RIO OLYMPICS

[Donovan]

Why can they use professional basketball players?

In 1988 the IOC began allowing professional athletes to participate. They decided that excluding pro athletes made the games less interesting, less competitive and less fair. It also helped that the Olympics were big business by that point, with television rights fees, sponsorship money and similar sources of income. Having huge, marquee-level celebrity athletes brought in lots more money. There you have it - money.

There was also the point made that other countries were using professional athletes for years. They weren't playing team sports, but their only "job" was to train for Olympic competition. They did not want for food clothing or shelter, so basically their countries were paying them to compete.

BG said it, but also I think there was the issue of players who were starting to come here in larger numbers and were still allowed to go home and represent, while ours weren't. Add to that our very best athletes choosing to forego amateur status for earlier entry to the NBA and big money, and the writing was on the wall. Really guys like Kobe kinda knocked that first domino over in a lot of ways.