I for one had hoped that after the collapse of the Iron Curtain that the Olympics would once again be a contest of true amateurs, instead it has become a "once every four years" hiatus from their professional careers. Then again, the only thing that qualifies Allan Iverson as a "professional" is his salary.
When I saw the U.S Team composed of oversized, freaky looking guys with moronic hair and crazy tattoos all over their bodies, I thought, "What a bunch of losers they have selected to represent this great country". If the U.S. team would have won and moved up the competition ladder, they would have cost the U.S. more in image than the Medals would have brought.
Think about it. What is more important to a typical NBA player? Winning a gold medal in the Olympics or having a long and lucrative NBA career?
If an NBA player gets a serious injury in the Olympics, than he could lose millions of dollars in NBA salary. So it goes without saying that an NBA player probably isn't going to go "all out" to win in the Olympics and will be careful not to injure himself and jeopardize his NBA career. Ditto for NHL players.
To your average NBA bigshot, winning a gold medal in the Olympics is just a feather in your cap. But for a 20-year-old college player who will likely never see the NBA, a gold medal represents the highpoint of his life. By stocking our Olympic teams with detached professionals who have already reached the greatest of heights, we are denying many young players the opportunity of a lifetime. And I think that's pretty sad.