[opiniojuris] Kevin Jon Heller: Becky Hammon Is Not a Traitor

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Posted by Kevin Jon Heller:
Becky Hammon Is Not a Traitor
http://www.opiniojuris.org/posts/1213629298.shtml


   A confession: except for the basketball, I don't watch the Summer
   Olympics. In part, that's because I'm simply not interested in the
   medal sports. The more significant reason, though, is that I simply
   can't stomach the rampant jingoism that inevitably accompanies the
   Games. Case in point -- the reaction to Becky Hammon's decision [1]to
   play basketball for the Russian team:

     The other day, Anne Donovan, former sweetheart of Old Dominion
     basketball and current coach of the U.S. Olympic team, called
     Hammon a traitor. What Hammon is doing, Donovan said, "is
     unfathomable to me."
     Detractors notwithstanding, Hammon is going ahead with her summer
     plans. In Beijing, this small-town girl from Rapid City, S.D., will
     be living out her American dream... by playing point guard for the
     Russians.
     "I don't expect everybody to understand or jump on my bandwagon,"
     Hammon said recently.
     She's a 10-year veteran of the WNBA who finished second in the MVP
     voting last year playing for the San Antonio Silver Stars but,
     until recently, she flew very low under the radar. Now she's an
     Internet target who's being asked to defend her patriotism.
     "I know how I feel about my country," she said. "I'm very proud of
     what America represents to the world. But this is a basketball
     game. This is not life or death."
     Hammon will enter Beijing National Stadium during the opening
     ceremonies under the Russian flag, wearing Russian colors. She has
     no genealogical connection to the country but was granted a Russian
     passport after signing a seven-figure contract with a professional
     team in Moscow over the winter.
     [snip]
     I'm not sure what the definition of a patriot is these days, but
     taking advantage of the free market to make a lot of money is as
     American as it gets.
     Hammon, though, insists economics weren't the determining factor in
     what she characterizes as a "soul-searching" process. It was about
     the Olympic opportunity she didn't have in America.
     Despite her WNBA credentials, at 31, she had never been invited to
     try out for the U.S. squad until after signing with her Russian
     club. The gesture was too little, too late as far as she was
     concerned.
     Hammon could have been like thousands of U.S. athletes with
     thwarted Olympic ambitions. Instead, she chose the unorthodox,
     less-traveled route - seizing her one shot at the dream, knowing it
     would leave her open to abuse from self-styled patriots, cold
     warriors and anyone for whom the Olympics are more about
     nationalism than athleticism.
     [snip]
     "If you play in this country, live in this country and you grow up
     in the heartland - and you put on a Russian uniform - you are not a
     patriotic person," Donovan said.

   I could perhaps understand (though would still deplore) calling Hammon
   a traitor if she had been invited to play for the U.S. Olympic team
   but chose to play for the Russian team instead. But that's not the
   case. Her choice was a simple one: play for Russia or not play Olympic
   basketball -- probably ever. After all, she is 31; the chances that
   she will be playing better in 2012 are next to zero. So I think it's
   perverse to call her a traitor simply because she would rather live
   out her dream of playing in the Olympics than be a "true American" and
   stay home.

References

   1. http://hamptonroads.com/2008/06/she-stayed-true-her-olympic-dream-now-shes-called-traitor