Winderman: Wrong answer to say NBA players should be paid for Olympics

There was one correct answer, and in the past 24 hours Ray Allen and Dwyane Wade whiffed. And that’s unfortunate.

Do NBA players deserve to be paid for participating in the Olympics? Considering the television ratings and merchandising they create, sure.

But should NBA players ask to be paid?

To answer that, return to where it begins, the opening ceremonies, when there, alongside the original Dream Team and then the ensuing NBA-based Olympic teams, stride athletes who instead compete in rowing, fencing, handball, badminton, kayaking, athletes who will never cash in, never earn from their sports what NBA athletes will collect in mere per diem.

NBA players in the Olympics can be like NCAA football players, athletes who help carry the freight so collegiate athletic programs can also field, well, rowing, fencing and others non-revenue sports.

The debate of professionals, particularly NBA professionals, in the Olympics long has been about whether the Olympics truly are the pinnacle of their sport.

We know that’s not the case for soccer. It’s apparent, even with the upcoming Olympic tournament to be contested at Wimbledon, it’s not the case in tennis. And winning Olympic gold hardly stopped the questions about Ewing, Barkley, Stockton and Malone never winning the big one.

For the most part, the entire Olympic-NBA payment issue is nothing more than a hypothetical being tossed in players’ directions, with candor coming in response, which is healthy.

It just wasn’t the right response.

The right answer would have been, “Sure we should get paid — and that money should go to help finance the careers of others in the Olympic movement whose sports are not as well-funded.”

Sort of as Wade did at Marquette and Allen at UConn.

That would have addressed both fairness as well as something closer to the Olympic ideal.

That way, Dwyane Wade not only would be representing the United States, but also the U.S. Olympic movement, easing the burden of those who don’t have an NBA or any other fiscally viable professional stage to turn to.

Ira Winderman writes regularly for NBCSports.com and covers the Heat and the NBA for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. You can follow him on Twitter at @IraHeatBeat.