What's with all the rumblings from the management of various teams saying that they don't want to let their players participate in the international competitions? Mark Cuban is one of the more outspoken ones (shocker) saying that the NBA is trying to put out a good product and that the international competitions compromise that by wearing down on the players. Naturally, with all of the international players on his team, he is going to complain the most, but he's not the only one. I'm thinking that it conflicts directly with the U.S. desire to win these competitions (that's why they wanted pros in the first place). Would the public accept the U.S. not sending their best players anymore? I mean that would have to be the case if NBA teams want to forbid even one player from representing their home country. Opinions?
Personally, I've always thought we should have stuck to college players representing in international competition. I've always viewed the Olympics as a competition among amateurs. That was the way it was done for many years in basketball and there really wasn't a probelm. The "probelm" came when we finally lost. But in sports, that is bound to happen. I sincerly believe that if we picked out 12 of the best ameuteur players and have them play as a squad for months at a time, they have a legitimate shot at winning gold. Right now, it's the U.S.'s all-mighty "band of players" playing agaisnt other countries' "teams." There is a difference...The U.S. will most likely take gold just out of sheer talent alone...the only reasons the games are competitive is that other countries play collectively very well....I believe if we can get out amateurs to play a lot of games and build team chemistry like the international teams, then we'll be right up there...
olympics are every year?? or 4? well you could pick whoever wins the soph vs rookies game to go and represent the usa..thatll give more competition to the event.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting TMac_OwNz:</div><div class="quote_post">olympics are every year?? or 4? well you could pick whoever wins the soph vs rookies game to go and represent the usa..thatll give more competition to the event.</div> They are every 4, but in between are the world championships. SO basically, we need a squad every 2 years...
yeah so you could like pick whoever wins the rookies vs soph game every 2 years..even if the soph win 2 years in a row...theyll have to go as a team..
With the large gaurenteed contracts, owners are scared of injuries... I'm sure during the offseason some owners call their players daily making sure they aren't washing their truck (Jeff Kent) or answering telephones (Thomas Jones). Also, playing more basketball does wear down the players (even Jason Kidd said playing on the Olympic squad made him exhausted come playoff time) but I think owners are more scared of a player going down for a length of time, leaving that owner to pay his salary for that player to sit on the bench. I think owners have a good arguement... and I do think college players should be the ones to play. It's not fun watching NBA players spank other countries, and most of the time the NBA guys don't even get up for the game, that's what happened when the US finally lost (not to mention it was the NBA's B-team that was playing). Watching college players compete is fun, they'll play hard for the games, because they have their future riding on it. They do well, their draft status jumps... plus the games will be closer and more entertaining. Lastly the college players will actually listen to the coaches, instead of the bad attitudes all these self-proclaimed "superstar" NBA players... George Karl couldn't get any of them to play into his system, hence they lost. I'll stop seeing how I'm not arguing with anybody, I think we all agree a college basketball olympic team would be the way to go, at least they should try it in 2008 or something. It might even sway some kids to stay in college (or go for that matter) instead of leaving for the NBA... the NBA's always there, the Olympics isn't!! I doubt many of them would pass on millions of dollars for Olympic gold, but it's SOMETHING!!
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting notMuchgame:</div><div class="quote_post">Personally, I've always thought we should have stuck to college players representing in international competition. I've always viewed the Olympics as a competition among amateurs. </div> I could not agree with you more. I have said this for years that the NBA is for Pros and the amature events are for AMATURES. If Manu or other Euro players want's to go play in these events, the team ownership should have put something in their contract that would prevent it. That's a huge exposure!
Considering that other countries are finally catching up to the United States in basketball, with that kind of attitude the US won't win the gold in the Olympics. Does anyone remember watching the World Games with the team of Sean Marion, Ben Wallace, Paul Pierce, Baron Davis, Jermaine O'Neal, Andre Miller, and other all star players lost to the Argentinian team with only one NBA player, Manu Ginobili, they also lost to the Yugoslavian team with Peja and Vlade. If you want to win in the Olympic games the US team will need to come to play and they will need to bring their best players.
Why stop an NBA player from being in an olympics and getting a gold medal? If the players choose to play then they should be allowed. The Olympics and Worlds are all about the best against the best. I don't see the players from the euroleagues or other leagues bitching and moaning about their players being a part of that or being fatigued. The players are not forced to play in those competitions, they have a choice. If the NBA stops them from competing it would seriously be shame not only to itself but to the other countries
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting BC:</div><div class="quote_post">Considering that other countries are finally catching up to the United States in basketball, with that kind of attitude the US won't win the gold in the Olympics. Does anyone remember watching the World Games with the team of Sean Marion, Ben Wallace, Paul Pierce, Baron Davis, Jermaine O'Neal, Andre Miller, and other all star players lost to the Argentinian team with only one NBA player, Manu Ginobili, they also lost to the Yugoslavian team with Peja and Vlade. If you want to win in the Olympic games the US team will need to come to play and they will need to bring their best players.</div> Like I mentioned on my previous post, I think those losses were more attributed to the other countries team unity and chemistry. With U.S. squads, we just throw together a bunch of guys and send them off to play...what we need are players with enough time to play together a lot and tour the country...that's why I'm for college players...I sincerely believe we could throw out an upper echelon <u>team</u> (i.e. lakers, t-wolves, spurs etc..) and they would have a better chance at gold then the "semi all-star" squad that we sent out last time (the one that lost).
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting notMuchgame:</div><div class="quote_post">I sincerly believe that if we picked out 12 of the best ameuteur players and have them play as a squad for months at a time, they have a legitimate shot at winning gold. Right now, it's the U.S.'s all-mighty "band of players" playing agaisnt other countries' "teams." There is a difference...The U.S. will most likely take gold just out of sheer talent alone...the only reasons the games are competitive is that other countries play collectively very well....I believe if we can get out amateurs to play a lot of games and build team chemistry like the international teams, then we'll be right up there...</div> I don't know that I agree. I don't know what other countries do, but Puerto Rico's national team does the same thing, they throw together a group of all stars and just play. And they do well enough that way. The talent gap isn't as wide as you think. As for whether teams should allow or disallow players to compete, until the NBA goes global, players should be allowed to represent their country. If the NBA did expand to include other parts of the world, that would bring amatuers back to the olympics and other international competitions. The NBA players that are from Europe might have a chance to represent his country as a pro in a global league. The 2010 NBA finals could then be the Spurs vs. the Partizan Beograd (Serbia).
most players from other countries competing in the olympics are not amateurs... they play in the other professional leagues around the world. the argentina team that beat the us was also thrown together a couple months before the competition. the players have more experience playing together because they are the elite, and play in many international tournaments together, but not day to day. i think what happened was complacency, cockiness and the inflated ego of some players that thought it was going to be a cakewalk... didn't respect the coach, were out to show off... bottom line, they didn't take it seriously and lost. big wake up call. the world is catching on. if we send collegue players now, they won't win.
I think fatigue is a huge factor in the NBA...a lot of the quality NBA stars play in the Olympics, and now with the growing rate of foreigners into the NBA, it will be significant if they continue playing for their national teams...the NBA season is a grueling, strenuous campaign of mental and physical toture, and these players need to be at 100% health at the beginning of each season...
