US basketball opts for cruise ship over Olympic village

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) – Team USA basketball players will forego the beleaguered accommodations at the Olympic village in preference for a cruise ship moored on the Port of Rio de Janeiro.

The men’s and women’s teams will reportedly stay on the Silver Cloud, according to the Daily Mail.

The decision comes as Olympic organizers continue to face complaints from athletes and journalists who are lodging in Olympic facilities. Objections have ranged from the minor – missing shower curtains, for example – to the severe, including blocked toilets and exposed wiring.

Australia’s athletes infamously said their rooms were “uninhabitable.” And that’s before some of the team’s rooms were robbed during a fire evacuation.

The national basketball team’s star center, Andrew Bogut, who also plays for the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Dallas Mavericks, posted a photo on Twitter of him assembling a shower curtain “so we can shower and not flood the place.”

That is a situation unlikely to be faced by his American colleagues.

The Silver Cloud has 196 cabins on board, a top-deck pool and hot tub, and importantly, newly-installed seven-foot beds.

Security also will not be in short supply for Team USA. The boat is surrounded on its port side by a fence made of bullet proof glass and about 250 federal police officers have been put on alert.

This isn’t the first time that the U.S.’s star-studded basketball team has taken up high-class accommodations.

The men’s team opted to stay on a cruise liner at least once before during the 2004 Athens Summer Games.