So after the abysmal performance by the Americans, do you think the high-salaries of the players are now justified?

Many will say that players have nothing to do w/ it...its the public (who fill up the stadiums and buy the merchandise) that is reponsible for the exorbitant income of the players.

This is def. true..but I have this theory..in general, the American basketball-going public is stuck on this illusory Cloud-9. Up till the Olympics many of them had this vacant belief that THEIR players (home grown in the USA) were the best. Hence it was right to pay LeBron etc the money the player's agents demanded.

I hope these games bring some humility not only to the players, but to the American basketball fans as well. American basketball fans demanded the best in the NBA and so far they thought they had the best...hopefully this will open up some eyes...make them see that a team from argentina (whose avg salary is many times LESS than the NBA) beat out a millionaires w/ sprite deals...Hahaha

Even with their crushing defeats, its not the players, its the team. I still believe the NBA players (those who are foreign included) are the best individual players in the world but if you don't have the time to play as a team you just have 5 guys who are good individually and that doesn't cut it, especially against good foreign teams.

I've never thought high salaries in any sport are justified, wether its soccer, baseball, basketball whatever. They are getting paid to do something that people do for FUN. I think players should get paid based on how they play, not on how they might play. Now you have kids who leave high school early because they know they will get $50 million contracts. It's getting out of hand.

We knew we didn't have the best players in the NBA in the olympics, remember the best players backed out with a month before the olympics leaving the US basketball team to scramble to find replacement players? I don't think humility should be needed. We think our team is good because we are Americans, I'm sure people in lithuania think their team is the best as do the people in argentina and spain. If you don't believe your team is the best then what is the point?

I also think movie stars and tv celebrities get paid too much but thats another story.

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