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Sorry, I´m miss Manu
I miss him too. Muchas gracias for the pics. They're awesome!
I know this article was posted in it's own thread, but I thought I would repost here to keep all the info in one place.
USA - Team USA holds no fear for Ginobili
SINGAPORE (FIBA World Championship) - Manu Ginobili rates the United States as one of the favourites to win this year's FIBA World Championship, but the Argentina guard insists the days of Team USA dominance are "part of the past".
Speaking in Singapore, where Olympic champions Argentina will be competing in the Philips Singapore Cup this weekend against Spain, Slovenia and defending world champions Serbia & Montenegro, Ginobili believes the gap in the talent level between US basketball and the rest of the world is gradually diminishing.
"I don't think you're ever going to see again a US team that beats everyone else by a big margin. That was 15 years ago or whenever it was," said the San Antonio Spurs guard.
"Now basketball has changed and many of us are playing with them [in the NBA] every single day so we're getting closer.
"So you're not going to see a US team, even though they are very good, beating everyone else by 30 points. That's part of the past."
However, given the talent at the Americans' disposal, Ginobili is not about to write off their chances of regaining their FIBA World Championship crown although he believes that much will depend on their team chemistry in Japan.
"We know that they have a lot of young talent but we don't know how they will play together. We'll only know that when the World Championship starts," he added.
"Of course the United States will always be among the favourites because of the talent that they have like LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Carmelo Anthony.
"However, basketball is about the team, it's not only about the players. As long as they play together, they play good defence and they play as a team, then they're going to have a big chance of winning it."
As for his own team, Ginobili is confident that Argentina are hitting form at just the right time as they seek to win their first World Championship since their triumph at the inaugural tournament in 1950.
"Of course the first couple of weeks [of training] were hard because everybody was rusty and trying to get back into shape and getting used to playing with each other again," said Ginobili.
"We're now playing in the same way that we want to be at the World Championship.
"We're looking forward to starting already, and playing this weekend against Serbia, Slovenia and Spain, who are going to be three of the most important teams at the World Championship, is very important to us.
"Every time we play, we want to win, that's for sure. It may be the World Championship, the Olympics, the NBA Championship or the South American Championship, but we always want to win."
Sorry, I´m miss Manu
I miss him too. Muchas gracias for the pics. They're awesome!
There is a lot more info on nba.com now, including team previews of Argentina and France.
http://www.nba.com/wbc06/index.html
It already looks like Manu has a busted lip from practice
owie!
Still a nice pic.
Help!
if U.S.A. is ranked by FIBA as #1 and Argentina as #3 who is ranked as #2?
i missed that.
anyway, thanks for this spurschick.
There is a lot more info on nba.com now, including team previews of Argentina and France.
http://www.nba.com/wbc06/index.html
I'll check this out later.
who wants to send a message to manu, beno, and rasho? i'll be going to their games later today. of course, i still don't know how to approach them.
who wants to send a message to manu, beno, and rasho? i'll be going to their games later today. of course, i still don't know how to approach them.
Quickly before all their other fans beat you to the best viewing spot.
Have a fantastic time! Remember everything!
The Philips Cup poster
It is missing Sho. Boosh! But otherwise it is fantastic!
Gino and Beno look great!
hey kababayan, how is security out there? esp around the venue? Phils. is under tight security right now...who wants to send a message to manu, beno, and rasho? i'll be going to their games later today. of course, i still don't know how to approach them.
Questions? hmmnn, let me think...
how about telling them to stop by the Phils. on their way home?
enjoy the games!
note: wear a Spurs hat they might want to answer your questions ahead of the paparazzi opps media first, being a Spurs fan!
i plan to tell me to go to the philippines.
i don't have a spurs cap. i do have a spurs shirt and i plan to wear it today.
i'm not sure about the security. the thing about singapore is, you don't see many huards around but the security is still "tight."
then wear them quicki plan to tell me to go to the philippines.
i don't have a spurs cap. i do have a spurs shirt and i plan to wear it today.
i'm not sure about the security. the thing about singapore is, you don't see many huards around but the security is still "tight."and talk to those guys.
BTW, could you ask Manu what's his game plan during his possible match-up with Bowen-take the 3 from beyond the arc or he'll take it to the rim for a lay-up?
Now, now. A magician NEVER reveals his secrets.
BTW, could you ask Manu what's his game plan during his possible match-up with Bowen-take the 3 from beyond the arc or he'll take it to the rim for a lay-up?
That is the best pic! Such good looking guys.
