Acpevans' BLE 4 Blog: After This Summer, The NBA Doesn't Want To Send Its Players To The Olympics

2012年6月20日水曜日

After This Summer, The NBA Doesn't Want To Send Its Players To The Olympics

Olympic basketball will no longer include NBA stars like LeBron James

This year's summer games in London are in all likelihood the last time the U.S. Olympic basketball team will be made up of NBA superstars, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports.

For the use of its most marketable players, the league office and many NBA owners are determined to create a financial partnership with FIBA for a World Cup that would allow the NBA to significantly share in the windfall of revenues.

NBA Commissioner David Stern has hinted at changing the Olympic USA Basketball squad to be one comprised of players who are 23 years old or younger at some point in the future. Sources tell Wojnarowski that the switch is coming soon, however.

This is how FIFA members fill out their Olympic teams, while sending the best pros to the World Cup every four years.

Of course, the difference here is that unlike in soccer where FIFA controls everything, the NBA has significantly more power than FIBA. Therefore, it can run a "World Cup of Basketball" to its liking with revenues split in its favor.

It can even go as far as what MLB has done with the World Baseball Classic, where a whopping 66 percent of total revenues go to MLB and its players.

It's yet another move by Stern to please the NBA team owners who pay his salary.

But it completely ignores the sentiments from certain players who are ecstatic about being able to represent their country at the Olympics.

Then again, the additional revenues generated may be enough to appease any concerns.