There really isn't a reasonable counter argument to be made here. Kind of surprising people are trying to make one. No matter what sport you are playing, individual or team, if you are already winning be a gracious winner and show good sportsmanship. You can be excited as all heck at the end when you win, but in the middle of the game showboating and running up the score is poor form. There is a reason baseball teams stop stealing bases up 10 runs, football teams put in their backups up 4 touchdowns and bball teams clear the bench. You add in the fact these NBA players making many millions of dollars, have access to better coaches, training and other resources and are expected to dominate and it makes the celebrations and score running even worse. Finally, as much as we hate to admit it, kids look up these guys all around the world. We don't need to see them being taught that taunting your opponent no matter their skill level is great and cool.
Is it really sportsmanship or is there other reasons back-ups are put in? I mean one could easily argue that the fear of injury or the desire to get back-ups experience is the real reason.
Respect should always be shown, but is celebrating a great a shot by your teammate really a lack of respect to the opponent? I think there is a line, and I'm not sure the US crossed that line here.
I know you have watched enough sports to know there are many many ways that teams show sportsmanship across all sports. If we want to look at basketball, is there some small element of injury risk that is part of the bench players coming in? Sure, however, that is clearly just a portion of it. Teams aren't bringing in an end of bench player like a 38 nazr muhammad to either get him experience or because it is ok if he gets injured. Sure more end of bench players are young, but getting them experience in garbage time is hardly any more valuable than going against the starters in practice. It is also partly because having Lebron go in for a dunk when the team is already up 20 with 3 minutes left is not showing an opponent respect or being a good sport.
In this case the team USA was up 50 points and 3 seconds into the shot clock Klay Thompson launched a 3 and guys on the bench went nuts celebrating. If you think that doesn't cross a line, we can just agree to disagree, but know that you are in the small minority of people that view it that way. Coach K and many other coaches and former players would agree that is not playing the game with good sportsmanship or respect and there is no reason to act like this.
I will also add since you brought up injury risk, one of the greatest injury risks is taunting your opponent in a blowout. If you are already upset about getting crushed in a game and the other team starts adding injury to insults by showboating and celebrating it gets into pretty dangerous territory. I have seen a lot of games devolve into verbal altercations or shoving matches when this kind of stuff happens. Again Klay should know better and coach K does.
They weren't taunting though. Klay made a long shot during the normal course of play. He didn't get in the Chinese players faces, he didn't even trash talk, he simply made a long shot, which his teammates celebrated. And Coach K, didn't go off on a rampage. He said his team was having a bit too much fun and wanted them to tone it down a bit (you know because if you are too loose and having too much fun it might actually cost you in a close game). That isn't him going off on some tirade about a lack of respect or anything. The U.S. didn't cross a line there. None at all.
I am not sure if you are just arguing for the sake of arguing. Team USA was up by 48 points. There was 1:29 left in the game. Any team at any level showing good sportsmanship dribbles around for about 20 seconds and shoots a jumpshot. If you watched any NBA game (and there are plenty where the warriors were up 25-35 points last year) this is what happens every single game. If Brandon Rush or Speights did this exact same thing last year in one of those games (pull up 3, 20 seconds on shot clock up 48 points) Kerr would have yelled at them and possibly pulled them from the game. Yes it crosses a line. Then you have 3 players get up and celebrate including Deandre Jordan who Coach K angrily tells to sit down and not get on to the playing court (meanwhile Durant actually claps and walks on to the playing court, but his part was less egregious) . There are multiple lines that were crossed here. If you don't want to acknowledge them we can agree to disagree and I have lost a bit of respect for your knowledge of basketball and sportsmanship along the way.
http://www.artofmanliness.com/2009/08/04/be-a-good-sport-a-guide-to-sportmanship/
This doesn't address anything I said. I really hope you are not involved in youth or high school athletics cause someone that thinks nothing over the line with pullup 3's and celebrating on the bench with a 48 point lead and 90 seconds left hopefully isn't sharing that viewpoint with anyone that can be easily influenced. I guess we are done here.
of course it does, it defines what good sportsmanship is. You just don't agree because it doesn't cover your situation.
Maybe you prefer the dictionary definition "a person who exhibits qualities especially esteemed in those who engage in sports, as fairness, courtesy, good temper, etc."
Celebrating a nice play or a victory, isn't a sign of bad sportsmanship. Doing it in a manner where you get in your opponents face, trash talk, etc. is.
You seem to be of the generation where everyone is a winner and there are no losers. That isn't life and that isn't sports. Could Thompson have dribbled around, sure, but him not doing so isn't a sign of disrespect at all unless you come from the mentality that there are no losers in sports.