28 Jul '12 02:10>3 edits
Originally posted by SuzianneWhy? Sprinters train year round. Swimmers train year round. Gymnasts train year round.
I dunno.
I stopped watching olympic basketball when they started allowing professional players in. It's now a joke.
Jim Thorpe was stripped of his medals for far less, and yet the USA is foremost in now insisting that pros be allowed to play in what should be competition between amateurs. If I played olympic basketball for another country, I would b han what he has to work with on the Lakers. Laker management needs to take a clue from this.
The problem is that most olympic level basketball players in the US would be in the NBA which would leave the US at a severe disadvantage.
I really don't see how it goes against the spirit of the games since when the olympics first started professional sports and professional athletes in general didn't exist. In fact, there were just athletes with no distinction made. The olympics was and is a showcase of the best athletes in the world.... why should professionals be punished for being among the best? They shouldn't. In conclusion, it was against the spirit of the games not to let them compete in the first place, a decision that was no doubt made by people who wanted their country's athletes to win just as much as the US wants to win.
http://www.penn.museum/sites/olympics/olympicathletes.shtml