Big, Awful, Terrible, Dogshit News: It's Sounding More And More Like There's A Chance NBA Players Won't Be Able To Play In The Upcoming Olympics
[Source] - “I was told the NBA season would start in December, and then it was Christmas, and then after Jan. 1, and that keeps pushing the schedule for me. The NBA season typically takes 170 or 171 days to complete, so that creates a conflict on paper,” said Colangelo, adding that a suspension of the NBA season in order to clear time for the Olympics also has been discussed…
“If the [NBA] season conflicts with the Olympics, I might have 14 non-playoff teams to choose from, but then other players will become available as the NBA playoffs progress,” Colangelo said. “The problem is that the IOC has a rule mandating an early submission of a 12-man roster. But with a pandemic, the hope would be that you’ve got to set aside outdated rules. I assume people will be reasonable and come up with some kind of a program that works.”
Goddamnit this is not what I wanted to hear. I absolutely love international basketball. Can't get enough of it. It's a different game than the NBA and college hoops. You get to see guys that had dual-citizenship that you forgot all about. You get to see teams like Serbia grow up together and become a top-2 team in the world. Same goes for Spain back in the day. Shit, I still watch highlights of that 2008 gold medal game - legit one of the best just basketball games ever.
And after Team Shamrock or whatever bullshit Greenie was calling them sucked ass at the World Cup last year, we started to see a resurgence of players wanting to play in the Olympics. We saw hockey go through this recently too. And I know more people get into Olympic hockey because Team USA isn't dominant like hoops, but there's nothing better than watching a team USA game at a bar during weird hours. Who doesn't enjoy that?
And if you like hoops - you're telling me you wouldn't enjoy watching a team of like LeBron, Anthony Davis, Kawhi, Steph, Booker, Bam, Harden, Tatum, Olympic Melo, Dame, Butler and Chris Paul go kick ass? Sign me up for that. I will say I do like the sound that they are trying to come up with different solutions to get these guys to play, but I don't want to see a stoppage in the NBA season for this. I also hate the idea of having to pick from the teams that don't make the playoffs. We gotta figure something out because I want to see Team USA vs Serbia at a weird hour while drinking.