What was Duncan's 2 reasons for not playing in Olympics and FIBA World Championship?

[niko]

Because he despised it. His body language was awful. He didn't want to get bodyslammed and karate chopped by crappy players looking to make a name against him. He looked like he wanted out from the first game.

[bdreason]

Staying healthy for the real world champion title.

[bdreason]

It's the 2010 FIBA World Championship, not the 2010 Olympics.



The USA hasn't won a WC since 1994, while they've won a tournament in 2008 that consist of maybe 2-3 great teams. Stop overrating the significance of the Olympics.

FIBA WC 2010

New Additions - France, Serbia (beat USA many times), Puerto Rico (beat USA in 2004), Brazil, Turkey, and Slovenia

All of these teams were absent in 2008 due to injuries or lack of player availability. I might add that all these teams are better than Germany, Russia, Croatia, and Lithuania who qualified that year.

This is why it amazes me why Americans along with other Olympic enthusiasts continue to shit on a tournament that is easily more competitive than the 12 team tournament that consist of 2-3 great teams and a bunch of fillers.



You guys treating the 2010 WC as a qualification tournament for 2012 doesn't bode well for you considering most of the world gets up to play in the WC. I suggest you guys and your players keep overlooking this summer because it's going to bite you in the ass and I'm going to laugh out loud at it.

Nobody cares about the FIBA WC in the USA. NBA titles and Olympic golds are all that matter.

Not saying that I don't care... but if the players don't care, that's all that really matters.

You can't expect NBA players to get up for competing in an International competition every 2 years. Soccer (Football) players don't do it... why should Basketball players have to?

[ZenMaster]

Nobody cares about the FIBA WC in the USA. NBA titles and Olympic golds are all that matter.

Not saying that I don't care... but if the players don't care, that's all that really matters.

You can't expect NBA players to get up for competing in an International competition every 2 years. Soccer (Football) players don't do it... why should Basketball players have to?

Fail fail fail, this is a repost of a response i did to you in another thread where you made the same stupid claim about soccer players.

Most of the best soccer players are from Europe. They take great pride in the European championship as well, which is also every 4 years. So that's a big tournament every 2 years. And you have qualifying tournaments for these as well. Qualifiers take place during the season. On top of that you have friendly matches that they use to get ready for the qualifiers.

If your'e not from Europe you still have tournaments, there's the South American championship and the African championship as well which are used to qualify for the World championships.

So stating that top soccer players only have to get ready every 4 years is just a complete fail.

Example just to show how much they play, the Netherlands soccer team will play it's first European qualifier on september the 3rd 2010 and finish their last qualifier on october 11th 2011, the European championship starts in june 2012 and the world championship ends in early july 2010. And since september 9 last year to this date they've played 5 games, and will play another 4 BEFORE the World cup even starts.


Please stop talking about soccer players an their commitment to national teams, you clearly don't know anything about it.

[Nero Tulip]

It's the 2010 FIBA World Championship, not the 2010 Olympics.

FIBA WC 2010

New Additions - France, Serbia (beat USA many times), Puerto Rico (beat USA in 2004), Brazil, Turkey, and Slovenia

All of these teams were absent in 2008 due to injuries or lack of player availability. I might add that all these teams are better than Germany, Russia, Croatia, and Lithuania who qualified that year.

What what what?

Anyway I agree with the main point, it should be considered the main basketball international competition, never understood why it's underrated in the US.

[bdreason]

Please stop talking about soccer players an their commitment to national teams, you clearly don't know anything about it.

I apologize for my apparent lack of knowledge pertaining to Football players International commitments. Obviously my comparison was bad.


However, it doesn't change my stance on the fact that forcing Basketball players to play year-around is bad for the sport, and bad for the NBA.

Basketball is not a sport that can be played all year without time for physical recovery. Forcing NBA players to compete every summer is reducing the quality of play in the NBA, and many of the top players (Melo, Dirk, Nash, etc) have admitted as much.

[Lakas Fan Yo]

Nobody cares about the FIBA WC in the USA. NBA titles and Olympic golds are all that matter.

Not saying that I don't care... but if the players don't care, that's all that really matters.

You can't expect NBA players to get up for competing in an International competition every 2 years. Soccer (Football) players don't do it... why should Basketball players have to?

You keep saying this nonsense over and over. The Olympics is the THIRD best FIBA tournament. Keep bragging about USA winning the THIRD best FIBA tournament and not caring about the BEST one. It just makes NBA fans look like fools.

[bdreason]

You keep saying this nonsense over and over. The Olympics is the THIRD best FIBA tournament. Keep bragging about USA winning the THIRD best FIBA tournament and not caring about the BEST one. It just makes NBA fans look like fools.

I'm not bragging about anything. Just stating the facts. When the Olympics come around, everyone (American fans and media and players) are talking about winning gold. When the FIBA WC comes around, nobody talks about it, or cares. The media doesn't cover it. The average fan doesn't know what it is... and thus, the players don't seem to care.

