U.S. need not apologize for pro Olympians

Since today marks the third anniversary of the 1988 U.S. Olympic basketball team’s ignominius 82-76 loss to the Soviets in the semifinal round of the men’s competition in Seoul, the timing seems right to take a look at the ’92 team and the controversy that has arisen over its NBA composition.

At the time of the ’88 squad’s fall to bronze medal status, I wrote that I was “tired of seeing us send college boys up against European pros” and expecting them to whomp the competition for the greater glory of Old Glory. I felt at the time it was unfair to expect such grandiose accomplishments from our youngsters, given the growing globalization of professional basketball talent. I wrote then it was time “we sent our best.”

Three NBA seasons later, I haven’t changed my mind. I’m still four-square behind sending Michael Jordan and Magic and Larry and Charles to Barcelona. And I’ve added another major reason for doing so to my men-against-boys argument that I haven’t seen any of the apologists address.

By apologists, I mean the glut of columnists and broadcasters and talk-show hosts who are spouting the politically correct but shortsighted notion we are somehow abandoning our morality and our sense of fair play by joining the rest of the world and sending the pros – our best athletes – to the world’s most revered competition.

My point is this. If we can, for a moment, step back from our American heritage and try and look at ourselves as other nations see us, then it only makes sense to send our best athletes. What’s more, it would be an insult to the rest of the countries competing NOT to send our best.

Think about it. What kind of message would we send if, in a year when the International Olympic Committee has ruled pros eligible, we said, “Nahhhh, we don’t need ’em. We think our college kids are good enough to beat the best teams the rest of the world can put together?”

Even if that’s true, and it very well might be (despite the U.S. team’s bad press lately, the college guys still have rolled up an 85-2 record in Olympic basketball), it doesn’t justify rubbing the rest of the globe’s nose in our smug sense of moral superiority. How hypocritical would the U.S., the capitol of capitalism, look to other nations if we continued to disqualify our athletes because they are, yuck, paid professionals? Talk about your “ugly Americans!”

The apologists argue it is far from sporting, or proper, or in the spirit of global athletic brotherhood (the Olympic ideal) to have our NBA All-Star squad mopping up the Spanish hardwood with the competition.

Wrong. It IS in the interest of global athletic brotherhood to let the rest of the world see and appreciate what marvelous basketball players we have performing in our NBA arenas. I don’t care if the U.S. is leading Lichtenstein 103-25 in the first half, there will still be the possiblity of seeing Larry Bird make another no-look pass for a monster-slam by Charles Barkley. We’re talking basketball as art, here. The fans will be left breathless.

What’s more, it is only by exposing the rest of the world to the level of play found in the NBA that the international game will improve. That’s right. Sending our pros is really a generous act.

Basketball has been an Olympic medal sport since the 1936 games in Berlin. It took from 1936 until 1972 – eight Olympiads – for a team other than the U.S. to win the gold medal. Since then, the U.S. has won the gold in two of the three Olympics in which it competed (we boycotted in 1980).

It’s taken the rest of the world this long to catch up to our college game. What’s wrong with getting the world started on taking the next big step up the competitive ladder?

The issue here is not guaranteeing that the U.S. win every basketball gold medal from now to eternity. That’s not why I believe so firmly in sending the pros. The issue is fairness.

The Soviets, Yugoslavs, Brazilians, and Italians may not pay their Olympic basketball players the kind of huge sums we pay our NBA stars, but their players are nonetheless compensated, which makes them pros and always has. For years, the International Olympic Committee looked the other way as European players were provided with cars and apartments by either private or government “sponsors.” These teams played together for years, unlike the college all-stars the U.S. consistently sent to the Games on a few months notice.

Send the NBA to Barcelona? You bet. It’s the fair thing to do.