It is so great to see the boys together and happy.
August 11, 2006
Sports of The Times
A Journeyman Coach’s Most Harrowing Trip
By HARVEY ARATON
THE bus was old, hot, cramped and slow as a herniated snail. A ride that should have taken 3 to 4 hours took a harrowing 13.
An international journey embarked on more than a quarter century ago, ignited by a young boy’s fascination with round objects, mainly a basketball and the globe, took an unscheduled detour last month through a Middle East war zone.
“Only the most optimistic person alive would have called it intimate,” that boy, now 57, said earlier this week during a telephone interview from a hastily arranged sanctuary in Amman, Jordan. Meet Paul Coughter, coach of the Lebanese national basketball team and citizen of the world, by way of Flatbush, Brooklyn.
Meet the American who engineered his players’ escape from the mountains outside besieged Beirut, through a convoluted and imperiled passage north, to Syria, then south, to Amman, on the way to the World Championship of Basketball beginning next week in Japan.
“The crisis began five days after we started our training camp,” Coughter said. “After two days, we sent the players home to be with their families. Then we realized if we didn’t get out, we never would.
“I think we got the last bus in Lebanon. We were in our own mini-world, trying to block out everything, barely anything to eat, stopping at gas stations, places where people would say, ‘Ten minutes ago, a bomb landed over there.’ They’d say, ‘Look at that, it’s still smoldering,’ and then we’re back on the bus, trying to convince ourselves that because one had already landed, it couldn’t happen again.”
Do you think Larry Brown has had a peripatetic career? Over 27 years, Coughter has coached on six continents, has stalked professional sidelines from Australia to Saudi Arabia to Taiwan, has also run the national teams of South Africa, Pakistan and Wales.
Do you believe Brown faced prohibitive odds with last season’s Knicks? Coughter’s manager and trainer both stayed behind last month to tend to their families, and his American-born center, Paul Khoury, was marooned in Idaho, unable to renew his Lebanese visa, when the Beirut airport was bombed. His best player, Fadi El Khatib, wouldn’t leave the country unless there was room on the bus — which was made — for his wife and young child.
Want to hear the N.B.A. soldiers of fortune whine about the wider lane and mysterious refs when the Lebanese are dealing with the rules of war? For a team with aspirations normally no more grandiose than winning a game or two at the gathering of the world’s basketball powers, there have been scant practices and serious sleep deprivation and incalculable stress.
Even Coughter, the globetrotting bachelor, the avowed adventurer who promises to retire soon and sail the world for the rest of his years on a custom-built yacht, called this latest chapter of A Coach’s Life “beyond bizarre.”
Lucky for him, he has never evaluated his career by the number of championships won, by the size of his paycheck. Ask for personal highlights and he tells of exploring an exotic island in New Zealand, of bunking with a Chinese family in Zimbabwe, of sipping coffee while gazing at the Mediterranean from the balcony of his most current address, the Zouk Hotel, 20 minutes from Beirut.
Coughter was born into a large Irish Catholic, basketball-loving Brooklyn family, his father having played at Erasmus Hall High School and his older brother for Joe Mullaney at Providence College. He remembers launching his first shot from his father’s shoulders in Prospect Park, learning the game and using it to facilitate the ultimate road trip.
“It’s like Larry Bird once said: ‘Don’t tell anyone, but I’d do this for free,’ ” Coughter said. “For me, the whole thing is experiential.”
How else to describe the itinerary, from Lebanon to Syria to Jordan to Turkey to Slovenia, back to Jordan, on the way to the Philippines this week and then Japan to, as Coughter put it, “carry the Lebanese flag at a time the country needs to be seen”?
When the United States is perceived in the Middle East to be the power behind the invading Israelis, here is an American at a helm, with an Iraqi assistant, Koussay Hatem, who is married to a Lebanese woman and said in a telephone interview that he “must call home three, four, five times a day to see if everyone is O.K.”
In every direction is a political tinderbox that a wise and wandering Yankee, dependent on the kindness and employment of strangers, knows enough to leave alone. As Coughter said, “One of my best friends in Beirut is from a family that is Hezbollah. We talk about basketball and women.”
On the road, the Lebanese players and even Joseph Vogel, an American who has played professionally in the country long enough to become nationalized, discuss the war, but mostly as it relates to the future beyond Japan.
“The way it’s going right now, who knows if Lebanon will even be open when the world championships are over?” said Vogel, a former player at Colorado State. “For me, it’s a career at stake. For most of these guys, it’s a country.”
