Quote:
Originally Posted by Underdog
Speak for yourself when it comes to the players on Team USA representing American society. Most of the people in my life share an identity more akin to Dirk's than any of those ego-driven douchebags that are currently (mis)representing the United States. Maybe people like me aren't in the majority, but I'm still a product of this system, education, history, belief structure and society, and I see very little in common between me and those guys.
Plus, we're a country full of immigrants - that's what makes America so different from the rest of the world... Freely rooting for an adopted hometown hero is a uniquely American thing to do, and I choose to exercise that uniqueness.
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We like to think that we're more like this athlete or that athlete but that's sort of like a chicken saying it's more falcon than eagle. I doubt any of us are like Dirk. Not that many folks go overseas at 19 to become an international megastar at a foreign sport.. dude is a special cat.
All Dirk love aside, that's beside my original point. My point is our society gave us LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Kevin Love. We love individualism, celebrities and marketing the crap out of sneakers. We do 120M endorsement deals, reality TV and clock YouTube dunk clips a million views easy. Our society didn't produce Dirk for a reason. It did also produce the best overall basketball talent by far for a reason, too.
We all can say we don't relate to these mega mega basketball stars, who are even celebrities to their fellow Olympian athletes, but they do represent us (us meaning Americans, not necessarily every single American). Sort of like the way the President represents Americans, but not necessarily every American.
Not trying to come off more American or anything like that.. I'm just not sure I follow the logic. Think you could beef against who the USA basketball committee picked as national reps rather than beef against the people wearing the USA jersey themselves.