Becky Hammon is going to appear in the Olympics in the Women's Basketball Tournament, where she might well assist in scoring the gold for her team. The North Dakota Native and current point guard for the San Antonio Silver Stars will not, however, be playing for the American Womens Basketball team. Don't ask me why, just read this Wikipedia article and see if you can figure it out. I sure as hell can't.
At any rate, she is instead playing for Russia, and might possibly play in the semi-finals or for that matter the championship game against the American team. She hopes that doesn’t happen, she claims, but if it does, she will play to win.
I’m going to be cheering for her. Although she did not make the American team, she did make the attempt. The Russians accepted her, and she has been among the most consistently good all around player and highest scorer for the team, which stands now at four wins with just one loss. Unfortunately, she has also been the subject of speculation and controversy. The manager of the American Women’s team went so far as to accuse her of being “unpatriotic”.
Coach Anne Donovan, one of the most decorated figures in women's basketball and coach of the 2008 United States Women's Olympic Basketball team said concerning Hammon's decision, "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."
Yes, seriously folks. So much for international dialogue and understanding.
Naturally, if Hammon played for most other teams, she would not be the subject of such unreasonable diatribes. If she were playing for some teams-Georgia comes to mind for some strange reason-many of these same people might even applaud her.
Bottom line, the girl just wants to play basketball in the Olympics. This is not Jane Fonda encouraging American soldiers to lay down their arms. This girl just wants to be an important part of an international event. At over thirty years of age, this might well be her last chance. Who is anybody to begrudge her? She is playing basketball, not selling American national security secrets. If she wanted to do that, she would first have to get hold of some to sell. She wouldn't need to go to the Olympics to do that. Her time would be better spent at home on the computer, surfing through Craig's List-or E-Bay.
NATO does not have a right to push itself into Russia’s face to begin with, while simultaneously interfering, or trying to, in internal Russian affairs, with George Bush and Dick Cheney consistently acting as the ferocious little lap dog of the Euro elites from Belgium, Germany, and Austria-the true Axis of Evil. Putin and Medvedev both, of course, see their rhetoric for what it is worth. Don’t look now but those two mutts barking like Dobermans look suspiciously like fox terriers on closer inspection.
It could be worse of course. Rumor has it that upon first hearing news of the Russian invasion of Georgia, while attending the Olympic Games in Beijing, Bush initially gave orders for elite crack teams of Rangers, Seals, and Green Berets to pave the way for the liberation of Atlanta.
Strangely, the Olympics seem to have failed in one of its primary missions, that of putting politics aside for a brief time. Becky Hammon is an American, but let us be abundantly clear on this matter. Neither she, nor any American, owes any loyalty whatsoever to NATO, which should go the way of the Dodo bird.
The best place for the heads of NATO might well be the London Zoo, where people can walk by their contained eco-system and watch them strut around and beat their chests while the rest of us throw fruit to them. Maybe if we wait long enough we can watch them vomit and then proceed to lick it back up off the ground.
Since that joyful day is unlikely to come even on some symbolic level in our lifetimes, we can at least applaud Becky Hammon’s determination not to allow their pretentious, bellicose saber rattling to get it the way of her goals. You go, girl.
And, as an extra special treat for all my fellow unabashed sexists-
7 comments:
This is not a big deal. She just wants a medal of some type.
That's very true, Beak, plus those medals are worth in most cases six-figures via endorsements and contracts. She stands to make one hundred thousand dollars, at least, if her team wins.
That coach and others like her have their nerve to criticize her decision to play for Russia after denying her the opportunity to play, which they did for no valid reason that I can see. She has been consistently among the top players of the WNBA and has even won MVP awards, one as recently as two years ago.
I guess she just didn't have the right pull to make the team, is the only thing I can figure out. Fine, but they should just shut the fuck up about her. If anything is an embarrassment to America, they are, not her.
I know personally Adnon Kaissey, who was Iraqi, and wrestled in the Olympics for Greece. Iraq didn't have a wrestling team.
According to Adnon, when he wrestled as a pro in Iraq, Saddam told him he better beat Andre the Giant, or Andre will die. Adnon went through several writers, trying to get his bio published. His stories were garnished to say the least.
Adnon lives in Minneapolis.
Ren, you were some kind of promoter, right? That's interesting. You ought to interview Adnon for your blog, about life in Iraq and stuff.
When he was promoting his bio, he told people, he'd work for the US as a translator. He was offered a $200,000/yr job, to return to Iraq. He turned it down.
Adnon "embellishes" his stories. I heard his family is angry at home, for all the stories he made up about them in his book.
He was an Olympian, representing another country, and had no problems.
I'm sure you'll let us know when the Playboy layout comes out.
She's from SOUTH Dakota.
Well, hell, we got Russkie, Alexander Artemev on the Men's Gymnastic Team. So waht ?
Athletes, especially Olympic athletes, have a very limited window of opportunity. This chick was just doing what she had to do to get in one more game.
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