Celtics in the Olympics

[Big333223]

Is Larry Bird the only Celtic to compete in the Olympics while on the Celtics roster at the same time since NBA players have been allowed to compete?

[fairweatherfan]

Yup.  No real options since him, the Big 3 were too old and Pierce burned some bridges in the infamous 02 World Championships team.  Maybe Reggie Lewis would've gotten an invite eventually but sadly we know how that turned out. 

[Moranis]

Pierce was on the 2002 World Championship team.  He was selected for the 2006 World Championship team but had offseason surgery so he didn't participate.  He was not however on the 2004 Olympic Team. 

The 2000 team had 4 guys who would be Celtics in Vin Baker, Gary Payton, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnett though none of them were Celtics at the time of the Olympics (other Celtics also played in the Olympics for the U.S. i.e. Shaq, Marbury, Prince).  This is from the modern times only.  I know we also had Barbosa for a bit and he has been on the Brasilian national team, though again not during an Olympics year.  Not sure if any of the other foreign Celtics played for their national teams.

[bdm860]

Dino Radja was on the Celtics when he played for Croatia in the '96 Olympics.

I would have never thought of it if it weren't for Moranis mentioning the foreign players.

[MattyIce]

Pierce was on the 2002 World Championship team.  He was selected for the 2006 World Championship team but had offseason surgery so he didn't participate.  He was not however on the 2004 Olympic Team. 

The 2000 team had 4 guys who would be Celtics in Vin Baker, Gary Payton, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnett though none of them were Celtics at the time of the Olympics (other Celtics also played in the Olympics for the U.S. i.e. Shaq, Marbury, Prince).  This is from the modern times only.  I know we also had Barbosa for a bit and he has been on the Brasilian national team, though again not during an Olympics year.  Not sure if any of the other foreign Celtics played for their national teams.

through barbosa is on this years Brazilian Olympic team

[incoherent]

The current Celtics team would probably be better then our assembled team.

[Moranis]

Pierce was on the 2002 World Championship team.  He was selected for the 2006 World Championship team but had offseason surgery so he didn't participate.  He was not however on the 2004 Olympic Team. 

The 2000 team had 4 guys who would be Celtics in Vin Baker, Gary Payton, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnett though none of them were Celtics at the time of the Olympics (other Celtics also played in the Olympics for the U.S. i.e. Shaq, Marbury, Prince).  This is from the modern times only.  I know we also had Barbosa for a bit and he has been on the Brasilian national team, though again not during an Olympics year.  Not sure if any of the other foreign Celtics played for their national teams.

through barbosa is on this years Brazilian Olympic team

Yeah, I meant he wasn't on the Celtics in an Olympics year.

[Diggles]

What did Pierce do to burn a bridge?   

[Surferdad]

Weren't there some Celtics who played for Team USA in college?  Bill Russell perhaps?

[Moranis]

Weren't there some Celtics who played for Team USA in college?  Bill Russell perhaps?

Sure, but they aren't Celtics if they are still in college even if they graduate.  Plenty of guys played on Olympic teams before they changed the rule.  This thread was focused on The Dream Team or later. 

[greece66]

This is trickier to answer than it seems. Bird and Radja apart, there is also

-Ramón Rivas (Puerto Rico, Seoul 1988). He played for the C's in the 1988-89 season.

-Stojko Vranković (Croatia, Barcelona 1992). He played for the C's for two seasons (1990-92).

There are some other players who have participated in Olympics though they were not in our roster at the time:

-Carlos Arroyo (Puerto Rico)

-Nenad Krstić (Serbia)

-Aleksandar Pavlović (Montenegro)

-Žan Tabak (Croatia)

-Rubén Wolkowyski (Argentina)

There are also several C's players that had good careers with their national selections although they did not play in the Olympics (eg Jiří Welsch); players who have played for the C's but were not on our roster when they played for team USA (Vin Baker, Gary Payton, Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett ,Shaq, Marbury, Prince as mentioned by Moranis); and Dominique Wilkins who played in the 1994 FIBA World Championship some months before signing with the C's for the 1994-95 season but never played in the Olympics (like Pierce); Joel Anthony and Olynyk had a similar situation with Canada (played in FIBA World Championships but not Olympics)

For a list of players who have played for the C's

[saltlover]

John Holland was a top player of the Puerto Rican team this summer, but they lost in the finals of their qualifying tourney to Serbia, who was hosting. So John Holland was the closest we came to having a current Olympian on the roster this year.

[Big333223]

What did Pierce do to burn a bridge?

There were reports of his having a bad attitude and not getting along with George Karl. He also go criticism for shooting too much.

But I think he was put in kind of an impossible situation and then blamed when the team didn't meet expectations. Meanwhile, the next couple of teams didn't meet expectations either but players weren't blamed because now it was a trend and obvious that these international teams were being put together poorly. As far as I'm concerned, he got a raw deal.

[mgent]

I'm pretty sure Scalabrine made the team in '08 but then pulled out due to injury.

[greece66]

I'm pretty sure Scalabrine made the team in '08 but then pulled out due to injury.

This is was just the official excuse.

The real reason was Scal wanted to give opportunities to younger players.