Becky Hammon: Traitor or Just Living the Dream?
by Sarah

I was flying back from BlogHer in San Francisco on Monday when I saw a clip on ESPN (thanks for the tv's at each seat Virgin America) that floored me.

Becky Hammon, who was came in second in the MVP voting last year for the WNBA, felt slighted by the American Olympic Women's Basketball Team when a list of potential players was released without her name on it so she decided to play for the Russian Olympic Team.

Becky Hammon was born and raised in South Dakota.

I didn't even realize you could just change citizeship in order to play basketball in the Olympics. Sure she plays basketball in Russia in the WNBA off season, but still.

My visceral response as an American was disgust. How could she do this? Sure our country has had its share of embarrassments in the recent past and I may not agree with our government's policies all of the time but I am still an American. I cannot even fathom representing another country in the Olympics. (Not that I can imagine being in the Olympics, but you know what I mean.) And Russia? RUSSIA? Does she not remember the cold war?  Hasn't she seen Rocky IV?

Hammon insists that it is her dream to play basketball in the Olympics. She says that since the American team didn't seem to have any interest in her the next logical step to fulfill her dream was trying to get on the Russian team.

Consider this from Justine Larbalestier:

The coach of the US Olympic squad, Anne Donovan, has called her a traitor. Others have different views:
like how can Becky be a traitor when she was never asked to try out for
the US squad despite putting up MVP (most valuable player) numbers and
being one of the best guards in the world?

Athletes don’t have a long shelf life. Hammon’s already 31. She has at most
six or so playing years left. And then what? Earning as much as you can
while you can and saving it in preparation for the many, many years of
your life when you’re not playing is smart. Even if it means playing
for a country not your own.

Point taken. Becky Hammon isn't getting any younger. If she gets injured she may never get the opportunity to play in another Olympics. Her next chance wouldn't be for another four years.

Hazel from Right Fielders had this to say: 

...asserts that people wouldn’t be so upset about her decision if she
were playing for a country like Switzerland. In fact, a number of
American players play for other countries pretty routinely in the
Olympics.

Hammon’s case has attracted so much attention because she is a popular player and …. its Russia.

It comes down to age and money. She is 31-years-old and wasn’t
offered a spot on Team USA until after she had signed to play with
Russia. Also, Russia, the former Soviet Union, basically bought her.
She was offered $2 million to play for a professional team there on the
off-season here. They then fast-tracked her for citizenship which made her eligible to play on the Russian team. That’s a fine example of Capitalism coming right from the heart of Moscow.

So now I'm torn. I can accept the draw of $2 million dollars. I can see where an athlete might be willing to be open to alternate ideas in order to play in the Olympic Games.

This is a classic example of an opportunity cost.

What do you think – is Becky Hammon unpatriotic or a shrewd business person?

Basically Stacey from Hawkonomics and I have the same question for you: Is Becky Hammon a traitor or a strong woman making a decision that earns her fortune and fame?

 

 

Contributing Editor Sarah also blogs at Sarah and the Goon Squad and Draft Day Suit.

 

 

 

Submitted by Sarah (view blog) on Fri, 07/25/2008 - 13:44

Comments

 

Part of the trouble with all

Part of the trouble with all of this is the idea that someone would want to go against the almighty America.  Whether she's doing it for money, for Olympic Dream, for whatever, the fact is she is going to be playing for an enemy of America (even though the Cold War has finished and so on)  America struggles with that as a concept.  As a country, it is fine for the country not to want the individual, but for the individual not to want the country is nothing short of heresy.

But at the end of the day, the American Dream is about working hard for what you want and having a good life.  Which is clearly, what she plans on doing.  Maybe she has been bought, but that's the modern dream. 

 

Inside the heart of each and every one of us there is a longing to be understood by someone who really cares. When a person is understood, he or she can put up with almost anything in the world.
~ by Rev Ed Hird ~

Submitted by itwillallbefine on Fri, 07/25/2008 - 12:50
 

I think it's great

I think it’s great – if it is her ultimate goal to
participate in the Olympics and the US can’t offer the opportunity, why shouldn’t
she look elsewhere? And if she plays for
Russia anyway, it’s all the more justified.

We tend to elevate the Olympics to sacred levels. The Olympic arena is often depicted as a
place free from the tainted commercialism of professional sports where national
pride is personified through epic tales of the personal challenges, pain and triumph
of the athletes. When I watch the
Olympics (and trust me, I can be very cynical) I allow myself to indulge in the
sappy melodrama of it all. There was a
time when national boundaries seemed to matter more (1980 Winter Olympics, US hockey
team vs. USSR!) but in our ever growing global economy with increased access and
connectedness, the boundaries that tied
us so strongly to national identity are becoming blurred. Look at World Cup soccer - rarely are the
players actually indigenous to the countries they are representing.

The Olympics of course is a source of pride for all nations
who participate, but for the athletes it’s their greatest aspiration and
they should get there any way they can.

Submitted by MiriamAnton on Fri, 07/25/2008 - 13:26
 

I think it's in bad taste

I think it's in bad taste for Anne Donovan to call her a traitor when she didn't put Hammond on the US team in the first place. She created the situation.

I think that people are making too big of a deal out of this. Hammond is a talented athlete and has been given the opportunity to participate in the Olympics. Full stop. Had the US team taken her and Hammond turned the team down to play for Russia, that might be deserving of a different response. Why people are not capable of being happy for her (she is playing in the OLYMPICS, this isn't a game of school yard pickup where she got dissed by her friends and went to play for the other team). We should be encouraging people who are capable of playing at that level to be playing instead of sitting at home lamenting the fact that she was passed over by her home team. If anything, I think that's what people should be upset about.

Submitted by Samantha on Fri, 07/25/2008 - 13:36
 

Traitor is a strong word...

Aren't traitors people who turn against our country in times of war, selling secrets that eventually cost the lives of our soldiers and (at times) even civilians?  I hardly consider playing basketball for Russia in the Olympics a traitorous act.  I would say that it's maybe unpatriotic, but people have different definitions of patriotism anyway.  I say let her enjoy living out her dream while she can.

And hey, maybe the U.S. team will play even better now that they have some friendly (or not-so-friendly) competition. 

Submitted by laradavid on Sat, 07/26/2008 - 12:24
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