Why were the US professional Basketball allowed to start trying out?

Answer 1

It was after the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea, where the Russians took the gold medal, the Yugoslavians took the Silver in their defeat to the Russians, and the USA took bronze. Let's footnote this by first explaining something about the athletes that competed in the Olympics at that time. The USA still chose future Olympians, unlike most countries, from its amateur athletes. Professional athletes were not allowed because they had received financial compensation for their participation. The European and Asian athletes, most notably the East Germans, Russians, and Chinese, were and still are, "wards of the state", and are supported by their country. The USA Basketball players were college players not pros. Playing the Russians, they played the country's professional teams in basketball and hockey. (google the the gold medal hockey game in 1980 between the USA and Russia. That's why it was such an upset. The Russians were undefeated) After the defeat of our basketball team in 1988 by the Russians, the decision was made to recruit our future Olympic basketball team and at some point the hockey team from the pros. The sole purpose of the 1992 Mens Olympic Basketball Team, known as the "Dream Team", was to re-assert our domination of the Olympics as the world's basketball super-power.