Olympic Basketball Needs More Medal Events

flickr/kk+

Now that the greatest Olympics of my lifetime (of 28 years) has concluded, it's time for me to wonder, why do team sports get slighted in terms of medal events?

The dedication it takes for one to succeed at an individual event is truly amazing. All of the worldwide buzz and attention shed upon Michael Phelps and his accomplishment of eight gold medals is more than justified. At no point have I felt over-saturated with the media coverage surrounding Phelps.

However, something must be said about the unity and cohesion it takes to succeed as a team. It's a display of the true human spirit of being able to work together to accomplish one goal. In my opinion, this is more difficult to achieve than striving for Olympic success alone....if only slightly, because my intent is not to subtract from individual competition.

Focusing on swimming, there are 14 individual medal events and three "team" relay events for both men and women. In comparison, basketball and other team sports have only one shot, each for men and women, in a tournament style medal chase. I'm concentrating on basketball because it is my favorite sport (and this is a Washington Wizards based blog), but basketball is also unique compared to other team sports in that you can practice many skills of the game by yourself. Granted, 12 total gold medals are doled out to each individual member of the winning basketball team.

Which brings me to the point of this post, we need more Olympic medal events for basketball. During NBA All-Star weekend, there are at least four events which would easily translate to the international level: dunk contest, three-point contest, and the skills challenge (each separate events for men and women....well, except for dunking, unless you want to use 8 ft. rims), and then a mixed-gendered shooting stars contest. And I feel confident saying that most other professional basketball leagues spanning the globe have similar events.

How cool would it be to see players from around the world go head to head in these newly added events? Plus, each one is entertaining in a unique way and would attract more attention to Olympic team sports (assuming that similar skills competitions could be set up for other team sports such as spiking a volleyball into a trash can or a soccer shoot out).

Now, the logistics of who would compete would be an issue. I can't see only allowing players from countries whose teams have qualified for the Olympics participate. FIBA would have to be involved, setting up qualifying events in each of their continental tournaments (FIBA Africa, FIBA Americas, FIBA Asia, FIBA Europe, and FIBA Oceania).

Seemingly the greatest achievement of such individual event inclusion would be allowing countries, otherwise with no chance of ever qualifying for the team event, have hope that they can be represented on the international basketball stage. Such events in basketball would promote the globalization of the sport, and that's something that FIBA, David Stern, and any other basketball governing body, should support.

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flickr/dchurbuck

I wouldn't root for [blank] if they were playing the Axis of Evil

When I was younger, my dad would say, "I wouldn't root for so-and-so if they were playing against the Chinese communists." 'So-and-so' being a hated sports team.

Over the years, I've filled-in the blank with the likes of the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, New York Knicks, New England Patriots, Los Angeles Lakers, Duke Blue Devils, Notre Dame Irish, Ole Miss Rebels, and of course, the Dallas Cowboys.

Well, in this modern day, China and their communists have become a tad more amicable to the American sports fan......human rights issues such as Tibet and the opinion of Ira Newble notwithstanding. And since Beijing is hosting the 2008 Summer Olympic games, my dad's sarcastic statement no longer carries the same weight. China just isn't the enemy it used to be.

So where do we turn? Towards the Axis of Evil, naturally. Originally made up of Iran, Iraq and North Korea.....I'm pretty sure it's safe to drop Iraq from the list (as Saddam, Uday and Qusay are no more -- talk about evil, Uday owned THREE copies of Air Bud), and North Korea has claims of denuclearization. So, that leaves us to wash the Iranians with a bucket of haterade.

In his latest move of defiance, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is sending the Iranian National Basketball team (which miraculously qualified for the '08 'Lympics by winning the FIBA Asia games last year) to the U.S. of A. to infiltrate the Rocky Mountain Revue and fight a couple jihads against the summer league teams of the Dallas Mavericks and the Utah Jazz.

Now if this was last generation's Utah Jazz, you might find many utter the statement, "I wouldn't root for the Jazz if they were playing the Iranian Freedom Haters." At least most that I knew had a severe distaste for Messrs Karl Malone and John Stockton. Personally, as great as Jordan was, I thought it was time that the Bulls be taken down....a ring for each finger on one hand was enough. Basketball blasphemy? Whatever.

In the end, one shouldn't expect much fan fare over an Iranian team playing summer squad NBA hopefuls, such as Charles Rhodes, Gerald Green, and Kosta Koufos. However, if Jaber Rouzbahani and his comrades show up to the games wearing bulky trench coats, there may be cause for concern.

In the meantime, I'll limit my hope to some American bows connecting with Iranian chops, and perhaps some trash talking along the lines of, "You bitches better take it easy with all that uranium enrichment else I'll sanction that ass....again." Now if the Iranian basketball team was set to match up against the Dookies at Cameron Indoor, then my nationalistic rooting interests would be seriously compromised.

Photo of former US Embassy in Tehran from flickr.