By Kathleen Radebaugh
Philadelphia - Crazy enough, both the Russian national anthem and the Unites States national anthem have the words, “proud,” and “free” within them and conclude with the same thought, a piece of land, a nation, that is part of a greater whole.
Becky Hammon is very proud to be apart of an Olympic basketball team at the age of 31. It may be a different jersey that many hoped she would be wearing, but Hammon felt free enough that when the USA Olympic women’s basketball team didn’t have her on the roster, she could still find a way to play ball in the Olympics.
Hammon will be playing with the CSKA Moscow team for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China.
Last summer, USA Basketball released its list of 23 possible players being watched for the Olympic team. Hammon was not on the list.
She is currently a starting guard for the WNBA San Antonio Silver Stars where she is averaging 15.9 points per game and just recently had an exceptional finish against Washington Mystics, scoring 28 points and totaling five rebounds. Hammon’s success with San Antonio is tremendous and definitely worth a look by USA Basketball.
Yet, this is a pattern with Hammon. A tremendous guard out of Colorado State, Hammon wasn’t drafted. She was a three time Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year and all-time leading scorer (ahem, men and women) with 2,740 points in WAC.
And she probably got good grades.
Hammon found her rookie year in New York, after signing as a free agent.
She thrived playing for New York Liberty. It wasn’t long before she started every game, set season highs, and truly became one of their best point guards even through injury.
Due to her tremendous success with Liberty and then continuing her play with San Antonio, Hammon joins the Elite 3,000 Point/800 Assists Club. She is one of seven players to have accomplished this step in women’s basketball. In total, Hammon totaled 3,180 points and 803 assists.
In March, Hammon started to look for different ways of making one of her biggest dreams, to play in the Olympics, a possibility.
Since Hammon never played for another country in a FIBA, International Basketball Federation, sanctioned-event, she could obtain a passport.
Before Hammon’s regular season started in May, she was in Moscow training with the 2008 Olympic team. It’s safe to say, suicide sprints and 30 minute drills are the just the same on either continent.
Two familiar faces will be with Hammon, Detriot’s Deanna Nolan and Phoenix’s Kelly Miller. In addition, the men’s basketball team has J.R. Holden, a prior Bucknell standout guard, on the roster. Holden hit the clincher for the 2007 Eurobasket Championship for Russia.
Russia apparently likes to win and if that means having a non-naturalized citizen on the team, then maybe they are putting the attention back on the skill of the game, which makes us watch in the first place.
Hammon probably has been thinking about playing internationally, almost concluding her tenth season in the WNBA. What makes it frustrating for most female players is that playing in the United States is a salary decrease. Women make more money overseas, almost three to four times as much.
Diana Taurasi of Phoenix Mercury plays internationally on an Italian passport and Sue Bird of Seattle Storm plays on an Israeli passport.
Both are phenomenal basketball players who are pursing their talents and passions, yet it is not on US soil. Is it acceptable for Taurasi and Bird to wear international jerseys for some months and also WNBA jerseys for the others, or should the WNBA and USA Basketball revamp their thinking on eligible participants and budgets?
Hammon playing for Russia is a wake up call for both organizations.
More of 2006 World Championship failures could happen again and really soon because there are 12 to 13 players coming from every other direction.
The objective is same, win the gold, but U.S. Head Coach Anne Donovan only has a month to prepare a team for Beijing.
Hammon is going to recognize most of the words in the Russian national anthem, because crazy enough, there are in common with our own. In fact, you may find those very same words, “free,” “proud,” and “our land” in a couple others.
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