Here's why NBA titles trump gold medals, despite what Olympians say
A few of the NBA players in Rio are apparently getting caught up in the excitement of representing their country in this summer's Olympics. Because while winning a gold medal is certainly a noteworthy accomplishment, it doesn't come close to the difficulty level of winning an NBA title -- especially for the guys playing for Team USA.
Carmelo Anthony was the first to weigh in on how impressive he thinks his gold medal achievements have been, though his comments were relatively tame on the subject.
"Most athletes don't have an opportunity to say that they won a gold medal, better yet three gold medals," Anthony said, in an interview with ESPN. "I would be very happy walking away from the game knowing that I've given the game everything I have, knowing I played on a high level at every level: high school, college, won [a championship at Syracuse] in college and possibly three gold medals."
Carmelo Anthony (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Kyrie Irving took things a step further, equating a gold medal with an NBA championship and then doubling down on that controversial stance.
“There was a statement released earlier that I thought that an NBA championship and a gold medal was the same thing," Irving said, in a video he posted to Snapchat. "What’s great about that is that it’s my opinion, meaning that I, personally, feel that way. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks about it."
Kyrie Irving (Jeff Haynes/NBAE via Getty Images)
DeAndre Jordan saw those remarks and raised them, by going all-in with the take that winning an Olympic gold medal is a more impressive achievement than earning an NBA title.
It is indeed a special accomplishment. But it doesn't come close to what it takes to win an NBA championship.
The Olympics are played over a period of a couple of weeks, and in order to win gold in basketball, all that is required is three medal round victories. Getting into the medal round following pool play isn't all that difficult, either -- eight of the 12 teams make it, and Serbia did so this year with a losing 2-3 record.
Any NBA season, meanwhile, is an incredibly exhausting grind which, if it ends with a run to a title, will last almost eight full months. In addition to being one of the 16 best teams of the league's 30 after 82 regular-season games, a team needs to go through four separate series in the playoffs -- each of which could last up to seven games -- and win 16 more times in order to be crowned that year's champs.
Now, it's possible that the argument Irving and Jordan make could ring true for players representing other countries, because winning an Olympic gold medal in basketball for them would require upsetting the heavily favored USA squad that is loaded from top to bottom with star-level talent.
But for the guys playing for a USA team that has an Olympic won-loss record of 50-3 since it first began sending pros to compete in 1992, the idea that winning a gold medal is more impressive than winning an NBA title is simply a ludicrous assertion.
