Author Topic: Durant and Team USA acting like jerks so far , coach K upset with them  (Read 14307 times)

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Offline CelticSooner

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I love the Olympics. Olympic basketball is toward the end of things I care to watch during the Olympics.

Offline celticsclay

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There really isn't a reasonable counter argument to be made here. Kind of surprising people are trying to make one. No matter what sport you are playing, individual or team, if you are already winning be a gracious winner and show good sportsmanship. You can be excited as all heck at the end when you win, but in the middle of the game showboating and running up the score is poor form. There is a reason baseball teams stop stealing bases up 10 runs, football teams put in their backups up 4 touchdowns and bball teams clear the bench. You add in the fact these NBA players making many millions of dollars, have access to better coaches, training and other resources and are expected to dominate and it makes the celebrations and score running even worse. Finally, as much as we hate to admit it, kids look up these guys all around the world. We don't need to see them being taught that taunting your opponent no matter their skill level is great and cool.
Is it really sportsmanship or is there other reasons back-ups are put in?  I mean one could easily argue that the fear of injury or the desire to get back-ups experience is the real reason.

Respect should always be shown, but is celebrating a great a shot by your teammate really a lack of respect to the opponent?  I think there is a line, and I'm not sure the US crossed that line here.

I know you have watched enough sports to know there are many many ways that teams show sportsmanship across all sports. If we want to look at basketball, is there some small element of injury risk that is part of the bench players coming in? Sure, however, that is clearly just a portion of it. Teams aren't bringing in an end of bench player like a 38 nazr muhammad to either get him experience or because it is ok if he gets injured. Sure more end of bench players are young, but getting them experience in garbage time is hardly any more valuable than going against the starters in practice. It is also partly because having Lebron go in for a dunk when the team is already up 20 with 3 minutes left is not showing an opponent respect or being a good sport.

In this case the team USA was up 50 points and 3 seconds into the shot clock Klay Thompson launched a 3 and guys on the bench went nuts celebrating. If you think that doesn't cross a line, we can just agree to disagree, but know that you are in the small minority of people that view it that way. Coach K and many other coaches and former players would agree that is not playing the game with good sportsmanship or respect and there is no reason to act like this.

I will also add since you brought up injury risk, one of the greatest injury risks is taunting your opponent in a blowout. If you are already upset about getting crushed in a game and the other team starts adding injury to insults by showboating and celebrating it gets into pretty dangerous territory. I have seen a lot of games devolve into verbal altercations or shoving matches when this kind of stuff happens. Again Klay should know better and coach K does.
They weren't taunting though.  Klay made a long shot during the normal course of play.  He didn't get in the Chinese players faces, he didn't even trash talk, he simply made a long shot, which his teammates celebrated.  And Coach K, didn't go off on a rampage.  He said his team was having a bit too much fun and wanted them to tone it down a bit (you know because if you are too loose and having too much fun it might actually cost you in a close game).  That isn't him going off on some tirade about a lack of respect or anything.  The U.S. didn't cross a line there.  None at all.

I am not sure if you are just arguing for the sake of arguing. Team USA was up by 48 points. There was 1:29 left in the game. Any team at any level showing good sportsmanship dribbles around for about 20 seconds and shoots a jumpshot. If you watched any NBA game (and there are plenty where the warriors were up 25-35 points last year) this is what happens every single game. If Brandon Rush or Speights did this exact same thing last year in one of those games (pull up 3, 20 seconds on shot clock up 48 points) Kerr would have yelled at them and possibly pulled them from the game. Yes it crosses a line. Then you have 3 players get up and celebrate including Deandre Jordan who Coach K angrily tells to sit down and not get on to the playing court (meanwhile Durant actually claps and walks on to the playing court, but his part was less egregious) . There are multiple lines that were crossed here. If you don't want to acknowledge them we can agree to disagree and I have lost a bit of respect for your knowledge of basketball and sportsmanship along the way.
http://www.artofmanliness.com/2009/08/04/be-a-good-sport-a-guide-to-sportmanship/

This doesn't address anything I said.  I really hope you are not involved in youth or high school athletics cause someone that thinks nothing over the line with pullup 3's  and celebrating on the bench with a 48 point lead and 90 seconds left hopefully isn't sharing that viewpoint with anyone that can be easily influenced.  I guess we are done here.

