What would you do?

SAO PAULO (Olympics) – A soon as I heard about Ricky Rubio’s injury, my reaction was to grab my head with both hands and say something like “no”… and something else I can’t write on this column.

An Argentine colleague was sitting just beside me in the newspaper office and asked me what happened. As I told him about Ricky’s knee and his impossibility to play in London after having started his best season ever, he told me he was happy that one of the biggest contenders lost one of their key players.

I just decided to ignore him but I couldn’t stop thinking in that old football discussions about the way we make things happen: is it better to win at all coasts or to lose playing good football (after trying our best to win)?

How can we transfer that question to basketball... Could a coach leave a couple of players in their half court so they avoid counterattacks and are rested enough to defend harder? Could they hide balls under the shirt so the opponents can’t find them?

Nope. But some can celebrate a player’s injury. And more.

For the time being, Argentina and Brazil will be representing the lower part of the Americas in the 2012 Olympic Games. I decided to play a little game and ask some basketball fans from these two countries the following question.

Let’s imagine your team plays Spain in the Semi-Final to go for Gold medal match against the USA. Would you prefer to face them with all their players or face an easier game without some of their key players?

The result was devastating for my “research” as seven out of the ten answered they would prefer to make it to the final no matter how. But there was one that surprised me even more.

“I would prefer to beat Spain with a last-second own goal by Pau Gasol. And with his head”, he said and started laughing.
“Talking seriously, I want Spain to miss their five starters if possible”, he added.

What would players, coaches and fans be able to do to win a Gold medal?

Argentina and Brazil or coaches Julio Lamas and Ruben Magnano will have to take at least one decision each that could probably end in a public discussion.

Fabricio Oberto has announced last week that he has decided not to play in any club for the second consecutive season but he wants to be part of his fourth Olympic Games (Atlanta 1996, Athens 2004, Beijing 2008).

After he retired from professional basketball due to a heart condition in 2010, he just played the 2011 FIBA Americas Championship after a preparation that included two minor injuries.

Immediately after Argentina secured a London spot, Lamas was clear: “If Fabricio wants to be in the Olympic Games, he will have to play for some months in any club.”

The centre finally decided not to do it but said he intended to go on training by himself and play the South American Championship just before the Olympic preparation starts.

What should Lamas do? Is it that terrible he promised something that he can’t keep?

Magnano has a whole different problem. He guided Brazil to an Olympic Games for the first time in 16 years with a group that didn’t include three NBA players, two of which never explained clearly why they missed such a big tournament.

Argentina-born coach will have to decide between respecting the team that qualified to London –plus Anderson Varejao- or accept his team’s chances grow incredibly with Leandrinho and Nene.

In Basketball, the team that plays better normally wins. Therefore, the discussion is not on how a team plays but how a team is formed and also how the other teams are formed.

FIBA