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Mark Cuban owns the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks. He does not want NBA players, including a couple of his Mavericks, participating in the Olympics.
He sees the potential for injury too great, the free giveaway of the NBA logo to the Olympic cause unnecessary and the hypocrisy excessive.
“If the Olympics were truly a nationalistic endeavor [all would be fine,]” said Cuban. However, Cuban told the Dallas Morning News, “We lie to ourselves and pretend that the Olympics represent our country. It’s about money.”
Former Mavericks coach and Boston Celtics player Don Nelson responded, “It’s not about money. There is pride in these athletes.”
Nelson coached the U.S. team in the 1994 world games and is in litigation with Dallas over money from when he coached there, but his comments seem genuinely apart from that.
Once it would have been easy to side with Nelson. Once the Olympics were about playing for one’s country on a global platform. Today, Cuban has the upper hand.
In Friday’s USA Today, Christine Brennan wrote, “The internationalization of Olympic teams around the world is not a new story, but it is a growing trend.” She noted the U.S. team in Athens had 30 athletes born in other countries.
Now, WNBA player Becky Hammon from South Dakota will play for the Russian team in Beijing. She got a good deal to do so.
In many events for many athletes it is still about country. However, Cuban is right when it comes to most of what this country will see of the Olympics on TV.
The difference in the Olympics that Nelson believes in and desires and that which Cuban sees can literally be seen if anyone compares the Olympics as televised in the United States as opposed to Canadian or European coverage.
The latter try to cover all the Olympics. They cover the day’s events as they unfold, often live, often at odd hours.
U.S. television’s emphasis is about finding a few Tiger Woods in any given Olympics and running those stories into the ground. The coverage is aimed at events that historically draw the numbers.
It’s about ratings. It’s about money.
The International Olympic Committee will never have any problem with that since they make millions and have created a fiefdom whose leaders travel the world in luxury as they are courted by the next city to dish out dollars to keep the machine lubricated.
In that regard Cuban is right. The Olympics is about money; money for television, money for the lucky few who get to be the stars in any given year and money for the chiefdoms inside the system.
The lucky athletes are able to convert the TV time to speaking, promotional and book fees.
Nelson is right in that many of the events and athletes we never see here are performing for their country and will never make a buck off their performances.
Nelson is also right that some NBA stars do perform for their countries. They don’t need the money anyway, they are multimillionaires.
Cuban is right. The Olympics’ hypocrisy puts the millions he spends for players at risk for TV profits.
This will all continue. Hypocrites have long wrapped themselves in the flags of their nations.
bdnsports@bangordailynews.net
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