An Oversight of Olympic Proportion

Over the last six weeks as the NBA season slowly wrapped up in an  awe inspiring fashion we were eagerly waiting to see this crop of NBA all stars represent our Country in the Olympics.  Of course once the roster was revealed immediately we as the media and fans started second  guessing the roster. 

  My first thought was “what happened to the most exciting player last season , Trae Young . Or better yet Ja Morant or LaMelo Ball.” All 3 very exciting to watch and all have the ability to make players better. So why were they left off?  First before we address the elephant in the room let’s look at the Olympic team.  Kevin Durant, Damian Lillard, Jayson Tatum, Jerami Grant, Draymond Green , Zach Levine, Bradley Beal, and Kevin Love all round out the high profile players that makes up the meat of this team.  Some names that we were not so familiar with also were entrusted to bring a gold home back to the US. This includes Darius Garland (Cleveland Cavaliers drafted 2019), Saddiq Bey ( Detroit Pistons drafted 2020), John Jenkins ( last known NBA team Knicks 2019 drafted 2012), Josh Magette ( Orlando Magic undrafted 2012, Dakota Mathias ( Philadelphia 76ers , undrafted 2018) , Cameron Reynolds Houston Rockets undrafted 2018.  All players are very good but I list all the players to say this LaMelo, Trae or Ja was not on the squad. 

 Through the first 4 games  USA splitting it 2-2, I couldn’t help allowing myself to wonder would Nigeria been able to handle the explosive athleticism of Ja Morant on a fast break or would Australia be able to keep up with another round of precision full court passing from LaMelo Ball or how would Trae fair on the biggest stage in the world. Certainly he deserves to take a bow.  Not to question the great Coach Pop or the selection committee, they have always put together a team that will represent our country but why not Trae, Melo or Ja.

  I am possibly one of those basketball fans that were ruined by seeing the Dream Team and Redeem Team play in one lifetime. Maybe I was just overly exposed to Olympic Melo and Vince Carter dunking over a grown, competent Center. Maybe it’s my fault, after watching the world admire and fear USA basketball I expected them to put together the 15 best collection of killers that  can work in a cohesive manner.  Or maybe these guys may have something together, so just like Ja Morant, LaMelo Ball, and Trae Young  I will be watching from home as we look on to Tokyo. 

 While Young was named to the 57 man pool last March, Morant and Ball wasn’t even invited. The Hawks guard recently had a cryptic post on Twitter, showing a video of NBA legend Isiah Thomas explaining why he wasn’t named to the Dream Team. Young captioned it with a sad emoji and a USA flag. Of course Morant replied with the message “Keep working dawg”.  The snub was unexplainable, more importantly we all know that  all 3 future stars would have made this Olympic team damn near unstoppable. 

https://twitter.com/jamorant/status/1415804882192318466?s=21

Trae Young , LaMelo Ball and Ja Morant may have been left off Team USA for the Tokyo Olympics, but they’ll surely be center piece in future Olympics to come let’s hope they have a full roster of star talent.