Olympics Thread

[PShabi]

Kaman has never set foot in Germany. He doesn't speak the language. He's 3 generations removed. He said he won't play for Germany again unless Dirk does. He's treating it like Free Agency basically because "it beats summer league with the rookies."

I copy/pasted the follwing passage from a post on espn.com. It basically sums up my feelings and I didn't have to type it out:

1) Someone who was born and/or spent some/all childhood in one country, but has lived in another since. To me, these people deserve every right to choose which country to represent.

2) Someone like JR Holden or Hakeem Olajuwon or even Becky Hammond who has an established presence living and working in a country other than the one they were born and raised in. I've got no problem with this one either. In fact, Andrei Kirilenko made a good point - Holden has probably spent more time in Russia than he has over the last seven years.

3) Someone who emigrates from one country to another with one of the major motivators being the ability to represent the "new" country. This one is sort of questionable, but so long as that person is spending a good deal of time training/living there, I can be OK with that too.

4) Stuff like the Kaman deal. Come on, he had never been to Germany before joining the team - didn't really train there and definitely has never lived there, just sort of hitched to the wagon in time for the last-minute qualifier in Athens earlier in the summer. I don't see how being three generations removed from actual German citizens and never even visiting the country makes you immediately qualified to represent said country.