USA hoops update thread

[OH10]

And the winner is ... me!


Just to close with some responses, because it wouldn't be right not to....

1. Was I the first to predict what would happen if we had picked different players? No! Let's check to scoresheet why don't we..

lebron and duncan couldve hand picked college players and kicked ass.

I guess I'm not the only psychic around here.

2. Larry Brown's coaching decisions: Talking heads criticize coaches all of the time, but could they get a job in coaching? Would an NBA team or Division IA team hire you as a coach? Like I said, he's more qualified.

3. Yeah, I guess no international player is having an effect on the NBA.
Last year's International All Stars.... Dirk Nowitzki, Peja Stoijakovic, Yao Ming, and Andre Kirilenko. The could have been all stars list: Pau Gasol, Zydrunas Illgauskas, Manu Ginobili, and Tony Parker.

4.

manu takes him with his left and the ZONE that would be played would swallow him up. oh i forgot. mcnamara plays [censored]ty defense. how stupid of me................no wait, your stupid. (you picked a syracuse bball fan to talk [censored] with )

Translator please... No, No, you're stupid. What is this [censored]ing second grade? McNamara plays [censored]ty on ball defense. He really does. He's lucky to get to play a zone, because he doesn't have to speed to play driving line defense against a point guard with any quickness. Good luck playing your zone against the international teams. That should be interesting. They don't have "zone-busters" or anything.

5. Sure, I bet a great basketball player such as yourself is quick enough to play with Carlos Arroyo or strong enough to play inside with Pau Gasol. Now, I know who you are.... Tom Brandewie.

6. Be done. I'm tired of pointing out the flaws in your meatless arguments.

[Bucklion]

"No, the shooting wasn't good. But, even if we had a Michael Redd or an Allan Houston on this team, we would have lost at least one game. Does anyone remember the 2000 team having to make a great comeback against Lithuania in Sydney to only win by two?"

Yep, and I also remember handling Lithuania in the opening round somewhat more handily (though not by blowout), beating France 2x by double digits and blowing out Russia, Italy, and China...so yes, we may have lost one game this time, but then again, perhaps we would have had the edge to pull the close game out...just like we did in 2000. If we had anybody who could shoot free throws, we could win close games, and if we had anybody who could hit an outside shot, maybe our inside guys would have had a bit more success...but we had neither this time.

So basically what it boils down to is if I like the International style of play, I'm somehow unAmerican and not supporting our guys, but if I want our guys to do better at the Olympics, the need to play better within the International style of play? Is there something wrong with this picture?

Basically Stadium it sounds like you're trying to argue theory while agreeing with everone else in principle, because despite you calling it "hypocritical patriotism" you basically are agreeing that A) the rest of the world plays a different style of basketball, that B)they currently play better than we do, and C) the deck is somewhat stacked against us in the international game at this point in time, which we need to overcome to "re-dominate".

In this thread, I've actually blamed the NBA, and not the players as much, for the results. It's the NBA that councils the refs not to call fouls or travelling on "star" players, and the NBA runs on reputation calls that of course no one gets now. Does anyone think that if NBA refs were doing the Olympics that there would ever be a close game? Of course not, the US would win by 50 every time, and therein lies the problem. What you are interpreting as racism (sorry, "culturism") is actually just disgust with the denegration of the style of play in the NBA over the last 15 years or so. Basketball is a team game, requiring a great number of diverse skills, few of which are required to make millions in the NBA anymore. Example: When I watched the NBA in the "glory days" of the 80's and early 90's, players shot better than 45% from the field (many shot over 50) or they rode the pine. Nowadays, two players who started on All-Star teams (Kidd and A Walker) shot less than 40% from the field. Likewise, even most big men (Chamberlain the obvious exception) shot between 65 and 75% from the line to keep their starting job. Now you've got arguably the league's best player (Diesel) whose shooting is a running joke, and every other team basically having one guy who can hit a couple at the end of a game, and that's about it (ironically, many of those are the Europeans). I personally could care less what the color of their skin is, what jewelry they wear, music they listen to, tattoos they have, or how they have their hair...I have plenty of more pressing things to worry about, and none of that stuff bothers me anyway. But I think the style of play sucks, and that's my right to think without being called a racist by some half-wit pseudo-intellectual ESPN columnist. It's merely disgust with the NBA, not rooting against America, at least in my case.

[MililaniBuckeye]

Originally Posted by StadiumDorm

3. Yeah, I guess no international player is having an effect on the NBA.
Last year's International All Stars.... Dirk Nowitzki, Peja Stoijakovic, Yao Ming, and Andre Kirilenko. The could have been all stars list: Pau Gasol, Zydrunas Illgauskas, Manu Ginobili, and Tony Parker.

Let's see, four all-stars out of how many all-stars total? How many of those four foreigners were starters? Oh yeah, and were they all from the same country? By the way, "could have been all stars" is just a complimentary way of saying "not all stars". Dumb-ass.

Everyone knows that the rest of the world is closing the gap, but even as you pointed out by the very small numbers of foreign all-stars, they're still a ways back. Now, when half or more of the NBA all star team is foreign, then you can claim international parity.

[Brutus1]

Wow, this got quite ugly.

Perhaps Stu Jackson, Rod Thorn and Larry Brown should take the brunt of the criticicsm for their picks. Sure, alot of people turned them down, but, knowing the international game, why not get any shooters ? Perhaps it was reverse racism on their part by not naming a player like Barry, Hoiberg or someone of that style because they just are not flashy and don't play the NBA style of game.

Even though the players' shooting was pathetic, I can't blame them because they at least CHOSE to play in the games where the others opted out for various reasons, especially terrorost concerns.

Larry Brown showed he can't coach in the international game. He may be a good coach, but there is no reason to have so many guys ride the pine because of experience while your guys getting all the pt were playing so bad.

As long as there is a race card to play, then people are always going to play it at the first sign of criticism. Someone mentioned earlier about why no outcry about the 4 x 100 relay team getting the Bronze. Well, I imagine they were all of color, so a racist is a racist, right ? Well, put the race card away because it's just that on the whole , we don't care as passionately about Track and Field as we do about hoops. If we were racist, we would be dogging the 4 x 100 team. We're not, we're just apathetic.

I think everyone just took this team for granted that, no matter who we put out there, we'd win. Perhaps next time they will be much more selective about who they invite, as well as who will be the coach.

The word game is catching up to us. We can no longer take it for granted. The world game caught up to Canada in hockey, and they needed their absolute best players to beat them. They also chose their team knowing the difference between the international game and the NHL game. Perhaps it's time for those at USA Basketball to do the same.

[BuckeyeNation27]

wow.....lithuania cries more than kobe did this year

47-44 USA
1 min left in the first half

[BuckeyeNation27]

and we beat the cry babies. very good performance. something i could be proud in as an american.

now only if they wouldve played like that for the entire olympics instead of 2 games i wouldnt be called a racist or a culturalist by half wits