As a basketball fan and aspiring soccer savant, I thought I had a true dilemma on my hands. I’ve been watching the U.S. Basketball team playing exhibitions all week at 8 a.m. on ESPN. I flat out love basketball. I can watch any league at any time and overanalyze everything. But I’m also growing to love soccer and find more and more that I might have missed my calling (the shorter guys excel on the pitch). The problem is where to exhaust my energy this Olympic games – basketball or soccer? A little research brought the obvious answer: basketball.
After the 1988 Olympics, FIBA made a bold decision that probably brought much skepticism worldwide at the time. They decided that the Olympics should probably be a display of the world’s best basketball players, and so came the implementation of professionals. The result was embarrassment for the world as the ‘Dream Team’ waltzed to gold at the ’92 games. It took some time, but the high tide of American superiority in international competition subsided and we have been able to observe the accumulation of such national talent from Argentina, Greece, Russia, Lithuania, and more recently Spain. Now we move into this year’s Summer Olympic games with perhaps the most excitement since Barcelona. The best from the NBA will be there for the U.S. and after disappointment last games, all realizing they have something to prove. Other powers like Argentina, Germany, and Spain boast their own NBA talent. Oh yeah – and there’s also that 7’6” guy from host China.
FIFA has not quite made the same commitment to the Olympics. They currently have an under-23 policy. Nations are to ensemble a team for the tournament with players, amateur or professional, under the age of twenty-three. Each team, however, is allowed three “overage” players, or players older than twenty-three. This explains the omissions of Donovan, Beasley, Howard, Johnson and Dempsey on the U.S. squad. They did include Brian McBride as one of their overage players. Truth be told, we’re not actually seeing the world’s best compete on the Olympic pitch.
Qualifying also doesn’t seem to legitimize Olympic soccer either. FIBA has stolen a page out of FIFA World Cup qualifying rounds and breaks the world down into five regions. Each region gets a certain number of berths and there are some automatic berths, such as winning the World Championship tournament, as Spain recently achieved. Soccer on the other hand allows the regions to kind of do their own thing when it comes to Olympic qualifying, quite a laissez-faire approach. Europe decides who goes to the Olympics based on their under-21 tournament. Huh? Then the Americas decide their Olympic qualifiers based off of a tournament with no age restrictions. Hmm…it all seems so logical.
*Note: the last sentence should have been read with a hint of sarcasm.
When you do tune into the Olympic games this month, don’t expect to hear about Donovan, Ronaldinho, Nakamura or Drogba. Even young players like current FIFA player of the year, Lionel Messi, are finding it difficult to play. His club, Barcelona, does not want him participating because Barca is prepping for Champions League qualifying matches. So you see, even the younger players with credentials are finding it hard to place the Olympic games as a priority.
I’ll be watching the pinnacle of international basketball. FIBA figured it out in 1989 and every four years we the fans reap the benefits. Notice how much FIBA pushes the Olympics yet we rarely hear a word about these other international tournaments? They know which stage is the brightest. Besides, FIFA thinks that they don’t need the Olympics, what with all the attention on Euro, World Cup, UEFA Cup and Champions League. But they have to realize the massive American audience they are losing out on by making the Olympics an amateurish display of their sport. Maybe they simply don’t care. Well FIFA, then at least we agree.
The Olympics have gone through quite the overhaul. I remember feeling a twinge of sadness when I saw David Wottle – soon after the completion of the ’72 Olympics – doing a McDonald’s commercial. I knew that by doing that ad Wottle officially forfeited his amateur status and could no longer compete on that stage. Who could blame him? He deserved to cash in on the attention he had drawn from his gold medal run in the 800 run.
Of course there’s the Jim Thorpe story. The guy takes home medals in track and field but loses them for participating in a semi-pro baseball league. The medals were returned to Thorpe’s family long after his death.
We all knew there was something fishy about the the Red Army. Somehow they maintained their amateur status while appearing in multiple Olympics. Hmmmmm…do you think Vladislav Tretiak received financial support while serving in the Red Army …as a HOCKEY GOALIE!
Now amateur status is a thing of the past. That removes some of the drama for me that was previously provided by the Olympics.
I am looking forward to the hoops competition. Considering basketball does not have an international event as significant as the World Cup, the Olympics will suffice.
Correction: Ronaldinho is playing as one of the overage players for Brazil.
Whatever men’s soccer may lack with talent, the women will make up for. Great intensity between Brazil and S. Korea even if Marta can be a little over the top.