Excitement of USA Basketball.

First, I want to thank Rick Karcher and Michael McCann for inviting me to be a guest. After several days of trying to log on, I finally listened to and followed Michael's instructions and was able (hopefully) to make a post. While its tempting to post a comment on the on-going issues concerning anti-doping, it seems the resurrection of the USA Basketball team recently is a new, fresh topic for discussion.

Depending on your age, you probably recall the first "Dream Team" that went to Barcelona and walked through the 1992 Olympics on its way to the gold medal. Once the U.S. got comfortable that these "professional" NBAers could play on the Olympic team, the only remaining issue was how to allow the athletes wear uniforms, shoes, and other gear that was not made by the compaines that were sponsoring them.

Over the past few years, a combination of the world players catching up to the our talent and what appears to be us taking the Olympic and World Championships victories for granted has resulted in poor (in comparision) results. (what other factors contributed to our decline?)

Now, with the recent headlines, it looks as if USA Basketball has made a firm commitment to obtain a cohesive team put together well in advance of the Olympics under a Coach (Coach K) who will focus on the game as played in international competition.

Whole lot of legal issues such as player likeness, injuries, sponsors, drug testing, etc....any thoughts?

(For those that do not know, those athletes who are not normally subject to drug testing standards set out by WADA (such as those that fall under a CBA) are subject to the WADA rules prior to the Olympics and World Championship games including the USA Basketball team currently put together).

Posted in: