International sports matter to who though? I'm serious. American's don't care about it and if stuff like this causes the NBA to take a hit in quality then it is a concern that will be brought up. These players make the majority of their money from playing in the NBA and if injuries effect their ability to perform then the teams have a right to restrict playing internationally.
You hit on the point - international sports doesn't mean much to Americans sadly, whereas it means an awful lot for most of the rest of the world. It doesn't help that the US is either the best at the sports it plays by a mile - basketball - or the rest of the world largely or totally don't play it - baseball and NFL - so it's obvious to see why you want restrictions.
But what sucks is why - maybe - you don't understand the international view, or if you do understand it, why you'd want to overrule it, especially as you're from such an outwardly patriotic nation like the United States; national pride is huge so international sports is therefore huge by default.
Thankfully the NBA - along with virtually every other major professional sports league in the world - gets this, as annoying and frustrating as it can be for owners, fans and players alike.
But if you're still hung up on economic ownership trumping patriotism (and all that this argument stands for in principle) then why not consider it this way:
If you're the owner of the Phoenix Suns and winning is your aim, you could always just not sign internationals and leave it to the other clubs to do that. Would you? And if not, why not?
Sounds like there's a concession to be made there somewhere.
