The Basketball World Championships Are Not More Important than Olympic Basketball

The 2008 USA players aren't the only missing stars in the FIBA World Championships
(Richard Giles)

Over and over again, ESPN loves touting the line that the FIBA World Championships means more to the world than Olympic basketball does. That the world consider the World Championships to have the same importance for basketball that the World Cup does for soccer/futbol. That only we ignorant, isolated, backwater Americans still consider Olympic basketball to be the most important international basketball event.

Please cut the crap.

Take a look at the list of prominent basketball players who aren't joining their teams in Turkey. These are all uninjured players who have played for their national teams in the past but personally chose not to play this time.

• Manu Ginobili (Argentina)
• Jamaal Magloire (Canada)
• Samuel Dalembert (Canada)
• Steve Nash (Canada)
• Joakim Noah (France)
• Mickael Pietrus (France)
• Tony Parker (France)
• Chris Kaman (Germany)
• Dirk Nowitzki (Germany)
• Theo Papaloukas (Greece)
• Darius Songaila (Lithuania)
• Sarunas Jasikevicius (Lithuania)
• Zydrunas Ilgauskas (Lithuania)
• Andrei Kirilenko (Russia)
• Viktor Khryapa (Russia)
• Darko Milicic (Serbia)
• Peja Stojakovic (Serbia)
• Sasha Pavlovic (Serbia)
• Vladimir Radmanovic (Serbia)
• Beno Udrih (Slovenia)
• Sasha Vujacic (Slovenia)
• Pau Gasol (Spain)
• Entire 2008 USA Olympic Basketball Team (USA)

All of the listed countries are missing a top-three player. Some of the countries (e.g. Argentina, France, Germany, Russia, Spain, USA) are without their best player (unless you think Kevin Durant is the best basketball player in America).

You could easily add Yao Ming to this list, too. He's participating in basketball drills now but staying out of the tournament to rest his recovering foot. If the World Championship had the significance of the World Cup, would he still be in Houston right now instead of Turkey? Did injuries keep Wayne Rooney and Jozy Altidore from playing in South Africa?

If China cared about the World Championships, particularly after all the embarrassing stories of their absence at the World Cup, wouldn't they have pushed Yao to speed up his rehab and play like they did to him at the 2008 Beijing Olympics?

But they didn't. Why? Because they don't give a damn about the FIBA World Championships. Are TV ratings for the World Championships higher than for Olympic basketball? Are national basketball organizations spending more money for the World Championships than the Olympics? What makes ESPN so sure anyone cares more about it?

One can understand why basketball purists love the FIBA World Championships. Many more teams participate, and it runs longer and deeper than the Olympics. But even diehard fans would need to be delusional to think the grander format equals greater international significance.

All I can say for sure is that some of the best basketball players in the world have chosen not to participate in the World Championships, and even the most hardcore national programs (i.e. China, USA) are giving them a pass. Ginobili even came out on his blog and specifically said, "I am just prioritizing London 2012 to Turkey 2010."

Sure, he and his wife had twins three months ago, and he wants to be there for them. Yet you can't deny the title of that post. Later, he even goes on to say, "[M]y two previous experiences on the Olympics were the best thing that ever happened to me as an athlete, including the NBA rings, European championships and everything I lived on my almost 15 years of career, and I have no doubts in my head that I would like to live that again."

The Olympics. Not the World Championships. Can't get much clearer than that.