Stern: age limit on Olympics basketball

[pablonis]

“I have not talked to [Stern]. Yes, I’m thrilled,” Cuban wrote in an e-mail to ESPNDallas.com. “More thrilled if the NBA starts its own world championship. This way the revenues from the tourney could be shared with players. When the revenues go to FIBA they get next to nothing. The teams get absolutely nothing.”

What in the world is wrong with this guy? The NBA starts its own world championship and pays the players and teams? Is he retarded?

Nothing. He's a stereotypical American douche who only has $$ $$ in his eyes... Robbing people of a chance to participate in the Olympic games should be criminal.


And for goodness sake everyone, it's FOOTBALL (played with a FOOT and a BALL), not Soccer.

[Mojado]

[QUOTE=Olympiacos;707557]US sports media at it again, pushing for whatever Stern and Cuban want.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba--nba-hoping-to-generate-more-revenue-with-world-cup-of-basketball-proposal.html;_ylt=AiM0kuLUUsYCf0LhDirbU0K8vLYF

He wants the NBA to own, operate and profit on a global tournament using the league’s stars.

"The question is: Why would we partner with a current tournament rather than start our own?" Cuban said. "If done correctly, it can be NBA-owned and operated and have the potential to be just as large as the World Cup of soccer. That is a product, in my opinion, we want to own, not share.

“I don’t know what the NBA plan is, but the above is what I will be pushing for."

Mark Cuban is Mark Cuban.
He can say whatever he wants but forming a new world cup will become a complete joke unless the NBA is contracting all the players from all national-teams around the globe. There is little sense in what Cuban is saying and I doubt that there is much substance behind it. The NBA tried many times to control things and failed. Look to China as an example. The CBA did not fell for Stern's visions.

[Olympiacos]

While I agree that its probably unfair if the NBA controls world basketball tournaments, it's silly to pretend that Europe doesn't have greedy owners either. If a European club or league had the market power to do this then they would go after the $ as well. People everywhere are interested in money, not just Americans.

This sounds a bit paranoid. Like anyone complaining about this is anti-American or something. What Cuban is trying to do is absurd. I guarantee that if any European owner was doing the same, that they would be getting bashed big time here the same way.

No one cares about Cuban being American. It's the fact that he is trying to destroy international basketball, and is making it very clear that he intends to do it.

[perucho123]

I hate to be a conspiracy theorist but I also think in a hypothetical cuban world cup all the refs would be NBA refs much like the world baseball classic and hockey olympics . This means that all the refs would be American and american refs can do USA games thus leading to conflict of interest. This way the NBA and cuban would be easier to controll the outcome of games . This will lead to colution and a basketball mafia. THIS SUCKS CUBAN. GET OUT OF BASKETBALL. I heard stick ball is a good sport go control that!

[Olympiacos]

I hate to be a conspiracy theorist but I also think in a hypothetical cuban world cup all the refs would be NBA refs much like the world baseball classic and hockey olympics . This means that all the refs would be American and american refs can do USA games thus leading to conflict of interest. This way the NBA and cuban would be easier to controll the outcome of games . This will lead to colution and a basketball mafia. THIS SUCKS CUBAN. GET OUT OF BASKETBALL. I heard stick ball is a good sport go control that!

Absolutely 100% it would be all NBA rules and NBA refs. I also would not be surprised one bit if they made it where the tournaments only happened in the USA. And of course, yes, the NBA refs would naturally be biased in favor of Team USA.

This is absolutely without any doubt, how such a, "Cuban World Basketball Cup" would be.

[Victorious]

It has a nice ring to it. Players are very exhausted after a long season. Not just NBA players, but Euroleague players as well. So a Continental Championship and a World championship every four years has to be enough. The best players of every country will want to play for their National team and the tournaments will attract more fans. Since the continental and WC will be rare events, the value of the medalist would gain much more importance.

On the other hand, Olympics basketball is always sold out and that makes it fun to watch. It's a shame watching world championships with half empty arenas.

The main problem with this proposal by the NBA, is that it shouldn't be their call, but FIBA's.

[Dtown]

Kobe Bryant on the issue

It's a stupid idea, stupid, it should be a (player's) choice.

The Olympics is really about putting the best athletes out there to compete against the best. That's what it's about, put the best out there. From a basketball standpoint, (an age limit) would lessen the Olympics, absolutely.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/feedarticle/10341191

[Pleasant]

He's saying that while we shouldn't go to U23 to make it easier on the world, Americans would probably enjoy it more as we could be underdogs again. Meaning the rest of the world would still be full strength.

From a purely sentimental perspective, I sympathize with Stern here. The Olympics basketball competition almost has no joy for the USA anymore.

