Chris Kaman.... playing for the germans in the olympics...????

Question

What are the U. S. rules about playing for another country. Can you play again for the U.S. I am confused because of this article.... it says he wont be able to???

Kaman, 26, had an outside chance to make the 2012 Olympic team for the United States. With Dwight Howard, Andrew Bynum and Greg Oden in the pipeline, it was a long shot. Team USA did call Kaman about playing with their select team of young players that scrimmaged the Olympians in training camp, but he had already given his word to Germany that he’d play for them. And once he did that, Kaman could never play for the U.S. again.

“I don’t know all the rules,” he said. “I don’t care. It was something I wanted to do, the opportunity to go to the Olympics. It wasn’t on my mind. I don’t think it matters.”

Answer 1

I admit that when I first read the story on CBSSports.com that Chris Kaman received German citizenship, so he now has dual citizenship – USA and German, my original reaction was to question why he would do such a thing. The article points out that he is not an immigrant, but rather his great-grandparents were German. I was a little bothered by the idea that an athlete would seek citizenship in another country to primarily compete in the Olympics.

I then did a little research. It appears that this phenomenon is more common than one would think – particularly if you primarily follow only the major US sports. The New York Times in its article entitled, Swapping passports in pursuit of Olympic medals, illustrated a number of former foreign Olympic athletes that became US citizens and continued to compete, this time for the USA.

Answer 2

NO he cant only if he got an American passport  

Answer 3

Yes, I'm also confuse about that... but I was seeing a Volleyball match on TV and the Commentators said that if you formed yourself as a player in a country, doesn't matter if the person was not born there, you can play for that country... what I don't understand is why he can switch teams? Maybe he was formed as a player in both contries...