Loading ...Professionals or Amateurs?
A year after the U.S. Men’s Basketball Team, composed of collegians, finished with just a bronze medal at the 1988 Olympics, a change was made to allow NBA players to participate. For the 1992 games, the Dream Team was formed, and the greatest collection of basketball talent ever assembled on one team crushed the competition.
Not content just to remind the world that our best could beat anybody and everybody else, we’ve continued to assemble groups of NBA players in an attempt to win gold. Of course, the world has gotten better and now can challenge the best we put out there, as evidenced by the 2004 team finishing third. And even if the team was to win this year’s competition, I think it would be more fun to go back to playing the college kids.
Is there really a need to try and prove we are better in the sport? Is it better to throw together a group of NBA players who may not even wish to be out there but play because of obligation or endorsement opportunities? Why not let kids who will be excited and enthusiastic try and see if they can make history?
The way it is now, anything but a gold is a letdown, and even a gold probably doesn’t satisfy most fans because nobody can dominate like the Dream Team did. But with college stars playing, we could have the best of all worlds, with a chance at victory, as underdogs in a sport we invented. Now that would be worth watching.
THERE IT IS!
I’ll tell you why we are sending our best to bring back the gold – “cause if you ain’t first, you’re last!!”
I watched in 1992 when they said Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, and Larry Bird were going to share a court with Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, Scottie Pippen, and David Robinson. It increased my interest in the sport in general because here were the all-time greats coming together for our country. I could get behind that. I would not have been nearly as interested if it were college guys whose names I had to learn while the game goes on.
This time around, the question is are we really sending our best? It’s interesting the newly-crowned champs have no representatives on the team. If these “pros” win, it’s expected because they’re pro. If they lose, it’s disappointing. If “amateurs” lose, it’s no big deal. If they win, it could be a big PR boost.
Every member of the Boston roster is American born. Why can’t we send a team who has been playing together for an entire season? The only arguement against that idea could be that maybe some of the Celtics wouldn’t want to play in the olympics (which in any case is odd to me). But knowing that the rest of your team that you just won the NBA title will be playing together would make most of guys want to join on that Olympic team.
We should go back to sending the amateurs. If we don’t we’ll never even have the chance of seeing something like USA hockey’s 1980 gold medal run again.