What is with this attitude

[Brian Watson]

I buy the fact that more people in the world are playing the game than americans, but it will be a while before they play it better than us on a consistant basis.

Look at Hockey, Canadians were far superior for many, many years, now it is about 60-40 to the rest of the world in the NHL. Are there more non-canadians than canadians playing the game all over the world, yes. Are the non-canucks better at it, not yet.

We could probably repeat this argument over and over just substituting the sports and country names but these come to mind:

USA Track vs the world
Asian Volleyball vs the world
Soccer in Europe or South America vs the world
Rugby in Australia vs the world
Any russian or former russian country gymnast vs the world (although I only see this every 4 years, so it is a best guess).

This whole disagrement boils down to on thing - desire. I have no need or desire to ever work an international game. I think that is the main sticking point to the way Americans view the international game. It is not ugly americanism, just apathy. Tragic or MJ may have said those things, but I have to say the Olympics looked like a effort for the last few dream teams. I would say some flat out did not want to be there. The college kids used to love going because it was their spring board to a higher draft spot in the NBA. Now it is just work.