Basketball's citizenship crisis

Hopefully I will channeling my late season thoughts into some blog posts over the next couple days. They may or may not have anything to do with the Magic.

But I ran into this story on ESPN the other day. Milwaukee's Charlie Villanueva was released by USA Basketball on April 11. That means he is free to go play for the Dominican Republic. Villanueva has Dominican parents and the article says that he is not doing this because the U.S. is ignoring him as a player. It seems genuine.

I am in no way calling out Villanueva for what he is doing. But basketball has reached something of a citizenship crisis (now might be the time to fix it without any major basketball competitions on the schedule). It seems as if players can declare ancestry and join new countries for their sports citizenship.

This is not the way things were meant to be. Chris Kaman had no ties to Germany, yet he suited up for the Germans in the Olympics. Word is now that Trevor Ariza is also looking to join the Dominican team.

Yes, it is difficult to make the American squad. But trying to pick and choose a country you may have ancestors from is not the answer. Some players are meant to play for their international teams and others are not.

I do not doubt the genuineness of Villanueva's effort. But why did he make the switch now rather than when he first started his career? If you have to appeal to make the switch, you probably should not be making that switch to begin with.