Report: Dwyane Wade has yet to decide if he will play for Team USA
Despite injuries to Derrick Rose and Dwight Howard, Team USA will still be bringing plenty of talent to the London Olympics. If any more players suffer injuries or back out, however, things could get a bit hairy. With guys like Dwyane Wade not yet willing to give a 100 percent commitment, head coach Mike Krzyzewski and team chairman Jerry Colangelo have to be getting a bit concerned.
According to NBA.com’s David Aldridge, Wade is planning to let his body dictate whether or not he joins Team USA this summer.
“I told them, I said, listen, I’m just going to see how I feel,” Wade said last week. “This is about being healthy — I think, for all of us, going into the summer healthy — and taking it from there.”
While that does not mean Wade plans to sit the Olympics out, he’s taking a different tone from LeBron James, who seems like he fully intends to play. When asked about Wade’s indecisiveness, Colangelo seemed like he was caught off-guard.
“You could, today, probably come up with 10 or 11 that look pretty solid unless something happens,” he told Aldridge over the phone. “Wade’s one of those guys, but if he feels like he doesn’t have anything left or doesn’t think he can go, then we’ll make a decision as to who replaces him. We do have a lot of flexibility because we have guys who can play so many positions.”
Team USA remains loaded with talent and can still count on LeBron, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, Russell Westbrook, and many others, but at the moment it feels like players who were once considered shoe-ins are either on the shelf or on the fence. If the trend continues, Coach K and company may have to dig a bit deeper than they initially expected.
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I believe D. Wade is smart to take a wait and see approach before comitting to the Olympics.
I also believe we should compensate all olympians for representing us and the US in the Olympics. This ia a fair way to compensate everyone.
There is probably no fair way to pay olympians. How do you pay millionairs like basketball players and pay amateurs like volleyball players. Thousands of dollars may be a windfall for amateurs but peanuts for professionals. Plus if one of the professionals gets hurt he/she is risking a lot more than an amateur would be risking if doing an apples to apples comparision.
So one way to compensate everyone evenly is to grant every olympian a 25% break in his/her taxes for one of the years between the year they competed and the next Olympic year. The athlete gets to choose the year.
If the athlete wins bronze the the tax break would 50%
If silver then 75%
If gold then 100% of one years earnings how ever earned.
If mulpiple medals are won the athlete get to choose the highest medal.
This way, as a country we show appreciation for representing us, and we offer some compensation for the effort. Plus we offer at least something in the way of a hedge in case of injury.
This way also offers incentive for excellence. Because the higher medals often mean longer competitions; this is a way to address that as well. We can compensate these athletes based on what they are already earning without coming out of pocket directly.
