Mo's Manic Monday - Club
Posted: Monday, August 25, 2008 by Travis Cody in
Welcome to another Manic Monday with Morgen. Don't forget to cruise by MM HQ at It's A Blog Eat Blog World. Today's theme is Club.
I refused to join the club calling the USA men's basketball team the "redeem team". I felt that was disrespectful to the rest of the athletes from other countries who had worked hard to develop their skills. Basketball has become an international game, and we are no longer guaranteed that our teams are the best.
I still believe that we have the most talented basketball players in the world. But it is arrogant to maintain that the rest of the world's players are in awe of NBA talent and can't possibly compete with our teams. That period of time existed briefly when professional basketball players were allowed to compete for the first time.
It was only a matter of time until the rest of the world caught up. Blame the NBA itself for extending its reach into Europe and Asia. The NBA is no longer an exclusive club for American talent. Foreign players make up just a little more than 11% of the total number of players in the NBA. That creates interest in youngsters as they are able to identify with and emulate athletes from their own countries.
The rest of the world isn't intimidated by NBA players anymore. It takes more than just throwing together a collection of talent and sending it off to collect the gold medals that we say belong to us.
Only when our athletes set aside the me-first mentality and put the goals of the team ahead of their own personal agendas can we expect success.
Photo credit: Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images
And this time, the collection of NBA multi-millionaire superstars did just that, ending a three-year plan with a superb team effort to win a gold medal.
Team USA was a true team, and not just as a participant in the Olympic basketball tournament. This group of athletes was part of the entire USA Olympic experience, from marching as a group with the rest of the USA athletes to cheering on their counterparts in the women's tournament to taking in the Michael Phelps spectacle at the water cube to watching Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh defend their gold medal in beach volleyball.
And most importantly, they were outstanding ambassadors of American sport.
I can say that I'm proud of this team.
Congratulations Team USA.
Congratulations also to the Little Leaguers. They were a bit over-shadowed in this Summer Olympic year, but the play was as inspiring as it is every year.
The most telling sound bite I heard was from the kids from Maryland. Evidently they were in an odd position of not only having to win a game, but to score 12 runs in doing so. They didn't have to win by 12, they just had win the game and score 12 runs. With the mercy rule at 10, that's a tall order. And I also don't think it's the right message to use number of runs as a criteria to advance.
But the kids had that covered. As their coach was trying to explain what he wanted them to do to position themselves to get the right number of runs, one of the kids said, "Or we could just have fun."
HA!
The clubs from Waipio, Hawaii and Matamoros, Mexico met yesterday to determine the champion.
Hawaii overpowered Mexico 12-3 to win the fourth US championship in a row.
Photo credit: AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster
I couldn't find a word in Hawaiian for congratulations. The nearest I could get was celebrate. So ho'olaule'a, hau'oli boys!
Great post, Travis. Some people use a baseball bat as a club, lol. I guess not at the level that you post about tho.
Alice at I Was Born2Cree8