It’s been interesting reading the NEXT blogs about the U.S. in the Olympics. Hieger and Asavareungchai have been quick to criticize our own country’s players because they are over-privileged, make too much money, and practice under better conditions. Give me a break.
Look, we should root for the United States because they are representing our country. Asavareungchai said, “I sometimes find myself rooting for other countries because they’ve trained equally hard under less-than-ideal conditions.” Really? But what happened to loyalty?
She also points out that China has Olympic training factories -- is that what she wants here? We don’t need it, we win without them. Patterson was the first woman in like 20 years to win the all-around gymnastics, and no one said anything about it. Yes, I give my respect to other countries' athletes who work hard to win, but I always root for our players who train and want to win just as bad as the other athletes.
The thing is I don’t care that the U.S. has trained under better conditions or has better equipment, because I know they are just as dedicated to winning in the Olympics. Young people like Phelps, Beard, Hamm and Patterson dream of these days. For sports like theirs (swimming and gymnastics), this is the best thing they look forward to -- and some of us are not rooting for them?
My point is that we should all be rooting for the United States in every sport or every event. Including basketball, understand that our NBA players went to Greece to put our country’s name on their jersey to play for us to win -- not to hang out. They do have millions and if they did not want to be there, they didn't have to.
And I hope Hieger realizes the different rules that international basketball has -- the distance of a three point line that my mom could shoot and score from, the zone defense that traps the inside (Duncan) and kills our style of a two-man game, and the wider weird shaped lanes are all different from the rules our guys are used to. Recently, we beat a very good Spanish team with the passion for wanting to win.
We do have the best athletes in the world, but their hearts and dedication to win take them over the top -- not the best equipment or money. The way some of us and the rest of the media criticize our Olympians, even I would be ashamed to play for a country whose own people tend to root for the underdogs.
Respond
Back to top