Is a Gold Medal in the Olympics Still Worth the Effort for a NBA Superstar?
The question of whether to play in the Olympics or not is something that some of the NBA's elite have to tangle with every four years as they choose between pursuing Olympic Gold or using that time rest for the upcoming season.
The biggest name in the business, Lebron James, has been told that he will have a spot on the 2016 Olympic Men's Basketball roster if he wants it, but the King has been non committal and may not decide until after this upcoming season.
But the bigger picture question for me is whether or not the pursuit of Olympic Gold is worth the risk of injury or fatigue.
We saw Pacers star Paul George get seriously injured a year ago and even though it was a freak injury and first of its kind for USA Basketball, it could happen again, regardless of the probability, it could be super costly to a NBA franchise.
Personally, I hold a NBA Championship, Super Bowl Title, even a MVP award more so than Olympic Gold. It's not me being non patriotic, its me being a homer for pro sports and more relevancy to me.
Not only is it a event that continues to be riddled with controversy, I find those other events to be more popular and for me, popularity a lot of times drives the importance meter in my opinion.
Plus, outside the NBA guys, the rest of the folks are good stories, but rarely a superstar. I think if there were more superstars the importance of the medals across the board would be more significant too.
The kicker to it all, when I found out the medals are actually just gold plated medals and not fully gold, I realized the Olympics just weren't on the same barometer as the aforementioned accomplishments.
So to answer my original question, no, I don't think it is worth the effort for the NBA superstars to pursue gold. I'd prepare for the NBA season with more rest and not risk my teams chances of being without me.