The coach recommends focus on the task at hand, on the journey, always the journey.
Coughter, in fact, will leave Japan the day after the last game to meet the country’s junior team, which he also coaches, for the Asian championships. He will take three flights to reach a Chinese city near the Mongolian border. The way things are going in Lebanon, he may not get paid, but don’t tell anyone, he’d do it for free.
E-mail: [email protected]
Home
Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
Thanks for the article.
they just arrived in the Phils...
August 11, 2006
Sports of The Times
A Journeyman Coach’s Most Harrowing Trip
By HARVEY ARATON
THE bus was old, hot, cramped and slow as a herniated snail. A ride that should have taken 3 to 4 hours took a harrowing 13.
An international journey embarked on more than a quarter century ago, ignited by a young boy’s fascination with round objects, mainly a basketball and the globe, took an unscheduled detour last month through a Middle East war zone.
“Only the most optimistic person alive would have called it intimate,” that boy, now 57, said earlier this week during a telephone interview from a hastily arranged sanctuary in Amman, Jordan. Meet Paul Coughter, coach of the Lebanese national basketball team and citizen of the world, by way of Flatbush, Brooklyn.
Meet the American who engineered his players’ escape from the mountains outside besieged Beirut, through a convoluted and imperiled passage north, to Syria, then south, to Amman, on the way to the World Championship of Basketball beginning next week in Japan.
“The crisis began five days after we started our training camp,” Coughter said. “After two days, we sent the players home to be with their families. Then we realized if we didn’t get out, we never would.
“I think we got the last bus in Lebanon. We were in our own mini-world, trying to block out everything, barely anything to eat, stopping at gas stations, places where people would say, ‘Ten minutes ago, a bomb landed over there.’ They’d say, ‘Look at that, it’s still smoldering,’ and then we’re back on the bus, trying to convince ourselves that because one had already landed, it couldn’t happen again.”
Do you think Larry Brown has had a peripatetic career? Over 27 years, Coughter has coached on six continents, has stalked professional sidelines from Australia to Saudi Arabia to Taiwan, has also run the national teams of South Africa, Pakistan and Wales.
Do you believe Brown faced prohibitive odds with last season’s Knicks? Coughter’s manager and trainer both stayed behind last month to tend to their families, and his American-born center, Paul Khoury, was marooned in Idaho, unable to renew his Lebanese visa, when the Beirut airport was bombed. His best player, Fadi El Khatib, wouldn’t leave the country unless there was room on the bus — which was made — for his wife and young child.
Want to hear the N.B.A. soldiers of fortune whine about the wider lane and mysterious refs when the Lebanese are dealing with the rules of war? For a team with aspirations normally no more grandiose than winning a game or two at the gathering of the world’s basketball powers, there have been scant practices and serious sleep deprivation and incalculable stress.
Even Coughter, the globetrotting bachelor, the avowed adventurer who promises to retire soon and sail the world for the rest of his years on a custom-built yacht, called this latest chapter of A Coach’s Life “beyond bizarre.”
Lucky for him, he has never evaluated his career by the number of championships won, by the size of his paycheck. Ask for personal highlights and he tells of exploring an exotic island in New Zealand, of bunking with a Chinese family in Zimbabwe, of sipping coffee while gazing at the Mediterranean from the balcony of his most current address, the Zouk Hotel, 20 minutes from Beirut.
Coughter was born into a large Irish Catholic, basketball-loving Brooklyn family, his father having played at Erasmus Hall High School and his older brother for Joe Mullaney at Providence College. He remembers launching his first shot from his father’s shoulders in Prospect Park, learning the game and using it to facilitate the ultimate road trip.
“It’s like Larry Bird once said: ‘Don’t tell anyone, but I’d do this for free,’ ” Coughter said. “For me, the whole thing is experiential.”
How else to describe the itinerary, from Lebanon to Syria to Jordan to Turkey to Slovenia, back to Jordan, on the way to the Philippines this week and then Japan to, as Coughter put it, “carry the Lebanese flag at a time the country needs to be seen”?
When the United States is perceived in the Middle East to be the power behind the invading Israelis, here is an American at a helm, with an Iraqi assistant, Koussay Hatem, who is married to a Lebanese woman and said in a telephone interview that he “must call home three, four, five times a day to see if everyone is O.K.”
In every direction is a political tinderbox that a wise and wandering Yankee, dependent on the kindness and employment of strangers, knows enough to leave alone. As Coughter said, “One of my best friends in Beirut is from a family that is Hezbollah. We talk about basketball and women.”
