Devin Booker Suggests That Winning An NBA Title Is Tougher Than Winning A Gold Medal

OK, while I certainly see Devin Booker's point here, I think context is pretty important when talking about a Gold Medal vs NBA Championship debate. 

For Team USA, this is most definitely true. Since 2008, we've all seen how Team USA has been running through the Olympics on their way to a Gold Medal, oftentimes while including players who do not have an NBA title on their resume.

But for the rest of the world? I'm not so sure I agree. It doesn't matter if you're a country loaded with NBA talent like Canada or you have only a single NBA player like Greece, the fact that you have to go through Team USA on a quest for a Gold Medal makes it infinitely tougher.

There are some who get upset when an NBA Champion is called a World Champion, and I never really understood why. It's the best league in the world made up of the best players in the world, if someone wants to call that a world champion who gives a shit. Yes, they didn't play teams from around the world like we see in the Olympics, but who cares? It's like when that head coach of the Euroleague called out the Celtics and challenged them to a World Champion Title battle

(they would get destroyed by the way)

Because it happens with everything in today's world, I'm sure there will be some who drag Booker for a comment like this, but as someone who has a Gold Medal and is still searching for his first NBA title despite currently being on a superteam, I'd say he's pretty qualified. I can see how it comes off given that Booker plays for a team that is going to most likely cakewalk to another Gold who is loaded with some of the greatest basketball players to ever exist. It's not exactly rocket science to suggest life is pretty easy with a team like that, no matter who you play. 

I will say this though. Now that this quote is out there, Team USA has to come through. Devin Booker has been awesome so far in the Olympics, but now that he's provided this additional bulletin board material, he has to back it up as well with this play in these knockout games. You can't go on to talk about how it's basically "easy" to win Gold and then not follow through. Even as overwhelming favorites, let's not pretend like Team USA can't get got if they don't come ready to play. Teams like Canada and Germany are more than capable of being the better team for 40 minutes if Team USA is sloppy with the basketball combined with some brutal shooting luck. That's the beauty of these single-elimination games, anything can happen once you step in between the lines.

So yeah, no shit Devin. Winning an NBA title is hard as hell. You need talent, execution, luck, health etc to survive that climb up the mountain. But it's definitely not tougher than trying to beat Team USA while barely having NBA talent on your Olympic roster. Let's not get crazy.