As I did not use my cell phone while driving this afternoon I listened to a lively debate on ESPN radio. The issue relates to LA Clipper Center Chris Kaman trying out for the German basketball team for the Olympic games.
Although Chris is an American citizen his great grandparents were from Germany. As he was not selected to represent the American team he wants to play in the 2008 Olympics. Chris applied for and just received dual citizenship from Germany. If he makes the cut he would be playing alongside Dallas Maverick’s power forward Dirk Nowitzki.
What do these games represent to you?
[poll id=”21″]
Not to put a “spin” on your vote but consider the opening ceremony where every athlete walks to the center of the stadium behind one athlete who is carrying the flag of their country. Also consider the victory stand where flags of the three finalist countries are raised and the winning athlete or team’s national anthem is played.
Should Chris make the team would he be knocking out an athlete from Germany to be on that squad?
There are more questions than answers in some peoples minds.
And the survey question. How do you feel about Chris representing another country in the games?
Good for Chris Kaman!!!
I am disgusted by the fact that Kobe Bryant is representing my country at the Olympics. He symbolizes the ugly American.
email
Larry
I have so little respect for Professional Athletes that I wish they would all play for some other country. (It might not be right, but I equate all of the Professional Athletes with Kobe Bryant, whom I don’t care one bit for, and Dennis Rodman whom I like even less.) That would improve the integrity of the United States and the Country they play for. I don’t think they should let professional athletes from any country.
There was a long period in which professional athletes were not permitted to participate in the Olympic games. However the USA was facing European teams that were using paid athletes putting our teams at a major diasadvantage. That all changed with the 1992 “Dream Team” in Barcellona as mentioned in the following historical text:
“It gradually became clear to many that the amateurism rules had become outdated, not least because the self-financed amateurs of Western countries often were no match for the state-sponsored “full-time amateurs” of Eastern bloc countries. Nevertheless, the IOC, led by President Avery Brundage, held to the traditional rules regarding amateurism. In the 1970s, after Brundage left, amateurism requirements were dropped from the Olympic Charter, leaving decisions on professional participation to the international federation for each sport. This switch was perhaps best exemplified by the American Dream Team, composed of well-paid NBA stars, which won the Olympic gold medal in basketball in 1992. As of 2004, the only sport in which no professionals compete is boxing (though even this requires a definition of amateurism based on fight rules rather than on payment, as some boxers receive cash prizes from their National Olympic Committees); in men’s football (soccer), the number of players over 23 years of age is limited to three per team.”
There is a price to pay in leveling the international playing field. look at how few amateurs have been selected to be part of our mens basketball team.
Yaa Voll Latty;
Sieg Heil !
Eine Beer and gooten habin.
i love sports. i use to love to play sports – in fact i look forward to throwing some pitches at the dunk tank tomorrow at the mission viejo street faire.
the olympics have lost a lot of its appeal to me because of the professional athletes. an amateur athlete, who gets up for training at 5:00 in the morning every day before school, to pursue his or her passion to be the best and still gets straight A’s, deserves to compete in the olympics and not these professional stars who are pampered and whiney.
i remember the dream team basketball team, but i will never forget the pride and the excitement when our amateur hockey team beat the professional russian team in the lake placid games in 1980 !!
OK everyone we are getting a little ahead of ourselves. I think Chris should play for whatever team lets him play. That way if he takes down the US Team, he can always say that he tried to play for them first. Kind of like how Puerto Rico smoked us by like 17 points during last Olympics. They were saying “yeah you should make us a state and then you can raid our roster.”
Email reply
Larry:
This is an opportunity for Chris Kaman to play basketball…..Their is no monetary value except the pride of playing….He has the talent so why not play if he has dual citizenship in Germany….what is the big deal? The USA did not want him to play for their team…..this is their loss.
Another email reply:
I don’t like it and I feel it’s not in the spirit of the Olympic games. I would only stand and salute my American flag.
Marilyn B
Glad to see that the LA Times picked up this story in their July 4th sports section.
One advantage of being a blog rther that traditional print media is that we can get the word out faster.
With that thought in mind, and as we just celebrated our Nations’s birthday yesterday, I reflect back to Paul Revere who rode alongside Vern Nelson, distant relative of Admiral Nelson, shouting “one if by land, two if by sea” as the official first bloggers in America.
*Cayman….hmmmm….isn’t he the last guy on the
Jamaican BobSled Team? No, maybe he is on the
Camanese BobSled Team!
Thanks for the compliment Larry, not sure what I did to deserve it or how it fits this thread, but I guess it’s your thread!
Our first official bloggers: not so much Revere, as Tom Paine, Ben Franklin, and the three writers of the Federalist Papers. Many of our first bloggers wrote anonymously, at least on occasion.
I did come across an interesting fact about Paul Revere and Joseph Warren a few years ago. The revolutionaries in Boston were split up into a dozen or more distinct groups who each congregated at various taverns and such, not communicating and cooperating with each other as perhaps they should have. A study was done recently of their membership and there were only a few revolutionaries who went to more than one or two – Sam Adams for example – but Revere and Warren stood out for going to lots of different meetings each week, sort of as cross-pollenating liaisons keeping all the troublemakers in touch.
So sometimes I do feel like Paul Revere, when I go from a DFA meeting to a Clean Money meeting to a Healthcare For All meeting, or from Screwdrivers to Drinking Liberally.
“Son’s of Liberty” – Samuel Adams…..”Johnny
Tremaine”….the first novel read by American children…who used to get an education!
No.
Grandparents? That’s it? Very sketchy. I think this crosses the line. Where do you draw the line with heritage? Is it up to each country?
When I became a German citizen to play basketball there I had to give up my US citizenship. So did my wife. We had to be naturalized…ie. we had lived there for seven years and had to read, write and speak German before we could become citizens. We had to take a German language test.
I understand Chris Kaman is dual so he did not have to give up US citizenship…he did not have to live there or speak the language.
Maybe rules have changed or the rules are different for millionaires.
Some German bureaucrat should get a piece of any medal he wins. Mein Gott them Germans are good at creating bureaucracy then molding it to fit their needs be it beer or sports or politics.
He will be representing America when he plays even though he has the paperwork to play for Germany. How could he not?…he was born and played all his life here.
America has a few “naturalized” “ringers”. Nowitzki has been here long enough to get naturalized.
It was his great grandparents that got him in.
I forgot to mention my great grandparent were also from Germany but I still needed to be naturalized, pass a German test and give up US citizenship.
I think KAMAN will love to play for germany. But I’m happy for the performance of him to play on LA clipper.