I stopped watching the minute they started letting professional players into the Olympics. I know that the commie teams were all pros but the US always did well in both summer and winter games and the winning was so much sweeter knowing our true amateurs were better than their pros.
Now it is just garbage as it is just pro sports writ large. I do watch Curling. Ever since I started watching it while stationed in North Dakota I became a fan and there is yet a push to professionalize that game.
My wife and I went to a curling open house...it looks like it would be fun for doing with a bunch of people and drinking alcohol at the same time!
BTW, I think you are right, that may have been it for me. When the Hockey and Basketball let pros participate, it did kill it for me.
Of course Larry Bird and Magic Johnson et al were going to have their way with a bunch of poor shmokes from Croatia. It is just stupid, stupider than the communists who put those hockey teams out for decades that wiped the floors with their opponents because they were professionals.