College players aren't
answer for Team USA
Does anyone think a team of Redick, Paul,
May and others would have won the gold?
 Bob Jordan / AP Using college players at the Olympics, like Duke's J.J. Redick, isn't the answer for future Games, writes Mike DeCourcy. |
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Mike DeCourcy |
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OK, here's your lineup: Sean May at center, Hakim Warrick at power forward, Julius Hodge at small forward, J.J. Redick at shooting guard and Chris Paul to play the point.
Anybody seriously believe that crew would win an Olympic gold medal?
Not in four years or eight years, but right now?
In the week since the U.S. Olympic team failed to win the gold medal, among the many proposed "solutions" to that crisis is a return to sending college players to represent the United States. Those who've advocated that proposal might not be considering where college basketball stands.
It still is the best training ground in the world for potential NBA players — yes, better than those European basketball academies where they teach their players how to shoot but still miss the mark on teaching them how to win. But too many gifted American players exhaust little or none of their NCAA eligibility.
So if collegians became the standard, not only would the U.S. be choosing not to send its best players to the Olympics, it would be choosing not to send its best young players. USA Basketball tried the latter trick by picking LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Amare Stoudemire and Carlos Boozer for the 2004 team, and the disastrous result was the team's three defeats and the resulting bronze medal. Sending a team of college players would make that seem a glorious achievement.
There are international events in which U.S. collegians regularly compete. The youngest can play in FIBA's junior world championships for players 19-under. The U.S. did well in that competition in July 2003, winning every game but one. Unfortunately, the one loss came in the quarterfinals, so the U.S. returned with no medal.
Players 21 and under can compete in the young men's world championship. A squad featuring May and Paul and coached by Oklahoma's Kelvin Sampson was thrilled to finish first this summer — in the qualifier for that event. The U.S. is defending champion. It is the only FIBA world gold medal currently held by a U.S. men's team.
Although Paul is more of a true point guard than anyone who played for the Olympic team and Wake Forest teammate Justin Gray a more accurate 3-point shooter, they are not as well prepared for Olympic competition now as the majority of NBA players.
There are plenty of pros who would have helped the U.S. win the gold medal, but weren't asked. The team needed more shooters, more size, more point guard play, more defense, more toughness — and fewer stars. NCAA Division I is not the first, best place to look for those qualities.
With the rules as they are, a truly gifted 7-footer is almost certain to head directly from high school into the NBA draft. Among collegians, you're mostly dealing with converted power forwards or undersized post players. May, Ike Diogu of Arizona State and Eric Williams of Wake Forest are all 6-9. Michigan State's Paul Davis is 6-11 but would not discourage more mature international opponents from attacking inside.
Most of the promising big wings also are passing on college when they can. James never played in Division I. Josh Smith and J.R. Smith followed the same course.
The NBA and the American game are suffering because these players are not as polished as they might be. But that's not the issue here. The point is that the college talent pool has become so depleted that if it ever made sense for the United States to decline the opportunity to employ NBA players — and no, it never did — it certainly doesn't now.
The contention that the U.S. should send collegians to the Olympics is, apparently, a product of the notion that the Games should remain committed to amateur sport — an ideal that never was as pure as its proponents wish to believe. The concept of Olympic amateurism was mostly about exclusion, trying to keep out those who might otherwise be occupied with trying to feed themselves and their families.
Since professionalism became the rule, such marvelous athletes as Ian Thorpe, Carl Lewis and Hicham El Geurrouj have been able to make repeat appearances in the Olympics rather than retiring to become stockbrokers or live off endorsement earnings. The Games should be about seeing the greatest athletes, not the poorest.
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