The American basketball team put a hurting on the South Korean women’s basketball team:

Russia beat Team USA the last time the teams played in the semifinals of a major tournament. Don’t think the Americans have forgotten.

It seemed that loss in the 2006 world championship was all they could talk about after the USA overwhelmed South Korea 104-60 Tuesday. Russia is next, this time in Thursday’s semifinals of the women’s Olympic tournament. [USA Today]

I have watched a few of the South Korean women’s basketball games and they have actually played really hard and well in the Olympics. They almost beat Russia earlier in the Olympics but lost when an American citizen Rebekka Lynn Hammon hit two clutch free throws down the stretch. Needless to say the Korean announcer were not happy that a player who was not Russian was allowed to play on a team that beat them.

For those that don’t know here is the story of how Hammon who speaks no Russians and has no affiliation with Russia other then the contract she recently signed to play in a Russian basketball league there:

In March 2007, USA Basketball named the first 22 candidates for Team USA. Among the selections made by a 10-person committee were four college players - three of them underclassmen, in fact - but not Hammon, then an eighth-year pro and three-time WNBA all-star.

“I think they had a great selection of people, and she definitely should have been one of them,” Minnesota Lynx and Team USA forward Seimone Augustus said. “She’s a great point guard.”

Six months later, Hammon received an invitation to try out. She declined because she felt like she already had been eliminated from contention, and merely attending the camp would have lowered the value of the one-year contract she signed with Moscow-based club CSKA.

Instead, Hammon began pursuing a Russian passport. European teams are allowed a limited number of imports, so it is beneficial - and common practice - for non-natives to obtain foreign documentation. That would triple her value and, although secondary in her mind at the time, make her eligible to compete in Beijing.

The International Basketball Federation - commonly known as FIBA - allows one naturalized citizen to compete for each country during the Olympics, provided that he or she has not previously competed in a sanctioned international event. Hammon’s experiences with USA Basketball were limited to nonsanctioned events in 1998 and 2006. [Argus Leader via reader tip]

It is not the enhanced contract that Hammon received from her Russian club though that is why she joined the Russian team; it was because of a plan from God:

“It’s been a growth process for me personally,” Hammon said. “I’ve learned a lot about people. I’ve learned a lot about myself, really, and I’ve learned that we should extend each other a little bit more grace before we judge people. And the biggest thing that I’ve learned is just that God has a plan, and even though it’s not what I planned, his play will always prevail.”

It should be a good game to watch when Russia and Team USA face each other in the upcoming semi-final because I’m sure that the women on Team USA will be extra motivated to win this game considering the fact they are playing Russia plus they are playing against someone largely perceived as a traitor.

It will be interesting to see how the plan from God works out.

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