A complaint against NBA sportswriters and copyeditors

Is it necessary to always identify foreign-born players as being from a certain other country? (That excepts the quasi-American, slightly foreign Tim Duncan of the U.S. Virgin Islands.)

Take, for example, this Yahoo photo caption from game 1 of the Spurs-Hornets West semifinals:

San Antonio Spurs forward Tim Duncan, left, and Manu Ginobili, of Argentina, sit on the bench near the end of the second half of Game 1 in the second round of the NBA basketball playoffs series Saturday, May 3, 2008, in New Orleans.

Can’t we just say “Spurs forward Tim Duncan, left, and guard Manu Ginobili sit on the bench …”?

Well, we CAN, of course. Why don’t we? Or they, that is, referring actually to sports copyeditors more than sportswriters in cases like this.