Changing Olympic basketball, USA Basketball
I will admit to really liking international basketball. I like the 10-minute quarters, which makes for games that fly by in two hours or less. I like the closer three-point arc, the trapezoid lane, the zone defenses and the timeouts that can be called only by coaches.
I like the quirkiness that comes from having a court that's inexplicably a couple of feet shorter and narrower, that comes from allowing players to yank the ball right off the rim and that comes from having the strangest looking Molten ball I've ever seen.
I've also enjoyed having breakfast and watching basketball two of the last three years. With the U.S. playing in the 2006 world championships in Japan and the Beijing Olympics this summer, these morning games have been bliss for hoops junkies.
But I have to confess to not really being a fan of USA Basketball. When it comes to things I'd rather watch in the Olympics, give me the swimmer who's sacrificed over his or her entire life for one race rather than a bunch of NBA All-Stars on summer vacation.
The New York Times had a story Tuesday about a cook at Panda Express in Honolulu who somehow will be representing the Marshall Islands in taekwondo. That's the Olympics to me. Those are the athletes I hope NBC will feature in Beijing.
Watching the "Road to Redemption" specials (presented by Nike) on ESPN have definitely blurred the line for me as to whether Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Co. are representing the U.S. or representing the swoosh.
There seems to have been a camera present at every practice, every team meeting, every photo shoot and every moment of down time. The ads are all about Hyperdunks and Nikes, my favorite being an Olympic montage set to a Killers song.
Dwight Howard is the only player who wears Adidas on the U.S. team. There's a team photo in which Mike Krzyzewski's foot just happens to be obscuring Howard's shoe and Howard's hand just happens to be covering the swoosh on his shorts.
Are Kobe and LeBron sitting down for their first interview together for any reason other than Nike? I also question whether having a team gather for training camp in Las Vegas and then travel to Macau really exemplifies the Olympic spirit.
I thought Mark Heisler wrote it best in the Los Angeles Times after arriving at the Venetian Macau along with Team USA:
"According to the Eleventh Commandment handed down in 1992 when NBA players began Olympic play, no U.S. team can ever be out of sight of a five-star hotel, a casino or, preferably, both."
There's no way we're going back to the days of the U.S. sending college players, but I would like to see two changes for future Olympics.
The first would be borrowing from Olympic soccer and turning the basketball tournament into an under 23 event with professionals from every country. For this year's Olympics, every player would have had to been born no earlier than 1985.
Howard and Chris Paul would be the only players eligible from the current Olympic team (James was born Dec. 30, 1984) while Kevin Durant, Derrick Rose, O.J. Mayo, Greg Oden and Kevin Love all could go from the select team.
What the team would lack in established stars, it would more than make up for in buzz for its young players. The challenge would be great in competing against countries whose best young players often have grown up playing together at sports institutes.
I also would like to see the U.S. players take the court with no logos on their jerseys or shoes. If you want to represent the country, you can play in a pair of plain white or black shoes and do away with all questions about Nike corrupting the program.
I'd be interested to hear from readers about their thoughts on international basketball and whether they'd change anything about USA Basketball.
--Ross Siler
I like the quirkiness that comes from having a court that's inexplicably a couple of feet shorter and narrower, that comes from allowing players to yank the ball right off the rim and that comes from having the strangest looking Molten ball I've ever seen.
I've also enjoyed having breakfast and watching basketball two of the last three years. With the U.S. playing in the 2006 world championships in Japan and the Beijing Olympics this summer, these morning games have been bliss for hoops junkies.
But I have to confess to not really being a fan of USA Basketball. When it comes to things I'd rather watch in the Olympics, give me the swimmer who's sacrificed over his or her entire life for one race rather than a bunch of NBA All-Stars on summer vacation.
The New York Times had a story Tuesday about a cook at Panda Express in Honolulu who somehow will be representing the Marshall Islands in taekwondo. That's the Olympics to me. Those are the athletes I hope NBC will feature in Beijing.
Watching the "Road to Redemption" specials (presented by Nike) on ESPN have definitely blurred the line for me as to whether Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Co. are representing the U.S. or representing the swoosh.
There seems to have been a camera present at every practice, every team meeting, every photo shoot and every moment of down time. The ads are all about Hyperdunks and Nikes, my favorite being an Olympic montage set to a Killers song.
Dwight Howard is the only player who wears Adidas on the U.S. team. There's a team photo in which Mike Krzyzewski's foot just happens to be obscuring Howard's shoe and Howard's hand just happens to be covering the swoosh on his shorts.
Are Kobe and LeBron sitting down for their first interview together for any reason other than Nike? I also question whether having a team gather for training camp in Las Vegas and then travel to Macau really exemplifies the Olympic spirit.
