I played on my college badminton team. What they did was complete BS, and not something you'd have seen at any competitive level (other than the Olympics).

It's a bunch of BS. If they lost, China had better odds of getting 2 medals because their two teams wouldn't have met until the final vs semi-final.

I would have respected him more if he said we would have been shot or sent to the gulag (yes i know it is Russian) if we won.

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love this interview

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USA 156, Nigeria 73.

Reason #463 why I hate the effing olympics.

Did people know nationalism was a French invention? All you Olympics bimbos are secret Frenchmen.

Pinheads.

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Do you not enjoy American Domination?

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No.

1. Founder's idea for modern Olympics was to emphasize individual excellence, wherever it might come from.
2. Olympics were designed to be amateur excellence. The USA lost any moral high ground it might have had with the original "Dream Team." "Everyone else does it" is NEVER a justification, IMO.
3. I understand the reality that made Olympic medalling part of the Cold War between East and West. Even if that was justifiable then, the Cold War has been over for 20+ years.
4. Nationalism and patriotism are not the same thing. Nationalism is the single worst idea of the modern world. By far. Communism and fascism, much as I despise their ideas, compete for a very distant second place. There is not a single case of either that was not made far worse with the playing of the "national interest" card. Same goes for imperialism, colonialism, or any other -ism you might think of.
5. I think the American system of limited government and more-or-less free markets is the single greatest set of innovations in human history. Even with the way we have effed things up since WWII, there's no place better to live IMO. But part of that greatness is that it hasn't been primarily about domination. Its about being all you can be, it's about dealing with each other in ways that are mutually beneficial. Amateur athletics, individual athletics -- these should not be about domination, but about excellence.

It's one thing for a team to dominate other teams at the line of scrimmage. It's one thing for an athlete to be able to say "I'm the best in the world." It is a far different thing for a nation to say "we can beat the crap out of anyone."

IMO.

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Oh so you're mad they ran the score up. I get it.

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I think the score was run up because of the whole this years team vs Dream Team chatter. I think without that chatter, the score doesn't get run up.

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Just watched on ESPN they were debating the game. They said they stopped taking fast breaks, they benched the starters by halftime (i mean it's not like there is much of a dropoff but yea), they waited until the end of the shot clock to shoot. It's not like they went all out to run up the score, based on the highlights i've seen the nigerians were barely even trying, jogging around, leaving guys completely wide open. I mean, it comes to a point where if they aren't even going to attempt to stop you, then you can really only slow it down so much. 71% for 3's. A percentage that high only proves there was literally no defense.

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Running the score up was just a symptom.

My bigger problem is with the entire "Dream Team" concept. There's no doubt in my mind that the best of the NBA are going to be the best players in the world. And that if they get hot, etc., this kind of one-sidedness is going to happen. That "best players in the world" is the reason that, as professionals they make tens of millions of dollars a year. It's the same reason the pro tennis players in the Olympics get paid what they do.

But, again, the Olympic ideal is not "best professional." It is "best amateur."

Or at least it used to be.
Ul
Or at least that used to be America's position. Everyone knew the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc cheated. But we were supposed to be different.

But we're no more entitled to Olympic gold than Kruschkhev, Brezhnev, Ulbricht, Hoenecker, and Ceaucescu.

We're just a bunch of spoiled rich kids able to afford Tiffany, Rolex, and Hennessy Paradis.

And I effing hate spoiled rich kids, especially wrapped up in the flag.

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