Dwyane Wade (and Ray Allen) made some comments recently about NBA players and being paid to play in the Olympics. As you might expect, there's been some blowback. Any time someone that already makes million of dollars implies they'd like to make even more money for just donning their country's colors and performing what's almost seen as a patriotic duty, there's going to be backlash.

Wade, feeling it I'm sure, took to Twitter to try and clarify his comments.
I actually thought Wade's original point about being paid for merchandise sales was a worthy one. As he said, there's a lot of business and money being made off the players that they have no part of. Similar in the way there's a lot of discussion about if college athletes should be compensated for jersey sales and whatnot, Wade was making a reasonable point. Again, an off-the-court point.

He really never said he wanted to be paid to play. Ray Allen's the one that actually said that, citing injury risks and adding incentive to making sure the best players play.

The backlash to the idea that players should be paid for the basketballing services is certainly justified though. Because to think that players that are already paid extremely handsomely need to be compensated to play for country is absurd. That's everything the Olympic games are not. Yeah, people are making money and they probably want a slice. But the Olympics aren't supposed to be about money.

It's supposed to be about national pride, your anthem and bringing home a medal for your homeland. To think NBA players deserve some money for just playing is absolutely ridiculous. If that's what it takes to be motivated to put on the red, white and blue (or whatever colors), then you're not Olympic material.