Kevin Durant. James Harden. Damian Lillard. Bradley Beal. Four of the premiere names who have committed to join the 2020 (2021) Team USA men’s basketball team this year, and none of the four of them appeared in the 2019 FIFA Basketball World Cup, where the US finished in seventh place but finished as one of the top two teams in the Americas, qualifying them for the Olympics.
You don’t think my Pacers’ Myles Turner, the NBA league leader in blocked shots last year (who was frankly robbed in the All-NBA Defensive Team voting), would like a chance to chase an Olympic gold medal? Or Kemba Walker, or Jaylen Brown? How come the superstars only come out for the bright lights of the Olympics, and aren’t encouraged (or required) to participate in actually getting there? And is this unique to basketball and possibly baseball? I doubt Simone Biles is allowed to skip her qualifiers.
Almost certainly, it is because they are afraid of getting hurt in a “meaningless” tournament.
Did you know the World Championships have been held every four years or so since the 1950s? Did you also know that USA didn’t win between, IIRC, 1954 and 1986? This is because, while NBA teams were willing to wait until after the Olympics to sign their drafted seniors, they did not them to risk their professional careers in what they considered to be a meaningless tournament.
There is some consideration given to players who play in the qualifying tournament, but in the end, the coaches want the best players they can get. The last thing the NBA needs is another “Not Best Anymore” cover of Sports Illustrated.
Because they’re not needed, and they have no interest in doing so. The risk of injury is too great for a meaningless game. There are plenty of college kids who can carry the load during those tournaments and still qualify the US for the Olympics. Also, those games may fall during the NBA season, or during their rest and recovery time.
Biles can’t skip her qualifiers because you qualify for the Olympic gymnastic team as an individual. (Though I’m wondering just how much USA Gymnastics would be willing to do to get her on the team if she was in, say, COVID protocol during the trials next week).
Same kind of “qualification team not being the same as the final team” happens in soccer at essentially all levels. The players who qualify a team for a tournament might not be the ones who play at the end. For the World Cup, especially in early stages of qualifying against lesser teams, good teams will play younger players. Happens in things for club teams midseason too, you won’t play the same lineups in early rounds of cup competitions as you will when it gets to the final eight.
There has been quite a lot of politics involving choosing USA women’s gymnastics Olympic teams over the years. I think it used to be strictly objective - the top six at the trials made the team, and the seventh was the alternate, much to the dismay of Kristie Phillips, who went from the cover of Sports Illustrated (9/1/1986) to finishing eighth at the 1988 trials, in part because of a hereditary growth spurt - but there have always been cases of protests and appeals that resulted in the actual team changing.
A few years ago, the system changed to the top one or two gymnasts at the trials automatically making the team, and the rest being decided by committee; usually, NBC shows the committee entering the deliberation room, then the door closing behind them until they re-emerged to make the team announcement.
Every sport must submit a detailed “athlete selection process” to the USOC. The one for women’s gymnastics says that any gymnast who has competed in a previous Olympics or World Championships but cannot compete in the trials (e.g. because of injury) may file a petition prior to the conclusion of the trials to get a spot on the Olympic team, so, presumably, if Biles was hurt and couldn’t compete at trials, she could, and almost certainly would (unless her injury would keep her out of the Olympics as well), still make the team.
AIUI, it’s because the U.S. is so utterly dominant in basketball that qualification for the Olympics is more or less guaranteed even with their lesser guys, hence no need to bring out the big guns like Curry, Durant, LeBron, etc., or risk them to injury.
It’s only nations who might not necessarily qualify, who’d bring out their best for the qualifiers.
Mine is, “Behind closed doors.” Literally - it’s just not an NBC Women’s Gymnastics Olympic Trials broadcast if they don’t show the door to the committee room being closed. (Sunday, I am guessing around 10:30 PM Eastern.)