There's No Way Olympic NBA Players Care More About A Gold Medal Than An NBA Championship | Mike Gunzelman

There is ZERO chance that today's NBA players that are competing for Team USA's Olympic men's basketball team would trade an NBA Championship for a gold medal.

Anyone who thinks otherwise is absolutely lying to themselves.

But still somehow, this has become a debate ever since the United States barely edged out Serbia in the men's basketball Semifinals 95-91.

Newsflash to EVERYONE out there - gold medals matter, but you are delusional if you think a Team USA NBA player making hundreds of millions of dollars would give up a gold NBA trophy for a gold medal.

Other sports such as swimming, gymnastics, weightlifting, etc? Absolutely. Those athletes have worked, trained and dedicated their lives to becoming Olympian champions. You know who hasn't done that? Team USA's basketball players. I'd also even include our hockey and golf athletes; there is no way these professional athletes would trade in their individual sport's season titles for an Olympic gold.

NBA TITLE MEANS MORE THAN A GOLD MEDAL FOR TEAM USA

If anything, LeBron and company are just trying not to lose so they aren't embarrassed and ripped on social media - something that is ABSOLUTELY happening regardless, thanks to USA's head coach Steve Kerr refusing to play last year's Boston Celtics NBA Champion Jayson Tatum for God knows what reason. 

(Tatum, by the way, was the USA's second leading scorer in the 2020 Olympics, averaging 15.2 ppg.)

An important factor, however; do you notice how I keep saying a 'Team USA basketball player?' 

That's because for other NBA players playing for their home countries, such as Nikola Jokic winning a bronze medal earlier today for Serbia, it matters a heck of a lot more for them than Team USA winning a gold in men's basketball. 

I'm sorry, but it's true. 

TEAM USA IS JUST TRYING NOT TO LOSE

Want some more proof of how much this means to other countries?

Here is former Atlanta Hawks and Oklahoma City Thunder guard Dennis Schröder saying the quiet part out loud about why basketball matters that much more for other countries in the Olympics.

Sorry everyone, but this isn't the amateur 1980 Team USA men's hockey team run anymore. Nor is it the 1992 Dream Team… not when it comes to the major sports.

The Olympics still matter and a gold medal is a great accomplishment, but you can't tell me that some of Team USA's basketball players are playing at 100% as if it was a Game 7 NBA Final. Why? Because it's just not true.

How times have changed: