Basketball shots - help with blurring the background..

Well here's my first photo post for help

I had my first sports shoot and with the help of the forums I think I did ok, would have done better I think with a longer lens. Anyway, I need some help with blurring some of the background out, here's one pic that I tried processing, (highlight/shadow, brightness/contrast, auto levels) then I attempted to use the lasso tool to select the background and add a gausian blur, don't laugh, I can't draw a straight line for nothing in the world

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'text/html' | Byte size: ZERO

This is the best I could do with a small picture.

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Byte size: ZERO | PHOTOBUCKET ERROR IMAGE

There is too much red in both foreground and background which causes confusion.
How about desaturating the background colours and putting some extra colour in the ball.

Barry

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