Hammon to play for Russia in Olympics

I never had a problem with Hull playing for the US. I was just using it as a comparable.

And you have to remember, Mike Keenan cut Stevie Y from Team Canada

 

Call me old-fashioned, but shouldn't you at least have to be a real citizen (not the arrangement she has) of the country to play for it in the Olympics?

We had someone here from Microville play for Greece in the 2004 games because her great-great grandfather was Greek. What a joke.

And if I'm the last real Russian to get cut from this team to make way for her, I'm pissed.

Wonder if the Sunshine State neocons will hammer her like they did Tom Daschle in the last Senate election for supposedly not being "patriotic" enough?

 

I actually had no idea where you stood on Hull playing for the US. I just look at being about the only Canadian I know that doesn't consider him the devil because he chose the US over team Canada in the 90s.

Just was trying to make the point that if an athlete's natural country - where they were born and raised - rejects them because they are too deep already, I have no problem with them playing for another country if they have that opportunity through dual citizenship or some other loop hole. Just about every country benefits from this at some stage and just about every country contributes to other countries olympic programs with athletes. The fact is if the best athletes are going, regardless of under what flag, what's the problem. It will only make the games better.

And Mike Keenan was/is an idiot. Look at the bang up job he's doing in Calgary. Has absolutely alienated Huselius - their second best pure offensive talent on a team that's short on offensive talent - for the second time in his career, and this time right before the playoffs.

We could look at every Team Canada ever formed for the Canada/World Cup and the professional Olympics and find star players who were left off - hell Rob Zamuner instead of Messier in Nagano in 1998.

 

Commie!

 

I'm still trying to figure out how Hammon wasn't on the U.S. team to start with.

 

Good Lord, this isn't 1972. If she wants to play for the U.S. or Russia or Swaziland, I won't begrudge her that opportunity.

I do agree all this country-shopping for the Olympics, World Cup, FIBA, etc. is getting ridiculous and needs to be reined in.

It's getting to the point where every African-American who gets cut by Team USA could go play for Gambia because of their ancient ancestry.

Tiger could play Olympic golf for about 20 countries.

 

Same here.

 

During the last Olympics, the US put out a gymnast that previously competed for Cuba.

I didn't see anyone complaining then about having her on the US team.

It has been severely cut down with the World Cup. You basically have a nation selected by age 21. There is no switching after that.

 

Aren't all of our ping-pong players from Thailand?

 

There is one that isn't, but he is suspended for steroid use. (Yes, this is true)

 

Pastor,

If that gymnast moved to the US in the intervening years, and had US citizenship (which, I think, is a prerequisite for membership on a US Olympic team, which is why that great runner from Morroco or someplace (Zeb something?) was trying so hard to get expeditied citizenship before the Athens games), then I have no problem with her competing for the US. She's a naturalized citizen.

But I don't think Becky Hammon is moving to Moscow or St. Pete and becoming a full-time Russian.

The World Cup rule sounds prudent.

 

The runner was Khalid Khannouchi, whom Rick Reilly wrote had his citizenship tied up in bureaucratic red tape, so take the story with a grain of salt. He was fourth at the Oly trials in November and is waiting for Dathan Ritzenhein to drop from the marathon to focus on a shorter track race, thus moving Khannouchi into the marathon.

That said, I'm with the Chick and my neighbor JB: How is Becky Hammon not one of the 12 best female basketball players from the U.S.?