Should NBA players be paid to play in Olympics?

Poststructural Pub
1

Is it just me or does this seem tacky?

http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/3586846

Susan

2

Those poor lil’ millionaires… they must be eating macaroni & cheese every night.

:roll:

The Olympics has become a sad, sorry, joke.

3

I don’t think NBA players should BE in the Olympics…

Robin

4

I don’t either!

Susan

5

I don’t understand HOW professional players get to go to the Olympics. I thought it was an amateur event only.

6

That changed recently

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_Games#Amateurism_and_professionalism

7

It used to be argued that, under Communism, there could no distinction be made between an amateur and a professional athlete, thus the eastern bloc countries were said to be at an advantage.

8

Pro players should absofrigginlutely NOT be paid for participating in the Olympics… if they should even be there at all.

9

Why do we have Olympics?

Couldn’t we use the billion+ dollars that goes into them every 2/4 years for better purposes, like feeding starving African kids with AIDS?

10

Yeah, but if the Olympic Games got called off do you reckon the nations of the world would actually spend it on that?

11

Unfortunately, no, I don’t.

12

You guys are heartless, I tell you, heartless…

Sprewell, earning $14.6 million this season and seeking a contract extension from the Minnesota Timberwolves, said, “I’ve got a family to feed.”
from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18582-2004Nov28.html

Patrick Ewing: “We might make a lot of money but, we also spend a lot of money”
from http://www.internationalbasketball.com/quotes.html

As for the Olympics, again it is entertainment. It is also a wondrous event where people from almost all countries can come together and compete. In my opinion, the Olympic ideal is a more worthy cause than any one disease, or one nation’s or one region’s poverty. Sure, the ideal has been corrupted by all the money, but it remains a great thing for the planet and the human race.

Doing away with the Olympics would not leave that pool of money for other uses. The pool would dry up. A billion TV viewers will not tune in to see aid workers give immunization shots, or set up school houses. Certainly a balance is necessary, and there are many worthy charities set up to help on many of these other issues.

  • Bill

Olympic motto “Citius, altius, fortius” is a Latin phrase meaning “swifter, higher, stronger”