Offline Moranis

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There really isn't a reasonable counter argument to be made here. Kind of surprising people are trying to make one. No matter what sport you are playing, individual or team, if you are already winning be a gracious winner and show good sportsmanship. You can be excited as all heck at the end when you win, but in the middle of the game showboating and running up the score is poor form. There is a reason baseball teams stop stealing bases up 10 runs, football teams put in their backups up 4 touchdowns and bball teams clear the bench. You add in the fact these NBA players making many millions of dollars, have access to better coaches, training and other resources and are expected to dominate and it makes the celebrations and score running even worse. Finally, as much as we hate to admit it, kids look up these guys all around the world. We don't need to see them being taught that taunting your opponent no matter their skill level is great and cool.
Is it really sportsmanship or is there other reasons back-ups are put in?  I mean one could easily argue that the fear of injury or the desire to get back-ups experience is the real reason.

Respect should always be shown, but is celebrating a great a shot by your teammate really a lack of respect to the opponent?  I think there is a line, and I'm not sure the US crossed that line here.

I know you have watched enough sports to know there are many many ways that teams show sportsmanship across all sports. If we want to look at basketball, is there some small element of injury risk that is part of the bench players coming in? Sure, however, that is clearly just a portion of it. Teams aren't bringing in an end of bench player like a 38 nazr muhammad to either get him experience or because it is ok if he gets injured. Sure more end of bench players are young, but getting them experience in garbage time is hardly any more valuable than going against the starters in practice. It is also partly because having Lebron go in for a dunk when the team is already up 20 with 3 minutes left is not showing an opponent respect or being a good sport.

In this case the team USA was up 50 points and 3 seconds into the shot clock Klay Thompson launched a 3 and guys on the bench went nuts celebrating. If you think that doesn't cross a line, we can just agree to disagree, but know that you are in the small minority of people that view it that way. Coach K and many other coaches and former players would agree that is not playing the game with good sportsmanship or respect and there is no reason to act like this.

I will also add since you brought up injury risk, one of the greatest injury risks is taunting your opponent in a blowout. If you are already upset about getting crushed in a game and the other team starts adding injury to insults by showboating and celebrating it gets into pretty dangerous territory. I have seen a lot of games devolve into verbal altercations or shoving matches when this kind of stuff happens. Again Klay should know better and coach K does.
They weren't taunting though.  Klay made a long shot during the normal course of play.  He didn't get in the Chinese players faces, he didn't even trash talk, he simply made a long shot, which his teammates celebrated.  And Coach K, didn't go off on a rampage.  He said his team was having a bit too much fun and wanted them to tone it down a bit (you know because if you are too loose and having too much fun it might actually cost you in a close game).  That isn't him going off on some tirade about a lack of respect or anything.  The U.S. didn't cross a line there.  None at all.

I am not sure if you are just arguing for the sake of arguing. Team USA was up by 48 points. There was 1:29 left in the game. Any team at any level showing good sportsmanship dribbles around for about 20 seconds and shoots a jumpshot. If you watched any NBA game (and there are plenty where the warriors were up 25-35 points last year) this is what happens every single game. If Brandon Rush or Speights did this exact same thing last year in one of those games (pull up 3, 20 seconds on shot clock up 48 points) Kerr would have yelled at them and possibly pulled them from the game. Yes it crosses a line. Then you have 3 players get up and celebrate including Deandre Jordan who Coach K angrily tells to sit down and not get on to the playing court (meanwhile Durant actually claps and walks on to the playing court, but his part was less egregious) . There are multiple lines that were crossed here. If you don't want to acknowledge them we can agree to disagree and I have lost a bit of respect for your knowledge of basketball and sportsmanship along the way.
http://www.artofmanliness.com/2009/08/04/be-a-good-sport-a-guide-to-sportmanship/

This doesn't address anything I said.  I really hope you are not involved in youth or high school athletics cause someone that thinks nothing over the line with pullup 3's  and celebrating on the bench with a 48 point lead and 90 seconds left hopefully isn't sharing that viewpoint with anyone that can be easily influenced.  I guess we are done here.
of course it does, it defines what good sportsmanship is.  You just don't agree because it doesn't cover your situation. 

