If America got to the World Cup final, how many Yanks would watch it?

[Jimmy The Fish]

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rick basketball is not treated like a national sport here, that is why the national team blows relative to what they should be.

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I just don't get that mentality.

To me sport is at its pinnacle at international level.
Competing for you country in a team sport in a World Championship is the summit as far as I'm concerned.

Wouldn't your NBA stars want to show the rest of the world that they are the best.

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I understand your perspective on international play, which is a big reason why I love the college game and loathe the NBA. But your question shows that you don't understand just how unimportant international play is in the eyes of most NBA stars.

Ask the NBA stars how important international competition is, and they'll answer with varying degrees of "how much will I get paid?" (Many of the game's top players refuse invitations to join the national team.) The NBA has devolved from a team game to a loosely-organized one-on-one competition; its style of play is so different from the international game that the Team USA players don't have time to adjust.

I think the USOC would do very well to steal the "rugby idea" in this thread. Assemble a squad of Americans currently playing in Europe, who didn't quite have the individual talent to make the NBA; form the roster a full calendar year before the Olympics; keep them together for that year, playing exhibitions against NBA teams, NCAA teams, and European teams.

Oh, and regarding the original topic: what ratings did the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" get? A World Cup final featuring the USA would probably do just as well. People who don't know soccer from curling would watch, just for the pseudo-patriotic angle.