Dallas ? Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, displeased with the standard of insurance coverage for participants in basketball’s World Championships later this summer, has declared that no Maverick under contract has the team’s blessing to play in the tournament.

It appears, though, that Cuban only has license to officially deny permission to would-be German teammates Dirk Nowitzki and Shawn Bradley, because the German Basketball Federation has struggled to secure what the NBA deems “adequate” coverage for each player.

Cuban included Canada’s Steve Nash and Team USA’s Michael Finley and Raef LaFrentz in the decree, saying: “As of now, unless there is an insurance solution, none of our guys can play in the World Championships.”

The only exception for the Aug. 29-Sept. 8 event, Cuban said, is China’s Wang Zhizhi, since Wang is a free agent.

Cuban’s protest is that the NBA’s interpretation of “adequate” does not cover total contract value, leaving he and fellow team owners at high financial risk in the event of long-term injuries.

Yet the final say at least for Nash, Finley and former Kansas University player LaFrentz belongs to the individual players, according to NBA deputy commissioner Russ Granik.

The league’s agreement with the sport’s international ruling body (FIBA) dictates that NBA teams cannot block the participation of players who have “adequate” coverage in either their NBA contracts or through their national federations. Nash, Finley and LaFrentz thus have the option to represent their countries against Cuban’s wishes.

“Our view is that the Mavericks don’t have the right to withhold consent,” Granik said. “Teams do have the right to consent to off-season play, but our rules are such that if the federation is prepared to pay for adequate insurance, then the player has to be allowed to play.”

No team in the league is more synonymous with the tournament than the Mavs. They are slated to send seven representatives to Indianapolis, including coach Rolando Blackman, who serves in a similar capacity for Germany.

Cuban contends that his potential financial loss “would be the total of all the players’ contracts, or $285 million, in the worst possible case.” Granik, while refusing to discuss specific dollar amounts, countered by saying that the insurance provided is “parallel to what (teams) get any time their players are playing in an NBA game.”

Cuban said he has informed representatives for Finley and Nash that he doesn’t want them to play in Indianapolis. As of Friday, Cuban said he was still trying to notify LaFrentz’s agent.

Granik said he expects all three to play in the tournament, which is Finley’s and LaFrentz’s chance to impress USA Basketball in the bid to earn spots on the U.S. Olympic team in 2004.

Nowitzki, too, holds national-team duty in the highest regard and has long referred to leading Germany to a Summer Olympics as “my dream.” But recent surgery on Nowitzki’s left ankle requires Germany to secure additional insurance to cover an exclusion on the ankle in Nowitzki’s new six-year, $79 million contract. And the special policy, expected to cost some $200,000, also must be approved by the league.

“Germany can’t get a policy that completely protects me,” Cuban said.