NBC Sports asked Dan Doyle to respond to five questions about the United States Olympic Men’s Basketball Team. Dan’s response to each question follows. The responses also appear on the NBC Sports Blog.
Question #1: The US Men's Hoops Team has been receiving a lot of attention for their seemingly new found change in attitude this time around. They have been praised for their sportsmanship and their behavior both on and off the court. Some think it is fantastic while others think that you shouldn't get extra credit for just acting like a normal decent person. Your thoughts?
Dan Doyle’s response:
In The Encyclopedia of Sports Parenting, I wrote a section entitled, Ten Reasons Why Your Athlete Must Adhere to High Standards of Behavior. Point #10 is as follows: Considerate behavior by an athlete toward others produces a disproportionate amount of goodwill, just as inconsiderate behavior by an athlete toward others produces a disproportionate amount of ill will.
Coach K and his staff have created an admirable culture of “selfless ambition”…everything for the good of the team. This culture has been reflected on and off the court, and has clearly helped to erase our tarnished hoops image abroad – not only as it relates to selfish play, but to immature behavior. Whether or not the American men win the Gold, I am proud of the way our team has performed in all respects. They have played like professionals and behaved like Olympians. I imagine that many of the forefathers of Olympic basketball, Oscar, West, Russell and Bradley to name a few, feel the same way.
In this case, extra credit is in order.
Question #2: The game of basketball seems to be growing in popularity in some areas of the world not known in the past for their basketball interest or success. Besides countries in this tournament like China and Mali, what are some countries that you have been to recently that might surprise our readers as having a love for and/or a new proficiency for basketball?
Dan Doyle’s response:
Let me answer this with four points, beginning with a country I visited nearly three decades ago:
· In 1979, my Trinity Men’s Basketball team became the first American team to travel to Cuba since the Revolution of 1959. We played the Cuban Men’s National team, and I also conducted a three-hour clinic with the Cuban Women’s National team. During the trip, I became convinced that as soon as the fundamentals of the game caught up with the considerable athleticism which abounds in countries like Cuba, that we would see much greater parity on an international scale. Obviously, parity has arrived on the men’s side, and will no doubt evolve on the women’s side in the next decade or two.
· In the 90’s, my Institute for International Sport initiated basketball projects in both Burundi and South Africa. Each project included sending American coaches and equipment to the countries, and bringing the National Men’s teams of both countries to the United States for an exhibition tour. With more teaching, facilities and strength enhancement equipment, Burundi, which is a land-locked country in Central Africa that has been overrun with violence between the Hutus and the Tutsis, could become a formidable presence on the international scene. Over the two year span we worked in Burundi in the early 90’s, our “Project Burundi” made considerable progress in this regard. Unfortunately, when the violence resurfaced, we had to shut down the project. That said, there was no doubt in my mind that this small African country could produce some world-class basketball players, particularly from the Tutsi population, which has an average height of about 6’7”.
Through our basketball project in South Africa in the late 90’s, I saw similar potential. Since we worked in South Africa, the sport has progressed quite well. I believe you will see this trend of improvement continue in South Africa.
· A key point to consider is that in many countries – including third-world countries – young players with potential are generally receptive to instruction on fundamentals, as they are diligent in their practice routines. In future Olympic Games, both our men’s and women’s teams will be challenged…which makes the competition all the more fun and meaningful. This reality suggests that we should stay on the track set by Jerry Colangelo; name the head coach and pick the American squad two or three years in advance of the Games, and develop 12 players into a true “team.”
· In the next decade or two, our chief rival, economically, technologically, and on the basketball court – will be China!
Question #3: What are your thoughts about NBA players (and other professionals) playing in the Olympics compared to the days of college kids only?
Dan Doyle’s response:
In the mid-70’s, I took my Kingswood-Oxford high school team to Europe. One evening in Spain, we attended a Real Madrid game. Real Madrid featured two terrific American players, Walter Szczerbiak, father of current NBA player Wally, and Gene Brabender, who had played at the University of Minnesota.
The game pitted Real Madrid against the Yugoslavian National team, starring the late Kresimir Cosic, who is now in the Basketball Hall of Fame. I sat with a Real Madrid executive, who explained that every player on the Spanish National team – as well as every player on the Yugoslavian National team – was a “paid professional”. It was during this conversation that I realized it would only be a matter of time before the Olympic basketball competition became open to all players, including NBA players.
As for the question of college players versus professionals, given the way that other countries have improved, all the while employing paid professionals, I do not believe that our college kids would stand a chance of even a Bronze medal. For that reason, and many others, I have no problem with NBA players competing in the Olympics – for the U.S. or other countries.
Question #4: As an career advocate of sportsmanship and good parenting in athletics, how has the parenting of young athletes changed for better or worse over the last few years?
Dan Doyle’s response:
Deb Doermann Burch and I spent nearly eight years writing The Encyclopedia of Sports Parenting to address this very important issue. We realized from the outset that there is much greater parental engagement than that which existed 15 to 20 years ago. A key objective of the book is to provide sports parents with a coherent philosophy that they can employ in dealing with a variety of issues. This includes the important issue of parent interaction with a coach, which is one of the biggest changes that has surfaced in the last two decades.
A core principle of the book is as follows:
On matters of playing time and strategy, parents should refrain from contacting the coach. By contrast, if it is a matter of ethics – or a medical issue – a parent not only has the right, but the obligation to interact with the coach.
The positive sports experience encompasses a child taking the journey toward self-reliance. When a problem surfaces, the good sports parent is one who acts as “counselor of wisdom” – guiding the child toward the solution, but allowing the child to work out the problem.
The intrusive sports parent – and there are far too many in American society – is the one who employs the “quick fix” but imprudent response of impulsively calling the coach to complain.
A wise sports parent is one who recognizes that the full sports experience is replete with lessons – both from success and failure. While it is difficult to quantify sports parenting improvement or regression, it is clear that responding proportionally to a problem is the mark not only of a leader…but of an effective sports parent.
Question #5: There are a ton of athletes, in a wide range of sports ,that are representing countries other than the countries that they were born in. Certainly there are many different stories and reasons for each athlete, but the basketball athletes (Chris Kaman, J.R. Holden and Becky Hammon) have received a lot of coverage. How do you feel about this?
Dan Doyle’s response:
I thought that Harvey Araton of the New York Times had it right about Becky Hammon when he wrote, ‘she is representing the Russian Basketball Federation, not the government that sent troops into Georgia, stirring old Cold War tensions on the eve of the Games.’
I believe that an American athlete has the obligation to always try to represent the United States in Olympic competition. But if the door is closed to an American Olympic team, as appears to be the case with both Becky and Chris Kaman of the Los Angeles Clippers, and if the athlete has fulfilled dual citizenship requirements, then I have no problem with the athlete making the only competitive choice available.
One possible future problem is that an increase in elite athletes with dual citizenship could conceivably cause bidding wars for their services on Olympic teams. Up to this point, I see no evidence of this occurring. If it does surface as a problem, the IOC could deal with it by establishing a “country of primary residency” rule, similar to what we do in the United States with respect to paying State taxes. This is why you see so many wealthy Americans living in Florida for six or more months!
I do feel that if an American citizen has grown up here, and enjoyed the many benefits of being an American, his or her first obligation is to play for America.
