US Olympic Basketball Team

[Sixpipes]

Playing for the bronze medal? What a joke this team has been. Even odds that they don't win the bronze medal game either. :cool:

http://us.news1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20040827/i/r847457623.jpg

[00Bolt]

ya that is a joke... too bad our best players arent playing or it would be usual for U.S.

[tliss]

What do you expect from a team of individuals? These guys never became a team. Other countries have molded the players chosen into a group that works together...our guys are just a bunch of alpha males...no team. Point proven...you may not have the best players in the world, if they work as a team they can beat anyone.

This is the first olympics where I can honestly say our basketball team is crap. These things should look like a Harlem Globetrotters game...How'd you like to remembered as one of the guys responsible for ruining the winning streak?
Tom

[bigdale83]

I know. It's pretty bad when you have more money in players then some of the countries do in their govt and you still loose!!!! I would hate to even come home!

[Ivanhoe_Farms]

In the name of our economy, maybe we should export these guys to a country whose budget is less than they are getting paid:throw:

[jcblack]

I think that the team that won the Championships should go. Send the Pistons. They have been practicing together and know how to play together.

[Sixpipes]

Newfound respect for Iverson and a fair assessment of the issues. :cool:

http://sports.yahoo.com/oly/news;_ylc=X3oDMTBpcmc2NWVyBF9TAzI1NjY0ODI1BHNlYwNv ZQ--?slug=usatoday-iversonsawinnerfornotma&prov=usatoday&type=lgns

[TreeFiddy]

I don't think this team is crap at all. USA basketball chose this team. Let's look at what we have here:

The final four MVP, the top three rookies from last year, the previous year's rookie of the year, a New York Knick, a Los Angeles Laker, a big free-agent from the headlines, one carry-over from the last USA team, and two veterans who actually wanted to represent the USA. It's a team of high flyers, inside players and finishers, playing 5 on 7 basketball with teams that specialize in shooting 20 foot jumpers off moving picks.

Can they play defense? Nope. Do they make stupid plays? Yep. Are they proof that the rest of the world has "caught up" to us in basketball? Don't make me laugh.

They have gotten no technical fouls, they've handled the rotten calls, constant boos, limited minutes and the scorn of the bandwagon jumping USA "fans" who abandon them as soon as they see it won't be a cakewalk, and done so in a professional manner.

I'm proud of them, and I'm glad Duncan didn't get hurt, because real basketball is starting in a couple of months.

[TreeFiddy]

Newfound respect for Iverson and a fair assessment of the issues. :cool:

http://sports.yahoo.com/oly/news;_ylc=X3oDMTBpcmc2NWVyBF9TAzI1NjY0ODI1BHNlYwNv ZQ--?slug=usatoday-iversonsawinnerfornotma&prov=usatoday&type=lgns

Good article. Iverson's always been misunderstood. I don't recall Duncan hiding anywhere. Since he didn't really play in the game, I don't know what they expected him to say.

[Tex Arcana]

What do you expect from a team of individuals? These guys never became a team. Other countries have molded the players chosen into a group that works together...our guys are just a bunch of alpha males...no team. Point proven...you may not have the best players in the world, if they work as a team they can beat anyone.

This is the first olympics where I can honestly say our basketball team is crap. These things should look like a Harlem Globetrotters game...How'd you like to remembered as one of the guys responsible for ruining the winning streak?
Tom

BAD Radio on The Ticket were talking to a guy who's in some organization (I forget the guy's name and organization, but he's a famous ex-roundballer), who was making the point that American basketball has strayed from the roots of fundamental basketball, and the reason the world has caught up is that the American players don't know how to play the game from a strategic or tactical standpoint anymore--I think that they just play "streetball", even when it's 5 "teammates" on the court.

He made a very intersting comment: that he would ratehr have a team comprised of smart players, who understand and execute the fundamentals, rather than the best atheletes, because he can win games with the mart players, whose smarts outweigh the athleticism.

And this is what we're seeing here: a bunch of individual atheletes playing streetball, against TEAMS that execute the fundamentals, and use thier heads, and think their way around the athelticism.

So, to be honest, I am sorely dissapointed in this US team, becasue they *should* have handled up on everyone, but didn't because their egotism and arrogance earned them a buttkicking. :nono:


EDIT: I just read the article, and it both reinforces and denies what I jsut wrote: reinforces, in that the player had no clue how to nadle themselves in the fface of fundamentals; denies, in that the players (especially Iverson) nutted it up and admited they let themselves get beat.

So, to amend my statement: they got beat with fundamentals, but it's the fault of the US basketball comittee, David Stern, and Brown for not getting the team together in time andgetting them taught how to play as a team, and to teach them enough fundamentals so they could compete; and, the only fault of the players is that they never focused on improving their own fundamentals, even in the face of a league full of "streetballers".

[Shiner1]

"Practice, It's practice" Iverson isn't misunderstood, he's a punk. Maybe if we find some good college players who are hungry.....