Basketball at the Olympics: The dream tournament

Aug 15th 2012, 16:21 by J.K. The Economist http://www.economist.com/blogs/gametheory/2012/08/basketball-olympics

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which team owners would surely restrict the participation of their biggest stars. Commercially, too, a World Cup unhampered by club-imposed restrictions would attract bigger audiences and sponsorship revenues.

This assumes, of course, that players go along with the plan. When asked about the Olympic under-23 proposal, players in London were not keen. As long as the Olympics represent the premier international competition in top players’ minds, alternatives will struggle to gain traction. The legend of the Dream Team looms large.

Of course, NBA owners are not shy about standing up to players, as they proved during acrimonious negotiations over a new labour agreement last year. For this reason, changes to Olympic basketball should be expected, if not in time for 2016 then shortly thereafter. And even if the Basketball World Cup flops at first—a distinct possibility, given the ill will that an Olympic age restriction might generate among the current crop of players—the NBA will not be affected at home, so team owners will not lament its failure. For fans, however, the potential loss of a vibrant international competition is galling, especially as other countries slowly but surely catch up with America (thanks in part to the internationalisation of NBA rosters).

A bona fide World Cup is ultimately in the interest of everyone in the game, as football makes clear. Even so, basketball’s domination by a single league and its complicated relationship with the Olympics will make the transition difficult, and fallow years for international competition may lie ahead as players, clubs, leagues and associations work out their differences. The birth of the football World Cup was protracted and messy, in part due to conflicts between football’s international governing body and the Olympics. The NBA’s push for changes to Olympic competition, so far conducted via the media, is only the opening salvo in what could become a long-running battle over the nature of international competition. Basketball’s growing global popularity is a boon, but with it comes the less appealing features recognisable to any football fan, not least the tiresome bickering between club and country.