FIBA General Secretary not in favour of an under-23 Olympic basketball tournament – Basketball News
David Stern and NBA team owners were in for a rude awakening when FIBA Secretary General and IOC member Patrick Baumann completely shot down the idea of putting an age limit for basketball players from the next Olympics onwards.
Stern and the NBA team owners did not like the fact that players on their contracts travel to play in the Olympics, getting burned out in the process and at risk of injury which might hurt their play back in the NBA.
Hence, in order to somehow curtail the power of players to freely choose whether they wanted to play in the Olympics or not, Stern gave out the idea of fielding an under 23 team from the next Olympics onwards, with 3 player exceptions.
The idea was not liked by fans, and players such as Kobe Bryant and LeBron James also voiced their opinion against it, saying that it would steal the opportunity of playing in the Olympics from many deserving NBA players.
And Baumann had become the latest person to voice his opinion against Stern’s idea, in an interview posted on FIBA’s website that was first reported by Chris Sheridan of SheridanHoops.com. Baumann said:
“From a global perspective, the progress of the talent in all other countries doesn’t go at the same speed or the same pace as the USA. As a result of that, lowering the age to U23 at the Olympics could actually widen the divide
between the USA and the rest of the world. There is also a more general issue of what the Olympic Games represent. So it would be premature to make changes in the quality of basketball at the Olympics, especially before having maximized the potential of the
World Cup.”
Baumann did talk about improving and expanding the profile of the current FIBA world basketball championship, as well as petitioning for a 3 on 3 basketball tournament to be added in the Olympic Games. The NBA and the team owners
know that the Olympics generate a great deal of money, and they want a cut of the share as they feel that the U.S team is using ‘their players’.
But the fact remains that the Olympics are about much more than money. They are about history, tradition and representing your country at the highest stage. They are also about sharing cultures and bringing people together.
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