Like I've said before, the USA should focus on the FIBA WC, and stop sending its players to the Olympics. Unfortunately, nobody cares what I think, and the focus in the States will continue to be NBA titles and Gold medals.


And I'm done arguing about who the best National Basketball team in the World is. If you really think Spain, or Argentina, or Greece is the best Basketball team in the World, more power to you.

[Lakas Fan Yo]

I'm not bragging about anything. Just stating the facts. When the Olympics come around, everyone (American fans and media and players) are talking about winning gold. When the FIBA WC comes around, nobody talks about it, or cares. The media doesn't cover it. The average fan doesn't know what it is... and thus, the players don't seem to care.

Like I've said before, the USA should focus on the FIBA WC, and stop sending its players to the Olympics. Unfortunately, nobody cares what I think, and the focus in the States will continue to be NBA titles and Gold medals.


And I'm done arguing about who the best National Basketball team in the World is. If you really think Spain, or Argentina, or Greece is the best Basketball team in the World, more power to you.

So the US is the only country that "does not care" yet they demand the rest of the world universally regard them as the best. If they want to be seen as the best team then they need to win the BEST tournament.

It is really arrogant to demand the whole world call the US the best in basketball only by winning the third toughest FIBA tournament. Surely someone in the US can grasp that you need to win the best tournament to truly be considered the best team.

But the US "does not care". I guess the rest of the world should not care when the US claims to be the best in basketball despite not winning the top tournament since 1994. It's a bit strange.

Maybe someone should write ESPN and inform them the Olympics is not the top international tournament and that they sound like idiots claiming it is the best.

[ZenMaster]

I apologize for my apparent lack of knowledge pertaining to Football players International commitments. Obviously my comparison was bad.


However, it doesn't change my stance on the fact that forcing Basketball players to play year-around is bad for the sport, and bad for the NBA.

Basketball is not a sport that can be played all year without time for physical recovery. Forcing NBA players to compete every summer is reducing the quality of play in the NBA, and many of the top players (Melo, Dirk, Nash, etc) have admitted as much.

Fair enough, i won't dispute that its rough on them considering injuries and fatigue.

From an international pov i will say though, that there's a huge cultural difference in competing for your country. It probably has something to with America being so big and the different parts being kind of disconnected. Euro competition, in whatever sport, is kind of like state teams competing against each other, only that Euro countries have a bigger cultural difference from each other than US states.

Also, a lot of the international players you see i basketball, especially the ones in the NBA, "owe" a great part of their development as players to the national youth programs.
The overall talent is not as great as in the US, so it's important for the players to get some great youth competition. They get this playing and practicing for the youth national teams. It's not just a "meet and play the games" mentality, there's a lot of emphasis put on development of the players, this in part because they are expected to represent their countries in the future.

[Lakas Fan Yo]

Fair enough, i won't dispute that its rough on them considering injuries and fatigue.

From an international pov i will say though, that there's a huge cultural difference in competing for your country. It probably has something to with America being so big and the different parts being kind of disconnected. Euro competition, in whatever sport, is kind of like state teams competing against each other, only that Euro countries have a bigger cultural difference from each other than US states.

Also, a lot of the international players you see i basketball, especially the ones in the NBA, "owe" a great part of their development as players to the national youth programs.
The overall talent is not as great as in the US, so it's important for the players to get some great youth competition. They get this playing and practicing for the youth national teams. It's not just a "meet and play the games" mentality, there's a lot of emphasis put on development of the players, this in part because they are expected to represent their countries in the future.

Exactly. It's hilarious that Americans don't understand how important and tough the EuroBasket is. The EuroBasket is not even rated by Americans and you seem them compare it to the Americas.

The EuroBasket is actually a tougher tournament than the Olympics is. European championships are extremely competitive and important competitions. Europeans take the EuroBasket just as seriously, and perhaps even more seriously than they do the world championship or the Olympics.

Americans just can't seem to grasp it. But the fact is Europeans play the EuroBasket (which is tougher than the Olympics) every 2 years, plus the world championship (the best FIBA tournament there is) every 2 years, plus the Olympics (the one that gets the most media coverage because it's the Olympics) every 2 years.

Yet we are told by Americans that Team USA can simply show up once every 4 years to the third toughest tournament (the Olympics), win a gold and then "not care" about any other tournament and that automatically everyone else in the world must call them the best team.

Well FIBA already caught onto this gimmick and that is why they changed the rankings system so that no longer can the US be ranked #1 by doing this. The fact is that Team USA can't just show up once every 4 years to the third toughest tournament and be the best team.

They have to do more than that and just Americans and US media saying otherwise does not cut it anymore. You demand respect from everywhere else then you have to earn it. The bottom line is no one outside the US will consider Team USA the best team if they do not win the gold at the world championships and no matter what US media says otherwise that is a fact.