David Stern, the commissioner of the NBA, recently came out with the idea of restricting future USA Olympic basketball teams to have only players that are 23 years old or younger. Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers, and a member of the current Olympic team, said the idea was stupid. Apparently Stern copied the idea from Brasil. They only have players 23 and younger on their soccer team in these games.
I agree with Bryant. I remember those Olympics before the 1992 Olympic Dream Team demolished the world with an NBA all star lineup. Back then they used college players thrown together, with limited practice, competing for our country. As the rest of the world got better, this haphazard way to assemble a team, showed its flaws. We no longer won the gold medal in basketball every Olympics.
If future teams have a maximum age 0f 23, then players like LeBron James and Kobe Bryant wouldn’t even be on the team. This would basically bring us back to the old days, with only college age players playing, instead of the best players in the country, although some would have NBA experience. I think it’s great that these guys, who have already won championships in the NBA, want to represent their country in the Olympics.
Kobe Bryant has been outspoken since joining this Olympic team. First he said this team could beat the 1992 Dream Team. Michael Jordan summed up my feelings on that one, saying that comparing the teams is not one of the smarter things Kobe could have done. However, in this case, I think Bryant is right about players over 23 being kept off the team.
Bryant could have chosen a better word than stupid when discussing Stern’s idea. I don’t like the disrespect to the commissioners lately, including Pittsburgh Steeler linebacker James Harrison’s vile comments about NFL commissioner Roger Goodell a few months ago.
Keep the USA Olympic basketball team the way it is, so we can watch our country continue to win the gold medal every four years, instead of screwing up a good thing.
