Will FIBA follow the example of FIFA?

[LOUIS 26]

http://www.telegraph...-23-format.html

London 2012 Olympics: burnout fears spark NBA idea of Games basketball using football's under-23 format

The NBA wants to pull basketball's top players out of future Olympic Games and model the competition on the under-23 format used in football.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the original United States 'Dream Team', the squad featuring Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird that won gold in Barcelona in the first year NBA players took part, a team widely credited with helping spark the global popularity of the sport.

The game's biggest stars – including Team GB's Luol Deng – are in line to play at the London Olympics this summer, but it could be the last Games in which they feature.

Plans floated by commissioner David Stern and his deputy Adam Silver at a press conference on Wednesday night ahead of the draft lottery would see Olympic basketball transformed in to a youth tournament, because of fears over player burnout.

Silver said: "Owners have raised repeatedly the issue of our players playing in essence year round when you add the Olympics to our newly renamed World Cup of Basketball (formerly the FIBA World Championship).

"So when you have the Olympics, the World Cup of Basketball, we are taking a very close look at whether it makes sense from an NBA standpoint and a global basketball standpoint for the top players to be playing at that level on a year-round basis, and somewhere [every] summer."

Silver said the NBA is planning talks with USA Basketball and FIBA following the London Olympics to discuss the matter.

Olympic football squads are made up of under-23 players, with a maximum of three 'over-age' players in the group.

[intoronto 650]

The funny thing is less then 50 NBA players play at the Olympics so I don't see why that would be an issue. + playing at the Olympics is voluntary.

[bomberguy 13]

Terrible idea. Would hate it if it happened. Selfish idea from the NBA Commissioner.

[Quaker2001 1243]

It won't happen. The NBA's presence in the Summer Olympics obviously isn't close to what the NHL's in the Winter Olympics is, but why do this when the squad that's going to get hurt the most will be the United States? The Olympics have long since passed the point of amateurism.. let it be about the best athletes in the world, professional or otherwise. And if some NBA players decide they want to rest over the summer because they don't have it in them to commit to the national team, I don't think we should hold that against them.

[MrCatra 7]

Not happening. It's mainly a USA thing. nba'ers from other countries would still participate, anyway, if FIBA decided to implement such rule, which they wont ever do, the IOC would just take basketball out of the Olympics, like they did with basebore due to of course being boring as hell but also by not having any stars playing in the Olympics.

[Texas 20]

Maybe having Olympic Basketball be under 23 will mean that the United States Women's team will actually lose a game in the Olympics for once.

[LOUIS 26]

Mystery solved... It 's all about money,,,

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/22/sports/basketball/twenty-years-later-dream-teams-legacy-endures.html?src=mv&ref=sports

"Twenty years after the Dream Team lit the global basketball torch, Stern suddenly seems less enthusiastic about the Olympics, more interested in a World Cup of basketball that would make money for the N.B.A. and FIBA. Based on some recent comments by Dwyane Wade and Ray Allen, the players would agree, assuming they get their share."

[MrCatra 7]

It's always about money. But the FIBA world cup will never be as 1/5 as important as the bball in the olympics.

[LOUIS 26]

Kobe: David Stern's idea 'stupid'

http://www.google.gr/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CEsQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcontent.usatoday.com%2Fcommunities%2Fgameon%2Fpost%2F2012%2F07%2Fkobe-calls-david-sterns-idea-stupid%2F1&ei=QOoGUMTYE8forAf92KCmBg&usg=AFQjCNE7rtN56M6x3QP9aR16SAzdsSfY8g