"Think about the 1980 hockey team for example. This was a bunch of mostly high school and college kids who beat the Russians and went on to win the Gold. Many of them never had NHL careers but they will always have that gold medal. There's something special about that."
I absolutely agree. No sports memory in my lifetime will ever match the win at Lake Placid by the American hockey team in 1980. When you have professional athletes like NBA and NHL All Stars competing, it just isn't the same, and it's hard to get really excited about it.
There's a simple way to make the US competitive in Olympic basketball again, let's just make Puerto Rico a state.