Crossing a border hands of Becky Hammon

Crossing a border hands of Becky Hammon


The basketball is in the hands of Becky Hammon, playing for the Russian Olympic team, for a winning shot in the final seconds of the gold-medal game against the United States. What will the South Dakota native do against the Americans if such a scenario takes place in Beijing?

Expect Hammon to go for the gold and take the shot for Russia against her native country, which she had yearned to play for.

"I had to play that scenario out in my mind," said Hammon, a guard for the San Antonio Silver Stars of the WNBA. "I played it out before I made the decision. I wouldn't say yes if I wasn't able to make or take the shot. I wouldn't cheat the integrity of the Olympics. I'm there to win."

Despite longtime dreams of wearing the red, white, and blue, Hammon wasn't one of the original 21 in the USA Basketball player pool in March 2007. While Hammon played for Moscow CSKA in Russia last winter, her coach, Igor Grudin, asked her if she was interested in playing for the Russian national team, which he coaches.

Hammon, who speaks little Russian, received her passport in early April. And before committing to play for that country, she said she reached out to high-ranking officials with USA Basketball and the WNBA to make sure she would not be asked to play for the Americans. After the 31-year-old said she got no response, she said to herself, "Becky, let it go and move on." Two other Americans originally named to the Russian national team included Deanna Nolan and Kelly Miller, but only Hammon was eventually added.

"Just the fact that it's Russia throws an alarm with people," said Hammon, the WNBA MVP runner-up last year. "People thought I should be on the national team. I'm 31 years old. I wouldn't have done it if I was 25, 26. This is my last shot. They had 10 years to not consider me seriously. It hasn't mattered how I played in WNBA . . . I was never a legitimate option."

Hammon played on a European tour with a US team in 2006. "I played [sparingly] on a team filled with people that aren't playing [for Team USA now]," she said. "People said I had a chance. It's not a legitimate chance."

According to a report on NBCOlympics.com, Hammon will earn up to $200,000 if she can lead the Russians to a gold medal. It also stated that she turned down the opportunity to take part in a US training pool last year since the Russia option already was in motion.

"It was either sitting at home on my couch or playing with Russia," Hammon said. "I decided it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I made a lot of friends there. I came there with my own stereotypes from what I saw on TV and from movies. That's what I knew. I was aware of the Russia-America basketball situation in the '70s [in the Olympics], the hockey. That was
the before

"But this is peanuts. If we were at war, that's different. This is a game of basketball. This is not life or death."

Hammon has been widely criticized as being unpatriotic and has been called a traitor. The most notable critic has been US women's coach Anne Donovan. Donovan didn't participate in 1980 Olympics since the US boycotted in protest of the Soviet Union's intervention in Afghanistan. And four years later, Donovan missed the opportunity to play against the Soviets again when they boycotted the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

"If you play in this country, live in this country, and you grow up in the heartland and you put on a Russian uniform, you are not a patriotic person in my mind," said Donovan to ESPN, although she later downplayed those remarks.

Hammon says Team USA players in the WNBA have been positive toward her about playing for Russia. USA Basketball president Val Ackerman also described Hammon's decision as "really a non-issue" during a media teleconference last month.

"It's not a USA Basketball issue," Ackerman said. "This selection process is not an easy one. There are so many terrific players in the WNBA. We had a much bigger pool than just 12 players.

"I think we've put together the best possible team. And I think that at this point our sights are set only on one thing and that's winning the gold medal."

About the criticism, Hammon said, "I haven't heard much of it. I don't watch TV, read newspapers. Don't read blogs. People are saying to me that they are sorry about what the media has been saying. I honestly haven't heard anything negative at all.

"People are very positive. People are sending me e-mails of stories saying good stuff. Some people are saying not-too-nice stuff, but I haven't read it."

Los Angeles Clippers center Chris Kaman, a native of Grand Rapids, Mich., is of German descent and is playing for Germany in the Olympics. USA Basketball senior managing director Jerry Colangelo said Kaman declined an opportunity to play for the select team that practiced and scrimmaged against the United States prior to its departure for China. Had Kaman said yes, he would have been a candidate to play on future USA Basketball teams.

Kaman isn't getting criticism, though, since Germany isn't considered a legitimate threat to the US quest to win a gold medal. The Germans won the last berth in the Beijing tournament by finishing third in the FIBA Olympic qualifying tourney in Greece July 20.

About Germany qualifying for the Olympics, Kaman told FIBA.com, "This is 12 days for me and it's [been a 12-year wait] for Dirk [Nowitzki]. I can't even imagine the emotions he is feeling right now."

Russia's women's team made the Olympics as the European champion, however. Despite being in different brackets, it's possible Russia and the US could meet during an elimination game, including the gold-medal contest. If such is the case, expect the spotlight to shine brightly on Hammon.

She began her Russian national career Saturday in a 75-69 loss to Latvia at Haining, China, scoring just 3 points, all from the line, and missing all six of her shots from the floor. "I was a little tired from the travel," she said. "I'm still learning the plays, and it will get easier the more I play with them." Russia plays the US in an exhibition tonight in Haining.

"We are a little bit naive," Hammon said about the controversy. "This has been done for many, many years. [Foreigners have won] many medals for our US team. Australia has an American guy. This thing of having one naturalized player is used often. It happens all the time.

"This might be the first time people are becoming aware of it. If I was 12th person on the bench in the WNBA, they wouldn't care. But it's Russia."

Marc J. Spears can be reached at mspears@globe.com; Julian Benbow of the Globe staff contributed to this report