A New Idea For Team USA’s Olympic Basketball Team
Team USA has dominated the Olympics ever since they allowed NBA players to participate in the Olympics as a part of Team USA. I think NBA players should still be allowed to participate for their countries other than Team USA, like Ricky Rubio, Marc Gasol, and Pau Gasol would still be able to participate for Team Spain. Now NBA players could still play for Team USA but I feel like there should be some restrictions. My Idea is that Team USA’s Olympic team should consist of players from the Rising Stars Challenge.
Most young players still have a huge impact for their teams and get recognized for the Rising Stars Challenge. The only players eligible for it are players in their first or second year. Since 2015, the Rising Stars Challenge is already split between USA vs. World. Team USA consisted of Devin Booker, Malcolm Brogdon, Marquese Chris, Brandon Ingram, Frank Kaminsky, Jahlil Okafor, D’Angelo Russell, Jonathon Simmons, Karl Anthony-Towns, and Myles Turner. That is a solid team right there. Team World consisted of Joel Embiid, Dante Exum, Buddy Hield, Nikola Jokic, Trey Lyles, Emmanuel Mudiay, Jamal Murray, Kristaps Porzingis, Damontas Sabonis, and Dario Saric. That is also an impressive team. Some of the World Team’s players’ countries don’t qualify for an spot in the Olympics for basketball. If their national team doesn’t qualify, then they can play for Team USA, and if they also want to represent Team USA instead of their native country, they can do that as well. Like Kyrie Irving was born in Australia, but he chose to represent Team USA.
This idea will make the Olympics more interesting, or at least the basketball portion. It’s always a blowout when Team USA plays another Olympic team. Their closest game was 82–76 against Spain in the semifinals, their second closest was 96–66 against Serbia in the Gold Medal game. Most of the games they play they win by a pretty large margin. If we insert the Rising Stars Challenge players, the games will probably be closer, thus being more entertaining. USA will probably still win, but the games will be closer and more entertaining. If the players decline, they could get the players from the year before. Let’s say Brandon Ingram declines the offer, they could ask Jabari Parker to participate. Jabari Parker played in the 2016 Rising Stars Challenge and 2017 was his 3rd year making him ineligible to participate in the 2017 Rising Stars Challenge. If I were to guess, about half of the players will decline, thus giving opportunities to players from years past to participate.
In my opinion, this is a great idea to keep the games close and entertaining. It also gives the young players of the NBA to have good exposure to competition outside of the usual NBA grind. It also gives them good exposure on the global level. Team USA would probably still win the gold medal, but it’ll keep the games close and contested. Plus, is could also give other countries a chance to win a medal in the Olympics.
