It has become as much a part of international basketball competitions as the United States not winning. Sometime the following season, too much play over the summer is blamed for a number of injuries.
LeBron James has been hobbled by a sore toe, Dwyane Wade still struggles with an injured wrist. Could those injuries, along with others to players such as Chris Paul and Chris Bosh, have been caused by a summer spent playing with the U.S. national team?
Maybe, but fellow program members Lamar Odom, Paul Pierce, Michael Redd and Chauncey Billups were all excused from playing last summer, and they've been hurt, too.
"A lot of guys do have injuries that played USA (basketball), but a lot of guys that didn't have injuries, too," said Clippers and U.S. forward Elton Brand. "Like Lamar got hurt, Paul Pierce, they were on the team but they never came in the summer and they were out extended periods of time.
"There's a lot of top tier, upper echelon players that got hurt. So injuries, it's kind of hard to pinpoint it on that, but it was a lot of ball."
Brand acknowledged being affected by the busy summer schedule, but said it was the travel more than the actual playing. The Americans train in Las Vegas, then played exhibition games in China and Korea before playing in two cities in Japan for the world championships. Plus, he then had to go to Russia when the Clippers had a training camp stint there.
NO LONGER MAGICAL: The Magic have been the best team in Florida this season. But unless things change soon, the only place Orlando is going to be above Miami is on the map.
Orlando was stuck in a hideous stretch heading into the weekend, falling to .500 after a 113-103 loss in Toronto on Wednesday night. That left the Magic in second place in the Southeast Division, only a half-game ahead of the Heat.
"We just have to keep our heads up. Nobody in the league is going to say the Magic are playing bad, let's just get the win," All-Star center Dwight Howard said. "We have to go out there every night and play hard and play aggressive."
Just a month ago, there were no signs of any trouble in Orlando. After a 91-76 victory over Golden State on Jan. 10, the Magic were in first place with a 22-14 record. But they lost their next five games, and won only three times in their next 14.
"A lot of teams in the East know what we can do and they respect our game, so obviously the competitiveness is going to be there every night," guard Carlos Arroyo said. "Everybody is going to play us at a high level, because of the team we have and how good of a start we had this year."
The obvious problem for Orlando is the absence of Grant Hill, the veteran leader on a fairly inexperienced team. He hasn't played this month because of a sprained right knee that was expected to keep him out for two weeks.
Of greater concern could be a recent absence of the strong defense Orlando played for most of the season. The Magic were allowing 93.2 points per game through Thursday's games, tied for third best in the league, but surrendered 116 and 113 while losing on consecutive nights in Milwaukee and Toronto this week.
"We will get it back right," Howard said. "We have a couple of games before the All-Star break and hopefully everybody will come back ready to go."
A DISTINGUISHED PANEL: Not all the competitors in the slam dunk competition feel the way that Tyrus Thomas does about the event.
The Chicago Bulls fined their rookie forward $10,000 earlier this week after he was quoted in the Chicago Tribune as saying: "I'm just going to go out there, get my check and call it a day." He added: "I'm just into the free money. That's it. I'll just do whatever when I get out there."
But for Nate Robinson and Dwight Howard, there's another benefit besides the $35,000 first prize. Winning that means impressing an elite panel of dunkers.
Michael Jordan, Julius Erving, Dominique Wilkins, Kobe Bryant and Vince Carter will judge the All-Star Saturday night event in Las Vegas.
"It makes you want to do even better than you think you can do," said Robinson, the defending champion.