SAN ANTONIO (AP) – Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said Thursday that Manu Ginobili should “definitely not” play for Argentina in the Olympics if his injured left ankle doesn’t improve.

Ginobili hurt his ankle early in the playoffs and a recent MRI revealed that a ligament in his heel is about five times the size of the one in his other heel, Popovich said.

Ginobili will have another MRI in three weeks, but Popovich said that “if it hasn’t changed at all, I think he should definitely not play in the Olympics.”

Popovich said Ginobili will wear a walking boot for the next few weeks. The guard’s signature explosiveness was hampered during the playoffs, particularly during the Western Conference finals against Los Angeles.

“He understands fully on an intellectual basis the problem here and he doesn’t want to jeopardize his season with the Spurs,” Popovich said. “Now Manu also has a pretty high pain tolerance, as we all know. So in that sense, I’m maybe not trying to convince him, but put the facts in front of him so he can make his own decision at some point.”

Popovich said that the Spurs are supportive of summertime play, especially when it’s organized – as opposed to pickup games – something that he said tends to reduce the risk for injury.

“But I’ve never felt like this before where I’ve been very nervous about him playing,” Popovich said. “And if it’s the same as it is now I just don’t think he should play and I think he needs to have that opinion. I think I have to say that to him.”

At the end of the season in late May, Ginobili had an injection in the ankle and said he expected it to improve quickly. But he told Argentine media Wednesday that doctors told him the injury was worse than he thought. He said he must immobilize the ankle for 3-4 weeks, but that he still hopes to play for Argentina.

“Maybe the best thing that could happen would be if we, in three weeks from now, we take the picture and everything is calmed down and it’s back to normal,” Popovich said. “But if it’s not, we’ve got a problem.”

Argentina won the gold medal in 2004 in Athens. The team begins practices in early July.

Pistons’ Prince makes U.S. team

Tayshaun Prince earned a spot on the USA Basketball team for the Beijing Games, a person in the NBA told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Dwyane Wade will join Prince on the team barring a last-minute change for the Miami Heat guard, according to a person familiar with the decision.

The two sources spoke on condition of anonymity because the roster will be announced Monday during a news conference in Chicago.

Wade’s Olympic selection first was reported by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Wade could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The 6-foot-4 guard missed 31 games last season because of injuries. He has been rehabbing since May 5 in Chicago, and hosted USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo there for a workout last week. Colangelo came away impressed, and apparently convinced that Wade’s surgically repaired left knee could hold up to the rigors of the Olympic schedule.

Earlier this month, Colangelo said the squad would be selected without a tryout.

The team will formally begin training in mid-July and is scheduled to start the Olympic series of games in Beijing Aug. 10. The gold medal game is Aug. 24, the day the games close.

Colangelo, on Thursday, said Phoenix forward Amare Stoudemire had told him he was withdrawing from consideration. Stoudemire apparently was concerned about about pushing his body too hard after knee surgery in 2005 and 2006. Stoudemire’s withdrawal was first reported by The Arizona Republic earlier Thursday.

“He and I had had conversations along the way, and he wasn’t sure,” Colangelo said. “I think the bottom line is that he was tentative. He didn’t want to take any chances, so he took himself out of consideration.”

Last year, Prince played for a U.S. team that was led by Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony during an unbeaten run in an Olympic qualifying tournament.

The 6-foot-9, 215-pound Prince gives the U.S. team a playoff-tested player who can slow down opponents with his defensive skills. He can also score occasionally with an array of runners and spin moves around the lane.

Prince helped the Detroit Pistons advance to the Eastern Conference finals for the sixth straight year, making them the most consistent in the playoffs since the Los Angeles Lakers of the 1980s.

He has played in 114 playoff games to surpass the total of any player his first six NBA seasons.

Wade would be playing in his second Olympics; he was part of the bronze-medal winning squad in Athens in 2004. And his workouts in Chicago over the past few weeks have been going on with a gold medal at the forefront of his mind.

“It would mean everything to me,” Wade told The Associated Press last month. “It’s what we talked about after getting the bronze, right after getting that medal, and I really want to be part of the team that puts the USA back on top.”

Prince’s Pistons teammate Chauncey Billups pulled himself out of consideration for a spot on the U.S. team earlier this week. The All-Star point guard might have had a hard time making the team anyway because of available guards such as Jason Kidd, Wade, Chris Paul and Deron Williams.