Kobe was lucky he found his stroke in the gold medal round, or his Olympic campaign would've gone down as one of the worst of all time for a player of his stature.
"USA Rolls Over Angola and How I'm Not a Fan of Olympic Kobe"
I'm not a big fan of Olympic Kobe. In fact, I'm very close to saying that Olympic Kobe might be... this is tough to say especially as a nine-year Lakers season ticket holder... Olympic Kobe might be overrated.
We heard last summer how much of an influence Kobe had on Team USA. Players raved about his tenacity and training regimen in practice. We especially heard (and continue to hear constantly) about his defensive intensity and that he dove for a lose ball in the first minute of the Tournament of the Americas last summer in Vegas. Kobe was supposed to bring a type of swagger and confidence that Team USA has lacked over the past six years. He was to dominate Team USA on their way to the gold.
So far he's shooting an atrocious 1-15 from beyond the arc against Angola and China. And instead of driving the lane and establishing some sort of offensive rhythm with a few easy hoops, Kobe simply passed off many uncontested layups and dunks.
Plus his defense has been worse. Instead of breaking out a "not while I'm on the floor" lock-down defense that was hyped last summer, Kobe's been sagging heavily off his man and cheating in the passing lanes (a lazy defense in my opinion). This may work in the NBA but not against teams like Spain, Germany and Argentina where players 1-12 can hit outside J's with consistency. And the few times Kobe did choose to man-up the ball-handler, he was too close and got beat off the dribble. Basically he underestimated his opponent's skill with the ball.
http://theassociation.blogs.com/the_...olls-over.html
It was funny, I remember posting on the ESPN boards during this time, and practically every thread started was laughing at how pathetic Kobe was playing in the Olympic tournament. Kobe homers were nowhere to be found, of course.
Then the gold medal game happened, Kobe hit a few clutch shots, including that 4 point play, and the Kobe suckers once again found their voice, which is to be expected, since it's their m.o. to reduce everything to singular moments while ignoring the bigger picture.
He had one good quarter the entire tournament, that's it, and even still, Wade outperformed him.

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We took the USA team's best shot. 