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HotForHammon

Joined: 04 Jul 2007
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Posted: 08/13/08 10:13 am ::: For American Coach In new Russia, basketball is progressive

This is pretty interesting. The Russian NT coach is an American Jew and he talks about coaching the Russians.

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/basketball/news;_ylt=Ap7u4EAWMxSF4SiwS3_b5Xw5nYcB?slug=aw-blatt081208&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Quote:

“I should’ve had more hesitation than anyone else,” Blatt said. “I am an American Israeli Jewish guy who is being called by the former enemy … to coach their national team. Part of my purpose for doing what I’m doing is to make sport and make basketball my vehicle for ambassadorship and bringing people closer together. What better way for me to throw myself right into it.

“Some people would’ve hesitated and some people see it as some form of disloyalty. That to me is ridiculous.”

The nasty assaults on American Becky Hammon for playing for Russia in the Olympics have made Blatt livid. When he read the words of Team USA coach Anne Donovan suggesting that Hammon, who makes six figures playing professionally in Moscow, was “unpatriotic,” he confessed, “It grabbed me in the gut.” Blatt says that USA Basketball officials told him that the quote was taken out of context – which is a stretch – so he wants to give Donovan the benefit of the doubt.

Nevertheless, he knows that it’s a sentiment shared in too much of Hannity’s America.

“It disturbed me greatly,” Blatt said. “That kind of talk, that kind of ethnocentrism, doesn’t help anybody. To me it’s malicious and unacceptable. Me being in Russia with my background does more for relations between people than anybody sitting at home coaching their own team and never stepping outside their own world.

“It depends what you’re in it for, I guess. But I’m in it because it’s a global game and the world is changing and anything that can bring people together is just an enormous benefit.”

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