I'm so flabbergasted. Like, there are so many thousands of players from major collegiate programs who don't get drafted into the NBA, play a couple of years overseas, and then are done ... why aren't they interested in a run at a gold medal? Just like Jimmer ... take 6 months to learn the new rules and train with a new ball, play in the qualifiers, and go get your gold medal. Why isn't this super popular with these former collegiate all stars?
I mean, just using former BYU greats who are no longer playing anywhere (that I know of), we could have a team of:
- Jimmer
- Yoeli Childs
- Jake Toolson
- Elijah Bryant
I feel like that team is way more talented than what the USA is putting out right now (except for Barry ... he's been great. And no surprise, he was SEC 6th man of the year). I mean, why is Travis and Maddox the best we've got? Why isn't Yoeli, Bryant, Jake, Mika—and all the other former great players at 300+ Division 1 teams trying out for this? You also get paid ... Unrivaled, the new upstart women's 3x3 league claims to want to pay $120K per player. Big 3 was paying 10K per game (and how many games at these tournaments?). So why isn't this more popular?