Sam Smith

The war in Iraq drags on. The economy drags as well and the housing market is the broken outboard motor in the middle of a lake. The stock market continues to stagger while fuel and health-care costs don't. But you feel a lot better about the USA now, don't you?

Sure you do because Team USA redeemed itself — and presumably by extension American basketball — by winning the gold medal in the Olympics last weekend.

Nonsense, of course, though I know who doesn't feel very good about it — the basketball fans in San Antonio, Toronto and Chicago, watching Manu Ginobili, Jose Calderon and Andres Nocioni, respectively, limp away with perhaps ongoing injury problems.

It's why it's time to end the NBA's participation in the Olympics, why perhaps it's time for the U.S. to develop a permanent national team and maybe help take pressure off its international players by barring them from Olympic play.

Look, Americans don't need an Olympic basketball gold medal to feel good about themselves or their basketball, though one could possibly be obtained without NBA players. Everyone knows the NBA is the ultimate in basketball, and it doesn't take an Olympic medal to ratify that. Wherever basketball is played, everyone yearns to play in the NBA and marvels at its players.

It is the gold standard of the sport.

And are we less as Americans if our teams don't come in first in an international sports competition? Yes, we all know those other issues are more important, but isn't the Olympics about the spirit of competition and sportsmanship? You try to win and enjoy the journey. The result should be almost immaterial. Or are we so shallow that we need to see our nation's representatives win a sporting event to feel fulfilled?

The simple fact is it's not fair to NBA teams and their fans to allow the best players to participate in the summer tournament when it is the teams that are paying their salaries for the season, and the fans buying those ridiculously expensive season tickets.

How could you explain to Cavaliers fans that LeBron James isn't going to play this season because he was hurt in a summer exhibition tournament? How do you make those fans whole again? Insurance can cover a team's salary loss. But you don't replace what a star means to a team, and the impact on the fans. Who reimburses them?

Look at the Spurs and Ginobili. Ginobili's ankle injury — the Spurs didn't talk much about it during the playoffs and wouldn't mention anything if a telephone pole were sticking out the chest of one of their players — cost the Spurs a chance at an NBA championship last spring. On the other hand, Phoenix's Amare Stoudemire elected not to play in the Beijing Games. Who is better off now, the Spurs with Ginobili having apparently aggravated a serious injury, or the Suns, who didn't need to worry?

Mark Cuban has been talking about this for years. He likes to talk, but he's right about this one.

Why should the entire Mavericks season be at risk because Dirk Nowitzki decided to play in the Olympics? Cuban pays for the season and doesn't make a dime off of Nowitzki playing in the summer.

Yes, there's the issue of patriotism and playing for your country.

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And watching this Olympics, it seemed the supposedly spoiled NBA players were genuinely touched and excited about their success. And it is a sensitive issue to try to deny someone the chance to represent his country at an international event. No matter what the NBA says, we know Yao Ming will have to play for China.

But more often than not NBA players are pushed by their shoe and apparel and various sponsors to participate in the Olympics. Did you see the effect Kobe Bryant had and what that will mean for Nike in China? Hey, even Michael Jordan was balking about playing for the 1992 Dream Team. You can bet his sponsors had a big say in changing his mind, especially when you saw the medal ceremony and the players covering up the logo of the company they didn't represent.

You can also see that many international stars in the NBA are pressured by their countries to play in the Olympics. Already, it seems Pau Gasol is making the case to skip the 2012 Games. It's not to say they are disloyal, but the NBA season is so long and grueling. And that — not playing for their home country — is their profession. The only way they could get out is if their contracts disallowed it.

Though we know that's not likely to happen.

The NBA, in its globalization march, wants its top players in the Olympics. Their sponsors do as well. And what David Stern wants, David Stern generally gets, even if it doesn't do a lot for his league here.

And team executives hate it.

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