Wrong Country?
By Mike Cunningham On May 26th, 2012I note that Luol Deng is presumed fit to play Basketball for Great Britain, or ‘TeamGB’ as the morons say.
How many would agree with me that, apart from South Sudan, his place of birth; his natural team should really be Australia?
How did I come to that conclusion?
One of the few times that it is permissable to proclaim a pride in our nation without being declared xenophobic, a ‘little Englander’, or worst of all – a ‘racist’.
Of course it is the Olympics of which I speak, the most polyglot assemblage of sportsmen and women to ever represent a single nation, and, we might add, possibly the best that a limited supply of funds could buy.
Let us not talk of the pride of representing one’s own country, – the ‘taking part’ as important as ‘the winning’. – I believe it says something like that in the Olympic prayer.
Never mind any of that, today it’s all about winning, and large cash prizes, and future celebrity earnings, – who really cares which country one plays for, – it’s the money that counts, and winners get the big bucks, – so anything and everything goes, in the desperate search of the modern Golden Grail.
What a brutal betrayal of the original Corinthian ideal of true amateur contests. What a bloody farce…
Mike – What were your sentiments about Zola Budd?
Mahons,
She should never have been granted a British passport.
As for the Australian connection….He is a Dinka from Sudan; a true-blue Aussie is a Dinki Di…..Thats all folks!
Come on Mike,
Grab on to a bit of realism.
Money and great athletic talent go hand-in-hand.
Yea the Olympic competitors are “mostly” amateurs, but even the amateurs are smart enough to look beyond the Olympics.
Great Britain will be a fertile arena for this dude when he comes out and declares he’s going professional.
Sorry, Australia comes in second.