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hoop_head wrote:You snooze, you lose. The USA women's team should have locked up her services long before the Russian team signed her to play. Traitor? Too stong a word for something like this.

By now, everyone has heard the story of Becky Hammon of the WNBA's San Antonio Silver Stars. She's the best basketball player - male or female - ever to play at Colorado State University.
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Later this summer, she will be wearing red - minus the white and blue - when she plays in the Beijing Olympics for the Russian national team. According to coach Anne Donovan of USA Basketball, that pretty much makes Hammon "Benedict Becky."

But let's get a few things straight before we try to reconvene Sen. Joseph McCarthy's committee on un-American activities.

First of all, this was not Hammon's idea. Like most young basketball players, Hammon grew up very much wanting to play for Team USA. After the 2007 WNBA season, it looked like that would be a pretty sure thing. That season, Hammon averaged 18.8 points per game and led the WNBA in assists with five per game. She was named first-team all-WNBA. She finished second in MVP voting after leading San Antonio to its first playoff appearance in five years.

After being named to the 2007 West all-star squad, Hammon became only the second player in WNBA history to earn a starting spot on both the East and West teams during her career.

Then, in April, when USA Basketball announced the 23 players it was inviting to try out for the 2008 U.S. Olympic team, Hammon's name was not on the list.

Huh?

In the (blind) eyes of USA Basketball, Hammon was not one of the 23 best American female basketball players out there. Imagine the men's team officials (if he were American instead of Canadian) leaving Steve Nash off a similar list.

Who's making these decisions and what have they been smoking?

"They have their reasons," Hammon said cordially, "and I'm OK with that. It's a tough process and a tough decision. There are a lot of great players out there."

Even after the list came out, Hammon, who had just weeks earlier began the process of becoming a naturalized Russian citizen (so she could more easily move about the region while playing for the CSKA team in Moscow during the WNBA's offseason) had her agent contact Team USA officials - more than once - to make absolutely sure she was not wanted by the home team. Once it became evident that that was indeed the case, she signed on with the Russian national team. At age 31, it likely was her last chance to play in the Olympics.

The amazing thing here is that Team USA officials, including Donovan, acted stunned, calling Hammon's decision "unimaginable" and saying it was something she never ever could do.

"I'm the ultimate, ultimate patriot," Donovan told the media. "For me, it's about this country."

Apparently Donovan and other Team USA officials, the ones that caused this controversy with their hideous decision in the first place, expected the WNBA's best point guard to spend the Olympic break parked on her couch in San Antonio waving her miniature American flag, chanting "USA, USA!"

Someone needs to point out to Donovan and the rest of the group that loyalty is a two-way street. Given the circumstances, who can really blame Hammon for taking the opportunity presented to her?

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play in the Olympics," Hammon said, calmly. "I walk through the doors that are open for me."

In some ways, times have changed. Walls - and iron curtains - have come down. International competition no longer is a heated battle of ideologies. In most international team competitions, players who are teammates on professional clubs in North America often are on opposite sides when it's country vs. country.

In other ways, things haven't changed. Apparently on the women's side of Team USA, it's still all about who jumps highest, not who has the most consistent jump shot. This old way of thinking doomed the men's "Dream Teams" of the recent past, and it will end up hurting the women's program at some point, too. Eventually they'll figure out that putting together the best team requires having the league's best team player.

As for Donovan's questioning Hammon's loyalty to her country?

"My patriotism has never been defined by 94 feet of hardwood," Hammon told me. "It was always a dream of mine to play for my country, and it's taken me this long to realize that's not going to happen. The Olympics are something that bring countries together, that we all have in common, so I'm trying to highlight that."