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Remember when the Olympic Games were all about the best amateur athletes in the world coming together to compete and to foster accord throughout the world?
Then the IOC (International Olympic Committee) decided it was okay to let professional athletes play in the games. It was all about ... let's all say it together ... the money!
The IOC had been allowing the paid pros from the USSR, a.k.a. the Red Army team, to compete in basketball and hockey against the amateur athletes from the other countries.
No one will ever forget the USA upsetting the USSR in hockey at the 1980 Winter Olympics. “Do you believe in miracles?!” cried ABC's Al Michaels.
In basketball, after sending our fuzzy-faced collegians against 30-year-old Red Army hoops veterans, the USA was finally allowed to send over the real thing - the stars of the NBA. Well, Michael Jordan and some of his friends emasculated the rest of the world.
And just like that, the Olympics have been dominated by multi-million-dollar track stars, swimmers, and pros in nearly every sport.
But here comes the straw that just might break the back of the IOC cash camel. Russia has recruited a WNBA player for their Olympic team this summer.
Her name is Becky Hammon and she is a 31-year-old blond hoopster from that traditional Soviet basketball hotbed of ... Rapid City, S.D. She is the prototypical all-American girl and grew up just down the road from Mt. Rushmore.
Becky played collegiately at Colorado State and now is with the WNBA's San Antonio team.
Under Russian rules, a player who has not played for another country internationally can become a naturalized citizen and play for their Olympic team.
Never mind that Becky doesn't speak Russian, has no ancestry there, and has never even been to Russia.
Team USA coach Anne Donovan is beside herself. “If you play in this country, live in this country, and you grow up in the heartland, and you put on a Russian uniform, you are not a patriotic person in my mind.”
While Donovan is outspoken in her derision of Hammon, several WNBA players have rushed to her defense, particularly in view of the fact that Becky was not invited to try out for Team USA.
Atlanta Dream forward Kristn Mann said, “Basketball is basketball. Let her play. Let her do what she loves to do.”
In an online poll, more than 57 percent of the voters said Hammon should be allowed to play for the Russians.
Hammon is not a big star in the pro game and is nearing the end of her career. One incentive for her to expose herself to this ridicule is the reported seven-figure paycheck the Russians are giving her to play for them.
Of course, there is a much larger question here.
Should countries be allowed to make up their own rules and recruit athletes from other countries to help them win medals?
It seems like a very unseemly way to win. Maybe the USA can buy a few Greco-Roman wrestlers, or trade a long jumper and a discus thrower - to be named later - for a couple of Chinese divers.
The IOC needs to put its foot down on these deals and say, “Nyet!”
Allowing Russia, or any other nation, to recruit professional athletes from other countries will destroy the games.
Unless Mt. Rushmore is planning on replacing the faces of Teddy Roosevelt and George Washington with Lenin and Stalin, this business needs stop right now.
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