I think the most important part about the Stern interview at hafltime was the possibility of the Olympics going back to a U-23 type of thing. I think it would be great for Basketball now and make the Fiba tournament much bigger than it is. Also it would get rid of the strain of these guys. Just think that right after the Finals Lebron and Durant will be suiting up for Team USA. I know it's not likely to happen though, simply because I'm pretty sure that basketball is one of the bigger draws for the summer Olympics... but it kinda sucks seeing the title as world's best be forced into a mini tourney like that and taking prestige away from the FIBA tourney.
The reason for the U-23 status of soccer is that fifa don't want it to compete with the world cup. Basketball on the other hand, has no such tournament, the world championships are a bit of a non event comparatively. In terms of "unfair preparation", basketballers have nothing on cyclists, with the TdeF finishing a bit over a week before their olympic events.
I think it hurts a lot of the foreign countries that rely on their veterans to lead them in the olympics. Not to mention the young guys don't get excessive playing time anywhere but the NBA as all the euro leagues are veteran first type of leagues.
Ughh, Yeah it is, it just doesn't seem like it here in the United States. The Basketball World Championship is the basketball equivalent of soccer's World Cup.
Don't be silly. The best tournament in FIFA is the World Cup. The best tournament in basketball is not the so-called equivalent of the World Cup...the FIBA WC...it is the NBA Playoffs. Basketball and Soccer are not that same. Not close.
Two different things still. One is for your country (the World Cups), one is for your club/franchise (NBA, Champions League).
I'm saying the reason that the Fiba World Championships doesnt' have as much prestige is because the top players take off. They all save themselves for the Olympics. If you take that away from them then slowly you could build the prestige back up of the World Championsips (which IMO has a much better format than the rushed Olympics tourney) and I think it would be better on the players because during this time they have a crazy schedule. Right after Olympics they get little time before the NBA grind begins again. I honestly think the Olympics and international play shortened Yao's career.
This would make sense if all the best players played in the FIBA WC. Fact is: Pau sat out 2010. And let's not even talk about the USA team. That doesn't happen in the World Cup, whereas NBA players will sit out the WC, because they don't care that much vs the NBA playoffs. The best basketball in the world is the NBA playoffs. It doesn't get any better, so the FIBA WC is nowhere close to the competition of the FIFA World Cup.
Yup, the Olympics is only 2 weeks long. Only 12 teams compete in the Olympics while the FIBA World Cup has 24 teams. You can make this a month long, and make have longer off days between games. Four groups of six games. You can play six games in 14 days. And then the top two teams from each group, with an 8 team tourney. Spread that over two weeks.
this happens with almost all sports in the olympics, they all have world championships, but the olympics are more important.
Yeah it's a very "Rushed" feeling in the Olympics for me. I just think in the short time that Basketball has been around it has grown a lot. It is likely that it will never replace Soccer/Football as the most popular sport, but it could grow a lot more. I think lifting the prestige of the FIBA tourney over the Olympics would help the game. Also the Olympics would still be exciting. In fact you'd get to see some of the draft class like Anthony Davis play, also you'd get to see the young international players play. I think it would still be a lot of fun to watch if it were U-23. Any ways people are rooting for the colors and not the player.
Theoetically yes. But basketball as of now is still pretty much a one-power sport. The US is still way ahead of everybody else if they put up the best players like soccer's World Cup. So it's not much of a competitive thing.
What is the age limit for other sports? There aren't age restriction in Olympic soccer is there? You have your best athletes for each event, why wouldn't you want NBA players to play. If they don't want to they shouldn't feel compelled to. I can't see why they wouldn't want to play though, it's the Olympics.
I don't live in the united states currently, no it's not. The major pull of the olympics is that it's not just one sport, but that they're surrounded by the elite athletes of everything, and why fifa was afraid soccer would change focus.
The NBA championship is the world championship of basketball. These are the world's best teams. I would like to see the Olympic basketball teams made up of amatures and not professional athletes.
The NBA is not a tournament for national teams from the world. It is totally different from the Olympics and the World Championship. Why is this so hard to understand?
They should let the NBA players camp in the paint like FIBA rules let you. Then we'll be on to something!
