The one game America is truly good at...
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by user Alex Holowczak
...and they don't even bother to show up!
The United States has the best basketball team in the world. Period. No other international team can come anywhere near them.
Not only that, but it's the one game America figured out for itself (other than the ancient game of Lacrosse), all of the other sports were just modifications of English sports. But Basketball was Americas holy grail.
It continues to annoy everybody in the watching world, that America do not send their best team to the Olympics.
I can't even see a realistic reason why... The Summer Olympics are usually in August, so never clash win the NBA season. The players will have had a couple of months off already, and playing in the intensity of an Olympic Games will give them match sharpness for the NBA that they prefer.
It frustrates international basketball fans that would love to see the best players in the world. Britain has growing interest in basketball, and never get to see too many NBA games (none at all on Terrestrial television), so the Olympics is the only time they get to see it for real.
One of the highlights of recent Olympics was the American Dream Team. America did what they always should do, which is thrash anyone that comes near them.
Many felt the Americans got what they deserved at the 2004 Olympic Games, where they lost to Lithuania, and Puerto Rico (if memory serves me). Hardly basketball superpowers. The Americans were the "baddies," the Greek crowd rooted for their opposition, and the Americans choked.
Their attitude hardly endeared them to fans either. They refused to recieve their bronze medal, and the gap on the podium was left vacant. This attitude shows the enormous lack of interest from the States.
But what am I saying? America has only lost four games in the ENTIRE history of Olympic Basketball. Two were to the Soviet Union, most famously when they lost on a buzzer beater. So how can I claim that America is not doing as well as it could? Ironically, it now feels that the Americans are sending out their amateurs against the Rest of the World, not dissimilar to the Red Machine in the past.
Basketball is a growing sport. Anywhere east of Germany is growing to basketball, Greece, Serbia, Russia etc. are all improving rapidly. It may get to the stage where these countries overtake the States, which will really be a blow. Imagine not being able to win the one thing you've always won.
It is a bit like the Davis Cup. America rarely selected their best team (until Roddick came along). They were regularly without Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi. This was probably because the Davis Cup did not fill their wallets like the ATP Tour, so a week off could help them refresh. The same could be said of the NBA stars; they get no money from going to the Olympics, so why bother. Or at least, that's what it seems like.
So to sum up, it stinks that the United States are not even bothered about the one game that they should be the best at. They are not the feared team in basketball they should be; when you play the States you know you're not playing the best - it feels like they're taking the mick. That's an awful thing to do - international sport should be the peak of a country's talent, not some Second string roster.
Date
Thu 06/15/06, 10:49 am EST