I thought Mark Heisler wrote it best in the Los Angeles Times after arriving at the Venetian Macau along with Team USA:
"According to the Eleventh Commandment handed down in 1992 when NBA players began Olympic play, no U.S. team can ever be out of sight of a five-star hotel, a casino or, preferably, both."
There's no way we're going back to the days of the U.S. sending college players, but I would like to see two changes for future Olympics.
The first would be borrowing from Olympic soccer and turning the basketball tournament into an under 23 event with professionals from every country. For this year's Olympics, every player would have had to been born no earlier than 1985.
Howard and Chris Paul would be the only players eligible from the current Olympic team (James was born Dec. 30, 1984) while Kevin Durant, Derrick Rose, O.J. Mayo, Greg Oden and Kevin Love all could go from the select team.
What the team would lack in established stars, it would more than make up for in buzz for its young players. The challenge would be great in competing against countries whose best young players often have grown up playing together at sports institutes.
I also would like to see the U.S. players take the court with no logos on their jerseys or shoes. If you want to represent the country, you can play in a pair of plain white or black shoes and do away with all questions about Nike corrupting the program.
I'd be interested to hear from readers about their thoughts on international basketball and whether they'd change anything about USA Basketball.
--Ross Siler
7:44 PM
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6 Comments:
Your idea is pretty stupid, and I doubt anybody would pay much attention to Olympic basketball anymore. Just because basketball gets so much coverage doesn't mean it's a bad thing. There's a reason for that. With dozens of games on display on national TV every season, and so many advertisements for the NBA, have you not realized that basketball in general is a much larger market than swimming or track and field? When it comes to things like these you have to face the fact that certain sports are more appealing than others. You might as well go back to banning professionals from the Olympics.
I don't know why, but this post didn't show up on my reader - I got to it from TrueHoop. I can't believe there aren't more comments. Since calling posts "stupid" is apparently acceptable, I will say to chris that his post is stupid because he apparently didn't read the post he's responding to. Siler's post wasn't about coverage. It was about who's giving some of the coverage (Nike), and about the interests at stake in USA Basketball that don't always run parallel to what you typically think to be the Olympic spirit and the spirit of international competition. Nobody's talking about banning professionals. What the basketball competition this year highlights is that America is obsessed with winning at all costs. And I love it when USA wins. But the fact is, it isn't enough for us to know that we have the best athletes and the best sports leagues in the world. We also have to show everyone that we can prevail at any level of competition. And we have a really hard time when a team from another country, with inferior athletes, fields a team that beats USA, because it challenges the idea that we have the best of everything. I hope USA takes gold, but it would be more satisfying if Chris Paul, Kevin Durant and Greg Oden did it than it will be to watch Kobe Bryant and Jason Kidd do it.
Originally Siler explained that he preferred relatively less well known athletes that worked hard at what they did. In my original post, I wanted to say that just because our basketball stars get tons of coverage does NOT mean that they do not work hard! Our current team USA has been together for YEARS sacrificing their summers in addition to work during NBA seasons to work together as a team. As recent Olympics and FIBA competitions have proven as of late, our team "slapped together with All-stars," is not the untouchable team a la '92. The world has been improving, so Kobe Bryant and co. have just as much chance as anyone else does to win. You can't possibly say that Spain's team isn't laden with potential All-Stars -- Gasol Brothers, Rudy Fernandez, Navarro, Rubio, etc. USA is working HARD right now to win gold, not taking a walk in the park. Isn't that already bringing back the Olympic spirit? Heck we don't even have the best player in the world -- Paul Pierce ;), playing for us.
And really, in respects to what is at stake, the interests of gold are really in the player's hearts and minds, not of David Stern's basketball ultimatum or anything. Kobe and Jkidd are getting old, why the hell would they ever play in the Olympics? Because they are determined as an athlete to represent his country and bring back the gold. Not because Nike, Jerry Coangelo, or David Stern told them to. They make enough money as is.
I guess I don't really understand why it would be more satisfying if less talented players were only allowed to play. The only reason I'm into USA Basketball is because many of my favorite players are on the team. Although I would have to agree with you, it would be really awesome if Greg Oden, coming off of microfracture surgery and barely ready to play in the NBA, was on team USA. And, call me crazy, but I guess I really don't understand how Team USA wearing uniforms without logos would make it more enjoyable. And, why would the young team create so much buzz? Every team would be young. I think a team filled with some of the greatest players that will ever play the game would and does create more buzz.
I like this article, because it does call attention to the fact that every basketball event in the United States, both professional and amateur, gets too much coverage. It might also be that, even though basketball is only one of the many events held at the Olympics, if you watched television only you'd think basketball was the only event being held. Maybe if the other athletes from the other events received some attention then the playing field would be leveled.
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