Maybe you prefer the dictionary definition "a person who exhibits qualities especially esteemed in those who engage in sports, as fairness, courtesy, good temper, etc."

Celebrating a nice play or a victory, isn't a sign of bad sportsmanship.  Doing it in a manner where you get in your opponents face, trash talk, etc. is. 

You seem to be of the generation where everyone is a winner and there are no losers.  That isn't life and that isn't sports.  Could Thompson have dribbled around, sure, but him not doing so isn't a sign of disrespect at all unless you come from the mentality that there are no losers in sports.
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Offline LarBrd33

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http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2654314-mike-krzyzewski-thinks-team-usa-needs-to-tone-down-its-antics?utm_source=cnn.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=editorial

I'm a bit surprised, especially with KD. Celebrating like they just did something amazing after showboating against basically D-League level opponents is highly immature and makes the US team look terrible. I thought Durant was better than this but I guess I was wrong.

Don't be too surprised.  This is what you can expect from KD and the Warriors next year as they showboat against vastly inferior talent collections.    KD is a frontrunning punk. 

Offline celticsclay

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There really isn't a reasonable counter argument to be made here. Kind of surprising people are trying to make one. No matter what sport you are playing, individual or team, if you are already winning be a gracious winner and show good sportsmanship. You can be excited as all heck at the end when you win, but in the middle of the game showboating and running up the score is poor form. There is a reason baseball teams stop stealing bases up 10 runs, football teams put in their backups up 4 touchdowns and bball teams clear the bench. You add in the fact these NBA players making many millions of dollars, have access to better coaches, training and other resources and are expected to dominate and it makes the celebrations and score running even worse. Finally, as much as we hate to admit it, kids look up these guys all around the world. We don't need to see them being taught that taunting your opponent no matter their skill level is great and cool.
Is it really sportsmanship or is there other reasons back-ups are put in?  I mean one could easily argue that the fear of injury or the desire to get back-ups experience is the real reason.

Respect should always be shown, but is celebrating a great a shot by your teammate really a lack of respect to the opponent?  I think there is a line, and I'm not sure the US crossed that line here.

I know you have watched enough sports to know there are many many ways that teams show sportsmanship across all sports. If we want to look at basketball, is there some small element of injury risk that is part of the bench players coming in? Sure, however, that is clearly just a portion of it. Teams aren't bringing in an end of bench player like a 38 nazr muhammad to either get him experience or because it is ok if he gets injured. Sure more end of bench players are young, but getting them experience in garbage time is hardly any more valuable than going against the starters in practice. It is also partly because having Lebron go in for a dunk when the team is already up 20 with 3 minutes left is not showing an opponent respect or being a good sport.

In this case the team USA was up 50 points and 3 seconds into the shot clock Klay Thompson launched a 3 and guys on the bench went nuts celebrating. If you think that doesn't cross a line, we can just agree to disagree, but know that you are in the small minority of people that view it that way. Coach K and many other coaches and former players would agree that is not playing the game with good sportsmanship or respect and there is no reason to act like this.

I will also add since you brought up injury risk, one of the greatest injury risks is taunting your opponent in a blowout. If you are already upset about getting crushed in a game and the other team starts adding injury to insults by showboating and celebrating it gets into pretty dangerous territory. I have seen a lot of games devolve into verbal altercations or shoving matches when this kind of stuff happens. Again Klay should know better and coach K does.
They weren't taunting though.  Klay made a long shot during the normal course of play.  He didn't get in the Chinese players faces, he didn't even trash talk, he simply made a long shot, which his teammates celebrated.  And Coach K, didn't go off on a rampage.  He said his team was having a bit too much fun and wanted them to tone it down a bit (you know because if you are too loose and having too much fun it might actually cost you in a close game).  That isn't him going off on some tirade about a lack of respect or anything.  The U.S. didn't cross a line there.  None at all.

