Dick Harmon has a very interesting article in the D-News today about Travis Hansen.

Apparently Vladimir Putin granted him nationalized-citizen status, which means if he were invited, he could play for the Russian basketball team in the Beijing Olympics. In addition to that:

The Dynamo have provided Hansen with a beautiful house, two cars, a professional driver, and a full-time cook and nanny to care for his son. He gets a dozen first-class tickets a year to use how he wants to for his family to travel from America to Russia, or the reverse. He also has some great tax breaks, an advantage to what he'd pay if he lived in the States.

Sounds like things he's representing well in Europe. His wife also started a charity for Russian orphans.

Anyway, the article has a lot more info; I highly recommend it.

I saw on ESPN the other day that a girl from the US did the same thing so the she could play in the olympics.

Also interesting in the article that he says since recuperating from his injury he is playing slower but his best ever. Travis always seemed to push the envelope with his physical skills to try to win. Now it seems like he's mentally adapting to the game and becoming a better all-around player. He and his wife may be having a similar goodwill impact to what former player Steve Trumbo had in Spain back in the 80's and early 90's.

Good for the Hansens!

Shawn Bradley was granted citizenship by Germany a while back and played for the German national team. In fact, he played with Nowitzki on the 2002 German team that took 3rd in the World Championships.