Five-ring circus: The Thread of the XXXIII Olympiad

Rowdy Gains is Myron Cope’s secret love child.

 

Melbourne brings up the trippiest Olympic story I have:

I was litigating against someone who was a member of that 1956 Hungary Water Polo gold medal team (Blood in the Water fame, maybe most celebrated team ever). They defected en masse IIRC.

I asked him (he was 18 when they defected), "wow, how far ahead of the Olympics had you all decided to defect, one year? six months?"

His response "three days". ​

I was blown away, can you imagine being 18 and deciding in 3 days you'll never see your mom, dad, family ever again and move to a foreign country? (After the fall of the Iron Curtain, he did go back and see his parents).

 

BTW, Curry is due for a heater because going 1-9, 0-6 on 3s is hard to fathom, especially since the international line is closer than 24'9" (NBA line).

 

How are there not three random NBA players on there, or even a BIG3 all-star team made up of fairly recently retired NBA players? Do those guys just have no interest in it?

 

It’s all fun and games until Bob Bowman’s athletes are lumped into the SEC, since he coaches at Texas.

 

They could finish the whole tournament in three days with a single-elimination "who's next" format.

 

Singapore doesn't have the facilities to host the Asian Games, let alone the Olympics. Plus, Singaporeans are already moaning about foreigners flooding the city and straining the MRT to breaking point. If the IOC wants to insist on a Southeast Asian Olympics (and not just fudge it by counting Australia as Southeast Asia), you'd probably need a Singapore-Kuala Lumpur joint bid. Jakarta and Bangkok are floating out there, too, but the experience of the 2007 Asian Cup is probably enough to dissuade any serious pursuit of full-on regional hosting.

 

I guess the one problem I see with that, at least on the men's side, is a lack of spacing. The teams are pretty good at protecting the perimeter and forcing the guys to drive or take some mid-range shots.

 

BTW if Los Angeles 2028 doesn't have 3x3 out at Venice Beach, they're not doing it right.

 

BIG3 probably pays better. Fredette is the closest of the four to the credentials you'd expect for a U.S. Olympic basketball team, and even he's 34. The team doesn't have a 7-footer either. You do have to play in qualifying games to be eligible for the Olympic team in 3v3, but at least according to a CBS Sports article on the training camp, the invited names weren't especially inspiring.

"The men's 3x3 training camp was held in February, and the list of attendees included Travis, Fredette, Barry, Maddox, Trey Bardsley, Henry Caruso, Glen Dandridge Jr., Mitch Hahn, Justin Hamilton, Khalil Iverson, Jalen Lecque, Jeremy Lieberman, Trey McGowens, James Parrott, Klaye Rowe and Bryce Wills."

 

I'm wondering if they need to go younger, G-League guys, guys in the G-League Ignite program, kids in the Overtime Elite program. At least they can get those kids NIL deals to fill their pockets and make it worth their while.

But part of me also believss that there's a good chance 3x3 expands into possibly becoming an intercollegiate sport and eventually even expands as a high school sport.