OT: Olympic Men's Basketball

[connectikev]

Just for fun, Imagine that the referees and Olympic Officials never cheated the 1972 US Men's Basketball Team out of the Gold Medal....
What are the logical (or illogical) outcomes of not losing that game?
I believe that, for one, we would never have seen the original Dream Team. I think that Pros would have become involved eventually, but not in time for the Bird, Magic, MJ, Barkley team.
I also believe that we would have eventually lost a game, though not in Montreal.
Plus, there would never have been that damn documentary on HBO that still enrages me as I watch how the cheating went down.
Any other thoughts?

 

[alexd]

Just for fun, Imagine that the referees and Olympic Officials never cheated the 1972 US Men's Basketball Team out of the Gold Medal....
What are the logical (or illogical) outcomes of not losing that game?
I believe that, for one, we would never have seen the original Dream Team. I think that Pros would have become involved eventually, but not in time for the Bird, Magic, MJ, Barkley team.
I also believe that we would have eventually lost a game, though not in Montreal.
Plus, there would never have been that damn documentary on HBO that still enrages me as I watch how the cheating went down.
Any other thoughts?

The USA lost to the USSR (well, really you could call them the Lithuanian team) in 1988.
In 1989 FIBA modified its rules to allow professionals to play in the Olympics. The U.S. actually voted against the proposal as did the USSR. The Russians had skirted the rules up to then by having full time state sponsored "amateurs" so they did not want to see U.S. pros in the Olympics.

 

[chiller99.5]

Maybe some combination of pros and college to even things up a little.I think the point has been made about our superiority with NBA players

 

[KembaStepback]

Why not do something like they just did with soccer? Make the teams U23. That would allow only young pros to play and fill the rest out with college kids or whatever. It'd even the playing field a bit too. Thoughts?

 

[Scoe]

Its fine the way it is, countries play their pros and we play ours if our pros are too good then tough . The U.S was without Lebron, Curry, Westbrook and Kwahi Leonard this year.

 

[Minicoop69]

Why not do something like they just did with soccer? Make the teams U23. That would allow only young pros to play and fill the rest out with college kids or whatever. It'd even the playing field a bit too. Thoughts?

I think that would be a good idea. It might make it more interesting as a whole.