Hammon to play for Russia in Olympics

I'd love to know what kind of political situation resulted in her not even being invited to U.S. camps (if she had previously played for the USA in an FIBA tourney, this whole citizenship question would be moot).

 

But wasn't Hull's mom an American citizen? Hammon has no ties to Russia beyond part-time employment there.

 

Becky Hammon grew up in South Dakota. That's close enough to Russia to make it work for me. Good luck, Comrade!

 

Her hometown paper:
http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2008/04/09/news/top/doc47fd610b3aff7453239530.txt

Her college paper:
http://www.coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008804090334

 

Table tennis, dick.

 

Her hometown paper should have a column about it.

 

I've read the stories, and, I don't know, it just sounds kind of selfish. Her dream isn't to play for her country, her dream is to play in the Olympics. OK. But, sorry, lots of people don't qualify for that dream. Finding a back way just seems to kind of cheapen it.

 

I'm sure it does cheapen it. Doesn't mean that she shouldn't experience it that way, though.

 

This reminds me somewhat of Olaf Kolzig playing goal for Germany in hockey competitions because of his heritage. Even though he was born in South Africa and I think he grew up in Canada. And he's been a Washington Capital for about 10,000 years.

Though in Kolzig's case, he's perhaps one of the only, if not THE only good player on Germany. I doubt Becky Hammon is the only good Russian women's basketball player. Hell, she ain't even Russian.

 

Nation shopping does cheapen the Olympics to some degree, but with the inclusion of no-hiding professionals in many sports, the Olympics itself is much less compelling than it used to be. Even men's basketball, with Ginobili against Kobe, pales in comparison to a Spurs-Lakers series.

 

Problem is, by all objective criteria I've seen she does qualify. She was just "overlooked" and got knee deep in red tape.

That blurs things a bit.

If Bob Knight is coach of Team USA, and he gets into a personal rift with Kobe Bryant and refuses to put him on the team . . . and Kobe is allowed to play for, say. Italy, what does he do? Sit home because "Gee, I guess I did not qualify for that dream?"

 

Difference in that is that Bryant's probably already played for USA Basketball at some point so he wouldn't be able to switch countries.