I am not sure if you are just arguing for the sake of arguing. Team USA was up by 48 points. There was 1:29 left in the game. Any team at any level showing good sportsmanship dribbles around for about 20 seconds and shoots a jumpshot. If you watched any NBA game (and there are plenty where the warriors were up 25-35 points last year) this is what happens every single game. If Brandon Rush or Speights did this exact same thing last year in one of those games (pull up 3, 20 seconds on shot clock up 48 points) Kerr would have yelled at them and possibly pulled them from the game. Yes it crosses a line. Then you have 3 players get up and celebrate including Deandre Jordan who Coach K angrily tells to sit down and not get on to the playing court (meanwhile Durant actually claps and walks on to the playing court, but his part was less egregious) . There are multiple lines that were crossed here. If you don't want to acknowledge them we can agree to disagree and I have lost a bit of respect for your knowledge of basketball and sportsmanship along the way.
http://www.artofmanliness.com/2009/08/04/be-a-good-sport-a-guide-to-sportmanship/

This doesn't address anything I said.  I really hope you are not involved in youth or high school athletics cause someone that thinks nothing over the line with pullup 3's  and celebrating on the bench with a 48 point lead and 90 seconds left hopefully isn't sharing that viewpoint with anyone that can be easily influenced.  I guess we are done here.
of course it does, it defines what good sportsmanship is.  You just don't agree because it doesn't cover your situation. 

Maybe you prefer the dictionary definition "a person who exhibits qualities especially esteemed in those who engage in sports, as fairness, courtesy, good temper, etc."

Celebrating a nice play or a victory, isn't a sign of bad sportsmanship.  Doing it in a manner where you get in your opponents face, trash talk, etc. is. 

You seem to be of the generation where everyone is a winner and there are no losers.  That isn't life and that isn't sports.  Could Thompson have dribbled around, sure, but him not doing so isn't a sign of disrespect at all unless you come from the mentality that there are no losers in sports.

I'm not from the everyone wins generation. In fact quite the opposite. Although I am not surprised you took that lazy jab. In fact maybe I am "old school" in the sense that I thought it was cool Barry Sanders just handed the ball to the football when he got a touchdown. When you get in the end zone act like you have been there before. Sure celebrations are fun and have their place. However, up 50 points against a Chinese team is not that time. I will also add there are a lot of reasons basketball players don't do pull up 3's up 50. One of them is that it is a good way to land an elbow to the throat in garbage time. Even if you have these bizarre views on sportsmanship and get your life views from "guides to manliness," maybe you can understand that part of it. That is also part of the reason coach K was annoyed.

Offline LarBrd33

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It's pathetic and disgusting.  The talent gap is so dramatic that they should win every game by 50.  Don't jump around like punk pretending like you just slayed a giant.   There's no honor in it.  Try not to forget they won 73 games without you. 



Offline SparzWizard

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What can you expect from a guy who went from choking a 3-1 series to joining a stacked and talented 73-9 team that he lost to.

Warriors are becoming a bunch of clowns lol.


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Offline Moranis

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There really isn't a reasonable counter argument to be made here. Kind of surprising people are trying to make one. No matter what sport you are playing, individual or team, if you are already winning be a gracious winner and show good sportsmanship. You can be excited as all heck at the end when you win, but in the middle of the game showboating and running up the score is poor form. There is a reason baseball teams stop stealing bases up 10 runs, football teams put in their backups up 4 touchdowns and bball teams clear the bench. You add in the fact these NBA players making many millions of dollars, have access to better coaches, training and other resources and are expected to dominate and it makes the celebrations and score running even worse. Finally, as much as we hate to admit it, kids look up these guys all around the world. We don't need to see them being taught that taunting your opponent no matter their skill level is great and cool.
Is it really sportsmanship or is there other reasons back-ups are put in?  I mean one could easily argue that the fear of injury or the desire to get back-ups experience is the real reason.

