American Nationalistic Basketball Pride Makes me sick!

[cucad8]

I don't know if in my year on RealGM, I have ever seen someone try so hard, and fail so bad.

[eatyourchildren]

Um, the only time you're obligated to rep your country is when you begrudgingly file your tax returns or when the draft is (re)instated.

Not playing for Team USA is not an act of anti-patriotism, lulz. If it were really that high up on the totem pole of acts of patriotism, it'd be in the Constitution somewhere that NBA players were required to play for the American team.

[eatyourchildren]

Any American who would take an active part in wanting to see another nation's flag flown above our own to satisfy a personal ambition may have the right to do so--but they certainly don't deserve that right. It's sad that lots of good people fought and died from Valley Forge to Gettysburg to Guadalcanal to Basra so that these shirkers who selfishly take from America but give nothing back but the minimum mandatory taxes could make this nauseating choice.

If the average level of patriotism demonstrated by American posters in this thread is representative of the country as a whole, we are in serious trouble. When the people consistently care more about their personal agendas than the welfare of the society and nation as a whole, when they forget the greater good, history shows that that nation is inexorably headed for the graveyard of nations.

I didn't realize that the greater good of the nation was so inextricably tied with the game of basketball. I'm sure Abraham Lincoln is rolling in his grave at the moral mishap that is the NBA player turning down a Team USA invitation. Well, except I would understand something less than 110% patriotism from African Americans, who's ancestry is linked to the Atlantic Slave Trade. But there's no African Americans in the NBA, right?

...right?

[Frosty]

I never thought Chris Kaman could cause so much concern.

I'd love to see the day that Kobe plays for Italy thanks to some squabble with someone at USA basketball. This board would explode.

[BrewCityBBQ]

Good for Kaman. Unfortunately it won't really make that big of a difference for Germany. Germany can have US's rejects if they want.

[Basti]

Good for Kaman. Unfortunately it won't really make that big of a difference for Germany. Germany can have US's rejects if they want.

if he fits into our system he'll certainly make a difference. probably not that much for the olympics but if Dirk and Kaman keep playing for our NT after the olympics we'd have one of the best frontcourts for a european NT.

[eatyourchildren]

When have Germans ever been positive about the U.S.? Never in my memory.

I have a friend who has worked in Germany for a decade commuting on business between Hamburg, Madrid, and Dublin. In the years he has lived there he rarely hears anything good about America. To the contrary, in his experience, being rude and insulting to Americans about America and anything American may be a sport more popular in Germany and on the continent (not Ireland) than the World Cup.

A devout Roman Catholic, he is especially sickened by seeing great cathedrals in Germany and other European countries empty on Sundays and Holidays. and predicts that in a few decades Europe will be a predominantly Moslem region and the cradle of Western Civilization will be lost. He also cites a scary resurgence of antisemitism in general (BTW, I'm not jewish)--apparently WW II didn't put that matter to rest.

And it's not just Germany--when he was with his American girlfriend in Madrid, he was physically attacked by some scumbags precisely and solely because he was an American. They picked the wrong guy to pick on--he broke the nose of one, gave another a concussion while defending himself and his lady. And they police weren't innocent of bias either--they were going to arrest him even though he was the one attacked and outnumbered four to one.

So as an American do I have a high opinion of Germans and Europeans in general? I'm afraid not.

If Kaman wants to play for Germany, then he should renounce his American citizenship and either live there or register here as a resident alien. Same with Becky Hammons. In my book they may be fine athletes and even, generally speaking, good people, but IMO they no longer should claim and enjoy the benefits of American citizenship. They have morally forfeited that right by representing a foreign power in international competition.

Just wondering--would you feel the same if Dirk decided to play on the U.S. team? I doubt it.

LOL at the "cradle of Western Civilization will be lost".
And i'm sorry, but religious piety to judeo-christian ideals has very little to do with the efficacy of western civilization. If you think that the strength of republican government and democratic ideals rests on the Church, then you are conveniently forgetting that the worst times in Western Civilization have been the result of a perverse symbiosis between church and state. Less people at church does not mean the world is going to sh*t. And it also does not mean that Islam is taking over. If you do believe that notion, you are sipping the islamic fundmantalist Kool-Aid. That's exactly what they want you to think.

Even more ridiculous than your cold war-style paranoia is your opinion that playing a sport for another country is some traitorous act that should deprive anyone the benefits of American citizenship. I'm sorry, but American citizenship and the entitlements that come with it are not predicated on representing America in every facet of life, agreeing with every facet of American foreign policy, or dribbling an orange rubber ball.

[GuyverX]

I never thought Chris Kaman could cause so much concern.

Chris Kaman causes Clipper fans great concern all the time.