The 2007 league MVP runner-up was initially left off the list of 23 players invited to try out for the USA squad, but since she has a lucrative contract with a Russian team during the off-season, obtaining dual citizenship was easy despite having no family ties to Russia:
"I didn't say no to USA Basketball," Hammon recently told the Houston Chronicle. "The option for me to play for USA Basketball really wasn't an option. ... I don't think people would be as upset if I was playing for Switzerland. God loves Russia just as much as God loves America."Says USA coach Anne Donovan, "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 in my mind."
Meanwhile, the Clippers' Chris Kaman is playing for Germany -- but at least he has German great-grandparents (and was never going to make the USA squad.) And, yes, Nigeria's Hakeem Olajuwon suited up for the 1996 USA men's team, and yes the Olympics are supposed to be about international understanding, but nationalism is the fuel that drives the Games (other than commerce), and suiting up for the Rooskies -- of all people -- just seems wrong.
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