Respect should always be shown, but is celebrating a great a shot by your teammate really a lack of respect to the opponent?  I think there is a line, and I'm not sure the US crossed that line here.

I know you have watched enough sports to know there are many many ways that teams show sportsmanship across all sports. If we want to look at basketball, is there some small element of injury risk that is part of the bench players coming in? Sure, however, that is clearly just a portion of it. Teams aren't bringing in an end of bench player like a 38 nazr muhammad to either get him experience or because it is ok if he gets injured. Sure more end of bench players are young, but getting them experience in garbage time is hardly any more valuable than going against the starters in practice. It is also partly because having Lebron go in for a dunk when the team is already up 20 with 3 minutes left is not showing an opponent respect or being a good sport.

In this case the team USA was up 50 points and 3 seconds into the shot clock Klay Thompson launched a 3 and guys on the bench went nuts celebrating. If you think that doesn't cross a line, we can just agree to disagree, but know that you are in the small minority of people that view it that way. Coach K and many other coaches and former players would agree that is not playing the game with good sportsmanship or respect and there is no reason to act like this.

I will also add since you brought up injury risk, one of the greatest injury risks is taunting your opponent in a blowout. If you are already upset about getting crushed in a game and the other team starts adding injury to insults by showboating and celebrating it gets into pretty dangerous territory. I have seen a lot of games devolve into verbal altercations or shoving matches when this kind of stuff happens. Again Klay should know better and coach K does.
They weren't taunting though.  Klay made a long shot during the normal course of play.  He didn't get in the Chinese players faces, he didn't even trash talk, he simply made a long shot, which his teammates celebrated.  And Coach K, didn't go off on a rampage.  He said his team was having a bit too much fun and wanted them to tone it down a bit (you know because if you are too loose and having too much fun it might actually cost you in a close game).  That isn't him going off on some tirade about a lack of respect or anything.  The U.S. didn't cross a line there.  None at all.

I am not sure if you are just arguing for the sake of arguing. Team USA was up by 48 points. There was 1:29 left in the game. Any team at any level showing good sportsmanship dribbles around for about 20 seconds and shoots a jumpshot. If you watched any NBA game (and there are plenty where the warriors were up 25-35 points last year) this is what happens every single game. If Brandon Rush or Speights did this exact same thing last year in one of those games (pull up 3, 20 seconds on shot clock up 48 points) Kerr would have yelled at them and possibly pulled them from the game. Yes it crosses a line. Then you have 3 players get up and celebrate including Deandre Jordan who Coach K angrily tells to sit down and not get on to the playing court (meanwhile Durant actually claps and walks on to the playing court, but his part was less egregious) . There are multiple lines that were crossed here. If you don't want to acknowledge them we can agree to disagree and I have lost a bit of respect for your knowledge of basketball and sportsmanship along the way.
http://www.artofmanliness.com/2009/08/04/be-a-good-sport-a-guide-to-sportmanship/

This doesn't address anything I said.  I really hope you are not involved in youth or high school athletics cause someone that thinks nothing over the line with pullup 3's  and celebrating on the bench with a 48 point lead and 90 seconds left hopefully isn't sharing that viewpoint with anyone that can be easily influenced.  I guess we are done here.
of course it does, it defines what good sportsmanship is.  You just don't agree because it doesn't cover your situation. 

Maybe you prefer the dictionary definition "a person who exhibits qualities especially esteemed in those who engage in sports, as fairness, courtesy, good temper, etc."

Celebrating a nice play or a victory, isn't a sign of bad sportsmanship.  Doing it in a manner where you get in your opponents face, trash talk, etc. is. 

You seem to be of the generation where everyone is a winner and there are no losers.  That isn't life and that isn't sports.  Could Thompson have dribbled around, sure, but him not doing so isn't a sign of disrespect at all unless you come from the mentality that there are no losers in sports.

