Yahoo: USA Basketball only benefits Duke and Syracuse | Syracusefan.com

Yahoo: USA Basketball only benefits Duke and Syracuse

NKR1978

NKR1978

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I don't really disagree that the biggest NBA stars probably shouldn't play in regular FIBA events and that they should be saved for the Olympics; but the premise for this opinion piece from another in a long line of Yahoo "geniuses" is silly.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba-ne...s-showcasing-only-duke-s-coach-044717393.html

"Here come the Duke and Syracuse coaches hugging the NBA stars, primping for pictures that they'll rush through texts and Twitter to star recruits. Pity poor Serbia, the silver-medalist props to a college recruiting video."
 
He's the best NBA reporter out there but his opinion pieces are always pretty hot take-y, low-hanging fruit type of stuff.

Gregg Doyle-esqe quality to them.
 
Nice to know that Wojarowski and Yahoo back the interests of billionaire NBA owners and mega millionaire players over patriotism to the country. And he's worried about coach K and JB getting a recruiting advantage at the expense of poor Cal...give me an break! Further proof of why Yahoo sports is a joke.
 
Funny it wasn't an issue when John Thompson coached the Olympics. Are they upset that Coach K and JB have won?

Anyone recall Dean Smith being taken to task for coaching and winning the Olympics?

Do these yahoos even know the procedure in being chosen as an Olympic coach - they didn't appoint themselves. Do they know the history of Olympic coaches who were also college coaches?

Funny that it's suddenly an issue now.
 
Last edited:
Cheriehoop said:
Funny it wasn't an issue when John Thompson coached the Olympics. Are they upset that Coach K and JB have won?

Anyone recall Dean Smith being taken to task or coaching and winning the Olympics?

Do these yahoos even know the procedure in being chosen as an Olympic coach - they didn't appoint themselves. Do they know the history of Olympic coaches who were also college coaches?

Funny that it's suddenly an issue now.
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not defending Yahoo but all those college coaches only coached one Olympic team and I agree that Cuse has benefitted greatly from JB's affiliation to the Olympic team.
 
NKR1978 said:
I don't really disagree that the biggest NBA stars probably shouldn't play in regular FIBA events and that they should be saved for the Olympics; but the premise for this opinion piece from another in a long line of Yahoo "geniuses" is silly.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba-ne...s-showcasing-only-duke-s-coach-044717393.html

"Here come the Duke and Syracuse coaches hugging the NBA stars, primping for pictures that they'll rush through texts and Twitter to star recruits. Pity poor Serbia, the silver-medalist props to a college recruiting video."
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Really not much mention of JB and the Orange. This was mostly just a slam on Coach K and Duke (pretty much the same thing, of course).

I do think that, in the future, the Olympics will be an under-22 tourney. They have done that already with soccer.

But the World (Cup) Championships might remain a senior event. I'm not sure that the top-level US NBA stars will find that appealing. But, we can still win without the A-listers.
 
Woj is the best reporter but he is very hot sports takey when it comes to opinion pieces.
That being said, I'm sure it does benefit Duke and SU (I would assume Duke more, but we still benefit. Which is fine, you should benefit from having a good coach)

I feel like the top NBA players would rather play in the Olympics than the FIBA world cup.
 
I would love it if Olympic Hoops went back to an amateur format. Because I don't think that is ever going to happen an under-22 format might be the next best thing.

I don't find the Olympic Hoops games all that interesting anymore. I take that back, I've followed it because of JB and Melo's involvement, but I think I would be more interested if the games were among college or at least younger professional players.
 
Someone had an idea of making it so you could only play in one olympic cycle. So theoretically, you would have not used Lebron and Melo in 2004, used them in 2008, and they'd be done. Durant would have been the key guy in 2012, maybe with Steph Curry, etc, and in this cycle you'd be looking at guys like Davis, Irving, etc.
 
Coach K and JB have given large chunks of the past eight summers (taken it away from their families, in other words).... to developing and coaching US basketball back into respectability on the international stage. The 2004 Olympic team was a disgrace, a national embarrassment. Jerry Colangelo knew what he was doing when he enlisted K and JB to head the US senior team. And they have worked their butts off (Remember, I was with the US team in both Beijing and London, so I saw it firsthand). To suggest that K and JB are doing this to advance the cause of Duke and Syracuse is beyond absurd.
 
