Stop freaking out about the Olympic basketball team losing practice games
You'd think it was the end of competitive sports as we know it. This years "Olympic Basketball" team has started playing exhibition games and the result---uh, was not so great.
The heavily favored men lost to 30-point underdog Nigeria over the weekend, then Australia a couple of days later. And the sports world has been going bonkers ever since.
Yeah, that didn't go over well on Social Media....and I'm only pulling one of the multitude of reactions...
There were far, far worse things said about a team featuring Kevin Durant, Damon Lillard, Jayson Tatum and more headline level NBA players. All of which and none of which were true.
Gone are the days where the U.S. could wheel out a handful of NBA players and expect the rest of the world to roll over while they marched to a gold medal. Honestly, it hasn't been like that in decades. The rest of the world has long since caught up since the "Dream Team's" of the 1990's.
Like most other sports, NBA Basketball is a global game. There are players from countries all over the world playing in the NBA and when their season ends and international competitions start, they play for their homelands. That's life in 2021.
Will the men be favored to win in the Japan Olympics in August? Yeah, probably. And unless they all get COVID-19, they probably should be. Would I bet on them winning? No.
Some of this all goes back to what I said in a recent rant about ESPN Money Man Stephen A. Smith whining about Shoeni Ohtani relying on a translator to get through interviews. For some reason here in the U.S. we have a preconceived belief that everyone should look and talk like us and will criticize, judge or hate on people who don't. Which is arguably the stupidest thing a person could do.
Much to the chagrin of certain politicians, the U.S. does not or should not live in isolation. The era of believing this died 40-years ago. We live in a country where people here aren't always going to be from here and if you don't like it, you better learn to love it.
The world plays the same games we do, competes in the same athletic competitions we do and often, many live their lives in a similar fashion too. We all should not be desperately clinging to the belief something can be ours and ours only and nobody should ever beat us. (Unless it's College/NFL football)
Yet here we are.
Will I be there, in front of my TV to watch Olympic basketball? Meh, I doubt it. Honestly, I don't really pay much attention the Olympics, there's nothing special about them anymore. It's an ancient tradition passed down for generations upon generations because we too often believe we should continue doing things because its what we've always done. But there's no longer a compelling reason to block out a chunk of my day to watch.
But honestly, the Olympics mean everything to the athletes--which is great, but nothing to anyone else outside the committee's involved with putting them on and the Olympic Committees who make a gazillion dollars off of the event.
But that's just me.