I'm not from the everyone wins generation. In fact quite the opposite. Although I am not surprised you took that lazy jab. In fact maybe I am "old school" in the sense that I thought it was cool Barry Sanders just handed the ball to the football when he got a touchdown. When you get in the end zone act like you have been there before. Sure celebrations are fun and have their place. However, up 50 points against a Chinese team is not that time. I will also add there are a lot of reasons basketball players don't do pull up 3's up 50. One of them is that it is a good way to land an elbow to the throat in garbage time. Even if you have these bizarre views on sportsmanship and get your life views from "guides to manliness," maybe you can understand that part of it. That is also part of the reason coach K was annoyed.
And if Thompson got an elbow to the throat, so what?  That is part of basketball.  It was a basketball play within the rules.  It was a long shot, his teammates celebrated.  They didn't taunt, they didn't trash talk, and they clearly didn't cross a line.

Coach K wanting them to be more focused is a reasonable response from a coach, who you know, wants to win and doesn't want too much fun to get in the way of a potential victory in a game down the line.  And for the record, here is his exact quote as reported by Spears "We had a little bit too much fun out there tonight. We have to tone that down a little bit."  That doesn't sound like a coach that thinks his team crossed a line at all, merely one that doesn't want his team to or for the team to lose focus of the bigger picture.  If you lose sight of that bigger picture or you underestimate your opponent, you can easily lose. 
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Offline celticsclay

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It's pathetic and disgusting.  The talent gap is so dramatic that they should win every game by 50.  Don't jump around like punk pretending like you just slayed a giant.   There's no honor in it.  Try not to forget they won 73 games without you.

thanks larbrd, we are on the same page for this one. Glad most people get it.

Offline byennie

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Ummm. Jacking up 40 foot shots while winning by 50, when the opposition clearly shouldn't expect it is practically the definition of taunting. It has nothing to do with how close you get to somebody's face or not.

Should they be forgiven for a momentary lapse of judgement? Sure. Worse things have happened, obviously. But Coach K was 100% correct to call them out.

Anyone who has ever played a team sport at any level knows that this is frowned upon. Excusing it pretty much amounts to someone being a jerk and then calling out "freedom of speech". Sportsmanship is not some new millennial invention; if anything it's old school.

Offline Silent Storm

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Showboating is immature and unnecessary, but given that the opponent was China I felt significantly less remorseful. The Olympics shouldn't be used as a political platform, but it will happen regardless. We're talking about a country that bullies its neighbors, that steals our intellectual property on a regular basis, that violates human rights, and that controls an enormous amount of American debt while we import their junk products. I have no sympathy for a country like that.
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Offline celticsclay

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Ummm. Jacking up 40 foot shots while winning by 50, when the opposition clearly shouldn't expect it is practically the definition of taunting. It has nothing to do with how close you get to somebody's face or not.

Should they be forgiven for a momentary lapse of judgement? Sure. Worse things have happened, obviously. But Coach K was 100% correct to call them out.

Anyone who has ever played a team sport at any level knows that this is frowned upon. Excusing it pretty much amounts to someone being a jerk and then calling out "freedom of speech". Sportsmanship is not some new millennial invention; if anything it's old school.

Thank you and well said. I was starting to think I was crazy having to bother explaining something that amounts to common sense and it is not some millennial invention related to everyone winning a trophy  ::)

Offline Redz

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Showboating is immature and unnecessary, but given that the opponent was China I felt significantly less remorseful. The Olympics shouldn't be used as a political platform, but it will happen regardless. We're talking about a country that bullies its neighbors, that steals our intellectual property on a regular basis, that violates human rights, and that controls an enormous amount of American debt while we import their junk products. I have no sympathy for a country like that.

More than balanced off by the egg roll. 
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Offline timpiker

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the NBA players are only in this for their own benefit. They care little about representing America. The should be banished from the games.
I'd prefer amateurs to rep my country.

Offline Surferdad

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the NBA players are only in this for their own benefit. They care little about representing America. The should be banished from the games.
I'd prefer amateurs to rep my country.
So you would go with our college kids against professionals from other countries, some of whom are stars in the NBA?