I think FIBA should follow the model of FIFA.
In soccer, the Olympic rosters are under-23 player with 3 overage exceptions. If I was FIBA I would make the Olympics under-23 and give each team 2 overage exceptions. Then you make the FIBA World Cup the real important tournament.
 
cto said:
Coach K and JB have given large chunks of the past eight summers (taken it away from their families, in other words)... to developing and coaching US basketball back into respectability on the international stage. The 2004 Olympic team was a disgrace, a national embarrassment. Jerry Colangelo knew what he was doing when he enlisted K and JB to head the US senior team. And they have worked their butts off (Remember, I was with the US team in both Beijing and London, so I saw it firsthand). To suggest that K and JB are doing this to advance the cause of Duke and Syracuse is beyond absurd.
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Agreed...We should play these games to win and if having them coach helps, team USA should have them. And if Pitino and Cal were the best coaches for the job, I'd have no problem giving it to them. Also, it may help recruiting, but I'm not sure how much. I have yet to see a recruit say he's coming to Cuse because Boeheim coached the Olympics. They come because they like him (and Hopkins) as a coach. Boeheim was chosen for the Olympics because he's that good, not the other way around.
 
I like watching Olympic hoops. Unlike, the NBA all-star game, I get to watch the best Americans playing together, playing to win, as a team. playing D, unselfish etc. Like watching a bunch of great jazz musicians playing off of one another. I feel it makes them take it up a notch. It is amazing how much much better we are, currently, than the rest of the world. Like Franchilla was saying, the gap between the world and the USA looked like it was closing at one time..
 
I like Woj, but this is very hot take-y.

K and JB were already established and have recruited well besides this.

Cal, Self, Pitino, etc are doing just fine without coaching the NBA guys.

And besides all this, aren't there bigger fish to fry than complaining about this? The NBA and NCAA have plenty of problems of real import. This is not one of them.
 
Would have taken it more seriously if he touched on Calipari and Towns...which was a little more transparent.
 
Alsacs said:
I think FIBA should follow the model of FIFA.
In soccer, the Olympic rosters are under-23 player with 3 overage exceptions. If I was FIBA I would make the Olympics under-23 and give each team 2 overage exceptions. Then you make the FIBA World Cup the real important tournament.
Expand...

I was trying to look this up; does FIBA even run the Olympic tournament? Or would they need to make a compromise with the IOC? I'm sure FIBA would love to make the world cup a bigger event than the Olympics, but that's gonna be tough and will probably take a while. If I'm an NBA player an Olympic gold medal means 100x more to me than a world cup title. (I made up that number, but it's a lot)
 
There is a nice thread called "Cal pushing the envelope again " where NBA players will be hobknobbing with high school recruits at Lexington under Cal's watchful eye. Isn't that worse than coaching your country's team while every other coach is home recruiting in person against you. Every coach has already been to see Battle in person. JB and K haven't.
 
cto said:
Coach K and JB have given large chunks of the past eight summers (taken it away from their families, in other words)... to developing and coaching US basketball back into respectability on the international stage. The 2004 Olympic team was a disgrace, a national embarrassment. Jerry Colangelo knew what he was doing when he enlisted K and JB to head the US senior team. And they have worked their butts off (Remember, I was with the US team in both Beijing and London, so I saw it firsthand). To suggest that K and JB are doing this to advance the cause of Duke and Syracuse is beyond absurd.
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Right.
Duke and SU may get some ancillary PR benefit when high school players see K & Boeheim leading the national team.
It certainly doesn't hurt to have your coach positioned as America's best.
But combined they have what?...77 years head coaching experience???!!!
It's not like they're unknowns and struggling for top recruits.
The bottom line is kids will choose a school that's the best fit...not the one that has Team USA coaches.
 
wgaf. Duke was getting top flight recruits well before K had anything to do with the National team, and its not like the greatest of the greatest current US roster is chock full of SU alums.

If Hop is using the position (and associated "me with" pics) as part of his current hot streak in recruiting, fantastic. If not, he should be. Others can cry unfair, and they may be right, but I care exact;y 0.0 about that. Any of them would love their teams to be in the same position. All they have to do is have their CBB coach become one of the winningest 2 of all time.

Now, it seems to me that K & JB's regime has lasted longer than previous ones. If I cared, I'd go look it up.
 
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