DWad: "Pay me to play for Team USA in the Olympics"

[gingi79]

Side A: Nike and Adidas makes millions off Team USA items. The players get none of it yet do all the work.

Side B: He makes more money than 99% of all hard working Americans INCLUDING every other USA Olympic athlete.

Side C: It's taboo to play for team USA for any reason except national pride. Admitting you are doing for other reasons incites the masses to grab their pitchforks and torches.

Side D: Pro athletes playing in an amateur exhibition is dirty pool in my opinion. Here is a stellar case for removing pros from the Olympics.

Discuss!

[Skizzick]

I'll take Side C on this one. If you want to be paid to play in the Olympics, then don't play. Every other player in the NBA, hell in America, would kill to be in the position you're in. Saying you want 'compensation' is the most pompous and arrogant thing you can say. We can do without D-Wade and Ray Allen and still demolish any other international team in the Olympics. At least Lebron had enough sense to say, more or less, that playing in the Olympics was compensation enough.

Side B: obviously.

Side D: Every international team is comprised of professional athletes. Most of them play in pro leagues in other countries. Removing pro athletes from the pool would eliminate a huge pool of eligible athletes, and destroy whatever chance existed for a numbers of countries in contention. You can't just bar NBA players from playing because on the international level, you have to look at all pro leagues equally.

Side A: I see nothing wrong with giving players money for products that bear their name. Put the names on the back of the jerseys and give players a percentage for the ones that sell, but that's as far as it goes.


Regardless, I'll be at the Olympics this summer! I'm super excited!