  With Derrick Rose out early, his presence at that time will be critical to maintaining the team’s momentum. His presence will keep them in the hunt for a top playoff seed before the team’s superstar returns in mid-winter.

But if Deng postpones the surgery through the Olympics and continues to damage it further by practicing and playing for three additional months, the projected recovery time will stretch into December.

The Bulls will be without their two best players to start the season and could falter, losing enough games to risk a very important home-court playoff seed.

Ultimately, this is Deng’s decision.  The new Collective Bargaining Agreement gives him the right to play in the London Olympics.  But knowing that Rose will be out and Chicago’s title chances may rest on his presence to steady the team at the start of the season, how can Deng justify voluntarily sidelining himself?

He can’t.