I have been a fan of sports since I was born and have watched the Olympics specifically since 2004 in Athens, Greece. I have kept up with athletics longer than I have basketball believe it or not.
And I’m not a pool of experience when it comes to history tied in with sports, but I don’t think there’s been a time (excluding the war years) where people have been so reluctant to go to the Olympics.
With the water purity in Brazil that ESPN and US National media jumped on and now the Zika virus, some people are going into the Olympics with skepticism.
The only reason I talk about this is because Team USA Basketball have spoken on the reluctance. But yet, people go in as planned. I guess the water and Zika isn’t as bad. Just recently Damian Lillard has been added to the 2016 USA team.
“I recently received a call from Damian, and during our conversation he expressed his desire to be considered for the U.S. Olympic Team and to remain involved with the USA National Team in the future as well,” said Jerry Colangelo, who has served as the managing director of the USA Men’s National Team since 2005. “Both Mike (Krzyzewski) and I feel like Damian is playing at a very high level and that he should be added to our list of Olympic finalists. Damian has been a member of the USA National Team since 2014, and he participated in National Team training camps in 2013 and 2014, so he does have equity in USA Basketball, which is always important to me.“
Now you can consider this a consolation prize for being snubbed for the All-Star Game, I don’t think Lillard does. But it’s definitely a good thing. Whether he’ll be in the final roster remains to be seen. The USA team are not struggling to find elite point guards. But I’m sure Lillard will take this seriously and hold his own.
Personally I just hope the Olympics happen at this point with all the news going around.
