Norfolk Daily News Sports Blog

Becky Hammon is an American (she’s a native of Rapid City, S.D., in fact) who plays basketball for for the San Antonio Silver Stars of the WNBA, and in August she’ll be playing in the Olympics in Beijing.
And while she’ll be wearing red, white and blue, it won’t be the red, white and blue of Team USA.
Why?

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Because she’s going to play for the Russian team. She has no genealogical connection to Russia, but she’s played professional ball in Russia and was granted a Russian passport after signing with a team in Moscow over the winter. As far as the International Olympic Committee is concerned, that’s all that she needs to suit up for Russia.
But there are quite a few Americans crying foul, including Team USA women’s coach Anne Donovan. On a recent CNN interview, Donovan called Hammon a “traitor.”
But how could she be a traitor when Team USA never offered her a spot? In fact, despite the fact that Hammon has given 10 years of service to the WNBA and finished second in voting for the league’s MVP award last year, she was never invited to try out for the U.S. squad – until after she signed with Russia.
But for Hammon, the offer came too late.
Most kids dream of one day competing in the Olympics – albeit for their home country – but for most, those dreams never come to fruition. Hammon was given a chance to compete, and she took it.
And now she has to face the abuse of certain Americans whose own shortcomings cause them to lash out at her because she has made the same choice that most others would make – to be a part of one of the true spectacles of the sporting world. Their own views of patriotism and nationalism have blinded them to the athletic event that the Olympics are, and the idea that an American would compete for the once-hated Russians is incomprehensible.
Even today, when the demographics of professional sports have blurred international borders, and we no longer have a USSR vs. USA mentality in the Olympics, the sentiment is that an American competing for a non-American squad has somehow betrayed the country.
But that’s not the case.
The problem lies in the fact that Russia may actually contend for a medal – perhaps the gold – with Hammon in the lineup. Without her, that wouldn’t be likely. So now, she’s a traitor to coach who never wanted her in the first place.
“If you play in this country, live in this country and grow up in the heartland – and you put on a Russian uniform – you are not a patriotic person,” Donovan said.
But you, Anne Donovan, are not an American spokesperson.
So Becky Hammon decided she wanted to play for Russia.
Good for her.