Mark Cuban, outspoken owner of the Dallas Mavericks, posted his thoughts yesterday on the participation of the NBA in the WC and other Olympic qualifying tournaments entitled "Lets Talk NBA & Olympics & WC ...again." As usual he boils things down to a financial equation. From a financial point of view (i.e., as the owner of a sports franchise) I can see some points, but I flat-out disagree with him on point 3 - I think how the U.S. performs in international competition matters.
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Among the interesting things Cuban asserts: the U.S. Dream Team did not "ignite" international basketball, access to media, especially digital media, did. DVDs, videos, tapes, audio, internet, etc. Also basketball has been fueled by an influx of cash:
Personally on the last point is where I disagree with Cuban the most. I could give a bleep about the NBA and I certainly don't feel passionate enough about any NBA team to care more about them than the national team. But I didn't feel as passionate about the U.S. team this year as I did about Turkey's team, and the reason is because I cared about a player on Turkey's team who plays for my college team, which I am passionate about. (I'll thumb-wrestle you if you dis my Wolfpack). Cuban boils basketball down to financials, and I think this is the biggest problem in the U.S. People would support the U.S. team, if anyone told any stories about the teams they were playing against, about the formation of the team itself, etc. etc. But the sports media in the U.S. this summer talked about U.S. football ad nauseum, and baseball. The World Cup of Soccer and curling in the Winter Olympics got more air time this year than the WC. If you are from the U.S., tell me I'm wrong.
Anyway, I'm going on longer than I meant to . . . just wanted to see if anyone had any opinions on what Cuban said. Those are mine.
Permalink to Blog Maverick post
Among the interesting things Cuban asserts: the U.S. Dream Team did not "ignite" international basketball, access to media, especially digital media, did. DVDs, videos, tapes, audio, internet, etc. Also basketball has been fueled by an influx of cash:
Cash is king around the world, even in the most Communist of countries. As you can tell from the Olympics own site, they give out a TON of cash to international federations every year. The Olympics bring in 4 BILLION plus dollars every Olympic cyle. 92 percent of that money is distributed . International Federations that provide athletes to the Olympics get about $10mm each. Thats a lot of money to spend on developing their sport. On the flipside, its still relatively cheap to rollout a basketball and put up a basic hoop on a telephone pole.
Lastly, he asserts that there is no other sport for a guy over 6'5" to play except basketball. (Like I said, Cuban boils this stuff all the way down to very simplistic points). But most interesting of all, he says that if anyone was really interested in national pride and making basketball an international sport, the U.S. would change their rules to mesh with international rules. But Americans only care if their NBA team wins, not if their country team wins. He asserts that if the WC was played and not a single NBA player participated, none of the above would change. Personally on the last point is where I disagree with Cuban the most. I could give a bleep about the NBA and I certainly don't feel passionate enough about any NBA team to care more about them than the national team. But I didn't feel as passionate about the U.S. team this year as I did about Turkey's team, and the reason is because I cared about a player on Turkey's team who plays for my college team, which I am passionate about. (I'll thumb-wrestle you if you dis my Wolfpack). Cuban boils basketball down to financials, and I think this is the biggest problem in the U.S. People would support the U.S. team, if anyone told any stories about the teams they were playing against, about the formation of the team itself, etc. etc. But the sports media in the U.S. this summer talked about U.S. football ad nauseum, and baseball. The World Cup of Soccer and curling in the Winter Olympics got more air time this year than the WC. If you are from the U.S., tell me I'm wrong.
Anyway, I'm going on longer than I meant to . . . just wanted to see if anyone had any opinions on what Cuban said. Those are mine.
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