I wondered how long it would take before the race card got played publicly

[Bucklion]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2...hitlock/040826

Yes, I knew it was coming (and the race card is his words, not mine). I agree, some people are pouring way too many glasses of hatorade for this olympic team, but to say you can't find ANYTHING wrong with anything about the team or the league without being racist (hence his line that everything else, like not liking the style of play, etc., is "just an excuse") is total garbage. If guys like this really want people to get behind a team or a league like the NBA, calling everyone racist who has anything critical to say isn't likely to spark such a response.

[BuckeyeNation27]

ive never been able to read that racist idiots crap....and as soon as i saw "whitlock" in your link i knew i was in for it. i didnt get past the johnnie cochran line....i got too [censored]ed off.

i find it racist to say "they dont like us cuz we are black." thats just my opinion though.

i agree that the people who root against the USA team are idiots....but i dont think they are doing it because the team is black. thats just rediculous. i wish witlocked would get attacked with as much hate as a white person would be if they said something racist.

[RugbyBuck]

I waded through the whole thing. My response is, Hey, moron, it's called America and over here we get to decide whether to cheer for the US team or not. We're even free, by the way, to be hypocritical, super-patriotic racists (his terms). There's no law against any of that.

To the extent that I'm watching at all, which I'm not, I'm looking for us to get our asses kicked and, hopefully, finish out of the medals. I think that's an entirely patriotic approach. That's what we and basketball need. At least that would be better than us winning the gold by mailing it in or this ridiculous "us against the world" mentality that is currently being shoved down our throats. How hard is it, by the way, to actually play "international style" basketball, if you are truly a professional basketball player. I don't get any slack cut if I have to handle a case in another state with differing rules of civil procedure. Shut the [censored] up and play basketball or just shut the [censored] up.

[jimotis4heisman]

the difference is FUNDAMENTALS we dont have them, thats why i dont like this team or the NBA

[AKAKBUCK]

Now they know how Dustin Fox Feels.

[tibor75]

Two words to refute this bozo's argument: Tim Duncan.

[osugrad21]

Originally Posted by AKAKBUCK

Now they know how Dustin Fox Feels.

Oh hell here we go again

[JohnnyCockfight]

Dustin Fox...that's the guy from Family Ties and Teenwolf, right?

[MililaniBuckeye]

"International Basketball", i.e., "team play", used to be the norm in the NBA...

[jimotis4heisman]

Tibor am i the bozo?? Duncan is an exception to the other what is it 13 guys, plus ducnan is not a mainland citizen he is from the virgin islands

[stxbuck]

This is friggin ridiculous. If we had Mike Bibby or Jason Kidd and Michael Redd on the team-a real PG and the league's best 3 point shooter-we probably wouldn't lose. I don't like dumbass streetballers who only "pass" a joint. Oh my, I just described Jason Williams(the West Virginia native, not the Duke/Bulls player). Last time I checked, he was very white and pasty.........

[vrbryant]

People don't like the USA basketball team because they're not a team. They're a collection of young stars who, despite possessing a wide range of basketball skills, simply don't know how to play well together. LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire simply do not belong there - they're all too raw. Stephon Marbury and Allen Iverson are known far and wide for their inability to make players around them better. The only players that are appropriate to the situation are Tim Duncan, Carlos Boozer and Emeka Okafor - none of whom have much range or quickness, two aspects of the game which are of paramount importance in international rules hoops. The rest of the guys (in contrast to the original Dream Team) are just too young to be able to redefine their games to fit the scenario. They've spent their entire life making their games work for the NBA, and they would need a hell of a lot more than a few months to change it.

Speaking of the original Dream Team, that was a watershed [censored]ing moment in Olympic history. They were the first to do it, and they were the absolute best of the best - without question. They rolled through the competition like a juggernaut because nobody was prepared. Well, that was twelve years ago. Since then, the rest of the world has been preparing, while we've been keeping on with NBA-style basketball. I was never surprised by our "failure," because it was a simple inevitability just as soon as Magic, Jordan and Bird hoisted their gold medals in '92.

My biggest problem isn't with Whitlock's ridiculous racial nonsense, and it isn't with the players for "dogging it" and "being selfish." It's with the perceptions and expectations of the American public, and the attitude that we should just be slaughtering the rest of the world in basketball. This is not 1992. This is not a 'dream team'. Unfortunately, it's not the best that we can offer, but [censored] - it's what we've got. I'm not going to lie and say that I've been behind this team 100%, and I think that them finishing out of the medals would certainly motivate some of those aforementioned 'best of the best' players to sack up and answer the call in 2006, but I don't hate this team, and I certainly don't wish them to fail. Fine line, I suppose, but it is a line. Basketball has changed. The world has changed. Our expectations need to change right along with it.