Becky Hammon is a traitor

[jaybird2001wi]

WNBA All-Star Becky Hammon - an American-born player - will be joining the Russian Olympic basketball team for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

I just can't believe a person of her playing status (she is a good player) is deciding to be a traitor to our country to join another Nation's team and compete against her native country is downright shocking. I am at a loss and it will be awkward to see. It is one thing for American coaches to coach other nation's team (wasn't it Del Harris or Don Nelson who coached the Chinese team?) but a player deciding to do this is outrageous. Hammon is like the WNBA's Jason Kidd and I would imagine there would be some controversy if he ever decided to join another nation's Olympic team.

[Katuluu]

Like Alex Rodriguez playing for the Dominican Republic?

[jaybird2001wi]

Katuluu, ARod is of Cuban descent I believe. But this kind of irks me in a way. I am one of the very few people who takes a very mild interest in the WNBA (only because of Sue Bird and Lauren Jackson, but that is a whole other deal) and Hammon is one of those great players of the WNBA.

[And That]

I have trouble getting worked up about women's Olympic basketball.

[Fatter than Joey]

It's the WNBA and the Olympics... I'm pretty sure the world will keep spinning. The Cold War is over, Nikita Krushchev can't hurt us any more.

 

As a side note -- Do you guys remember that video by Elton John "Nikita" -- I wonder if people ever told him Nikita is a dude's name.

[homer]

Do you guys remember that video by Elton John "Nikita" -- I wonder if people ever told him Nikita is a dude's name.

 

Uh, it's Elton John - pretty sure he knew that going in.

[RU Rah Rah]

I thought that you had to have some kind of birth or parental tie if you wanted to play for another country, but, apparently not. It's just weird to me that you would want to represent another country (unless you had serious "adoptive" feelings for it, but then you would switch citizenship).

[Fatter than Joey]

I think it's like wrestling now, where if you change your inflection to a deeper tone, and speak broken English, and wear a red unitard, you can join the Russians.

[homer]

Or she just really wanted to play in the Olympics.

 

Was that dude in Murderball a traitor for going to coach the Canadian wheelchair rugby team?

[Fatter than Joey]

They have wheelchair rugby?

[Katuluu]

They have wheelchair rugby?

?Your life is so incomplete.

[stoops17]

if her dream is to play in the olympics and usa basketball didn't work out, more power to her

[RyDogg66]

Could she play for the US team? If not, then why the gripe? Also, I rarely see people here getting upset when a foreign born player who has US Citizenship decides to play for the US in the Olympics.

[whizkid]

Nikita is like Robin, either a male or female name. Not that Homer isn't right but the interest in the video is definitely female.

[jwill535]

Former UW player Mike Wilkinson plays for the Macedonian national team. He was granted citizenship to play for them.

[Fatter than Joey]

Nikita is like Robin, either a male or female name.

 

I think in Russian it's specifically used for dudes.

[whizkid]

Yeah, but there's no indication in the lyrics that Nikita is Russian. The song appears to be about a guard at the Berlin wall in which case Nikita could have been Slavic in which case it's a female name.

 

 

[Jimbo]

I thought that you had to have some kind of birth or parental tie if you wanted to play for another country, but, apparently not. It's just weird to me that you would want to represent another country (unless you had serious "adoptive" feelings for it, but then you would switch citizenship).

I think you're allowed to go back to your grandparent's citizenry.

[cweber39]

I have trouble getting worked up about women's Olympic basketball.

 

Very much agreed

[bigredrobbo]

Oh for goodness sake, it's not like selling secrets to the enemy. Unless she knows the secret of how to make women's basketball, or any basketball, come to think of it, remotely compelling to me.

 

That'd be worth something, I think...

[sgtcluels]

Maybe she's actually a double agent, and she's getting secrets from the Russian government!

[And That]

Russia was so like 30 years ago, and 20 years from now. This isn't traitorous, so much as in poor taste. Poor taste in relation to women's Olympic basketball, that is. I'm not sure what the taste scale on that is.

[trwi7]

She's hot, she can do whatever she wants.

[marquettefan13]

Personally I don't see an issue with it. If she wants to play in the Olympics and this is a way for her to do it, I say go for it. I didn't realize that she would be eligible to play on the Russian team though.

Two WNBA notes here - congrats to UW's Jolene Anderson who was drafted in the second round by the Connecticut Sun today (find it interesting that they play their home games in a casino) and there will be an exhibition game between the Chicago Sky and Indiana Fever on Sat. May 3rd at the Al McGuire Center on Marquette's campus.

[brettac1]

She's hot, she can do whatever she wants.

 

My thoughts exactly.