If USA wins gold: Americans shrug and say, "It's expected" and others say, "It's expected" or "The refs/FIBA/Olympics/Mafia/Illuminati/Mind-Controlling Aliens had a conspiracy to make Team USA win."

If USA wins anything less than gold: Americans sigh and say, "What a disappointment" and others say, "HAHA HOW DISGRACEFUL!" At best, the team is just living up to expectations. At anything below best, they are a national disappointment.

Times have changed and very soon, the place of USA in world basketball will be more like the place of Brazil or Spain or the Netherlands in world soccer: always a threat to win it all, but never guaranteed. Maybe a new generation of American fans will grow up in this climate and accept it, but for old-timers like Stern, they must long for the days when American fans could rally behind the US as an underdog and still be able to applaud, for example, a bronze-medal finish. Part of what made the 2010 team fun was that it was not expected to win gold, and maybe Stern wants to capture that feeling more often in these tournaments. Now, it almost feels like a nervous, joyless responsibility.

... of course, he's probably just motivated by money concerns

[cardenales]

USA should win the gold meda. Now, they should not take it for granted, Espana is a tough team and Brasil has a very good talent and are also well coach by Ruben Magnano. By the way, in the friendly game, Brasil run over USA in the first quarter but northamericans won the last three, anyway, Brasil was always at their toes. Brasil have the frontline to face the USA. Other teams not to take lightly by USA. Russia, good talent, strong in every position and well coach by David Blatt and Argentina, great talent but aging.

[durden_tyler]

Lots of good points from this article:

NBA owners want to kill Olympic format to protect investment in international players

It is an issue because it transcends Team USA, and that's something that Bryant, Kevin Love, several more teammates, and the public still haven't grasped. This isn't about sending young Americans to the Olympics to play older teams, but the NBA cutting a deal with FIBA to make the Olympics a completely under-23 tournament. For NBA teams, the ability to control their talent in a rebranded World Cup of Basketball goes far past benefiting financially in ways that the IOC will never allow.

This is the fight now, but everyone knows how it will end: The owners are organized, unified, and determined to make the World Cup of Basketball the financial boon that they always believed a European expansion of NBA franchises could be for them. They're determined to control the way that medical staff administer to players in whom they've invested hundreds of millions of dollars, control the circumstances under which those players are cleared to play with injury, and ultimately, control the fate of guaranteed contracts they're obligated to pay.

As one Western Conference GM told Yahoo! Sports, in responding to Team USA players saying they want final say over whether they play in the Olympics: "If players take this control, should they also take the risk on their contract money?"

At the end of the day, expect the NBA owners to win this battle-- it's their investment anyway.

[durden_tyler]

From the same article (i just finished it ), and probably the most important:

In the end, Bryant and James deliver incredible revenue and value to the Olympic basketball tournament, and the owners are tired of watching the IOC bank it. Yet the motivation of changing the Olympic basketball format goes far deeper than Team USA, than the sports' biggest stars. The biggest fights between owners and players always do.

And yet, just remember how those fights always end, who always wins. There sat Kobe and LeBron on Sunday, watching the final minutes of one more USA Basketball blowout together under the Olympic rings. Take a good long look at them here in London, and understand that we'll never, ever see this again.

[Dtown]

Some notes from the players' side, they have the power to fight, but are lacking leadership.

Hunter absent from providing leadership in fight against NBA/FIBA World Cup

[Dtown]

Well at least we'll have Rio

NBA sets target date for changes at 2020, acknowledging 2016 is unrealistic.

http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/222906/NBA_Targeting_2020_Olympics_For_Beginning_Of_Under_23_Rule

[Shawshank]

can anybody stop stern and cuban? I just cant understand how they can control such things like olimpic games? I could understand that stern would say Usa team will be U-23,but how they manage to control other countries and olimpic games overall? I bet there arent a federation that agrees with this nonsense u-23,even Usa players do not agrees...How they have such power when everybody is against such idea,and they still thinks they can make it happen...Olimpics games is for best athletes in the world,and i dont give a shit he is 15 years old or 52 years old.The best should have opurtunity to compete if they want it.

[Dtown]

can anybody stop stern and cuban? I just cant understand how they can control such things like olimpic games? I could understand that stern would say Usa team will be U-23,but how they manage to control other countries and olimpic games overall? I bet there arent a federation that agrees with this nonsense u-23,even Usa players do not agrees...How they have such power when everybody is against such idea,and they still thinks they can make it happen...Olimpics games is for best athletes in the world,and i dont give a shit he is 15 years old or 52 years old.The best should have opurtunity to compete if they want it.

The NBA players can, the other FIBA nations can (though it's suspected some in FIBA are backing Stern.), so far though aside from a few players, no one is standing up.