On the road, the Lebanese players and even Joseph Vogel, an American who has played professionally in the country long enough to become nationalized, discuss the war, but mostly as it relates to the future beyond Japan.
“The way it’s going right now, who knows if Lebanon will even be open when the world championships are over?” said Vogel, a former player at Colorado State. “For me, it’s a career at stake. For most of these guys, it’s a country.”
The coach recommends focus on the task at hand, on the journey, always the journey.
Coughter, in fact, will leave Japan the day after the last game to meet the country’s junior team, which he also coaches, for the Asian championships. He will take three flights to reach a Chinese city near the Mongolian border. The way things are going in Lebanon, he may not get paid, but don’t tell anyone, he’d do it for free.
BASKETBOLA, NOT HEZBOLLAH
Members of the Lebanese basketball team present their travel do ents on their arrival at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport yesterday for a series of tune-up matches with local teams before the world championships in Japan next week.
Serbia and Montenegro defeated Argentina yesterday 83-64.
I haven't talked to Manu yet. He walks too fast.
i did talk to beno, and he has gorgeous eyes.
11/08/2006
ARG - Ginobili looks ahead to Japan
SINGAPORE (FIBA World Championship) - Manu Ginobili and Argentina are looking to complete an Olympic and FIBA World Championship double when they travel to Japan.
Close to capturing the world le four years ago in Indianapolis, an injured Ginobili watched as Yugoslavia beat his national side in a final that went to overtime.
The South Americans set the record straight two years later in Greece by winning the gold medal at the Athens Games.
Ginobili was in the mood to talk before the Argentinians took the court at the Philips Singapore Cup, where they will take on Serbia & Montenegro (formerly Yugoslavia), Slovenia and Spain - all teams that will be at the FIBA World Championship which tips off on August 19.
How do you compare this Argentina team with the one that won the Olympic gold two years ago?
Ginobili: "Of course, the first couple of weeks were hard because everybody was rusty and trying to get back into shape and getting used to playing with each other again. We’re now playing in the same way that we want to be at the World Championship which is now just 10 days ahead of us. In the meantime, this tournament [the Philips Singapore Cup] is going to be very important for us. We’re looking forward to starting already, playing against Serbia, Slovenia and Spain, who are going to be three of the most important teams at the World Championship.
Argentina took on Spain in the final of last week's Madrid Tournament. It was a comprehensive victory for your opponents. What are your thoughts looking back at that?
Ginobili: "We played two very important games during the tournament in Madrid. Lithuania is one of the favourites, too, and we beat them even though we travelled the day before and we couldn’t play that well because of the jet lag. Then, the following day we just didn’t have enough legs and we played a team [Spain] that played great. Spain is probably one of the best teams at the World Championship along with the United States and they really beat us well all over the court. We just couldn’t go by them.
Manu, you play in the United States with the San Antonio Spurs and compete against most of the players in this year's Team USA. You beat them in semi-finals at the Olympics in Greece. How do you feel about this US Team?
Ginobili: "We know that they have a lot of young talent but we don’t know how they will play together. We’ll only know that when the World Championship starts.Of course, the United States will always be among the favourites because of the talent that they have like LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony. However, basketball is about the team, it’s not only about the players. As long as they play together, they play good defense and they play as a team, then they’re going to have a big chance of winning it. (However) I don’t think you’re ever going to see again a US team that beats everyone else by 30 or 40 points. That was 15 years ago, or whenever it was. Now basketball has changed and many of us are playing with them [in the NBA] every single day so we’re getting closer. You’re not going to see a US Team, even though they are very good, beating everyone by 30. That’s part of the past."
How important is winning the World Championship?
Ginobili: Every time we play, we want to win, that’s for sure. It may be the World Championship, the Olympics, the NBA Championship or the South American Championship, but we always want to win."
What about losing it four years ago?
Ginobili: "For us, winning the World Championship is not about revenge. It’s just one more championship, so we’re going to do our best and try to enjoy it as much as we did two years ago (in Greece).
Colin Pereira
PA Sport, Singapore
http://www.fiba2006.fiba.com/pages/e...p?newsID=15147
it's hard to believe Argentina lost to Serbia.Serbia and Montenegro defeated Argentina yesterday 83-64.
I haven't talked to Manu yet. He walks too fast.
i did talk to beno, and he has gorgeous eyes.
But, I don't really think they will lose to Serbia in the World this time.
well, Manu's Argentina & Slovenia I believe are on the same group with team Lebanon who are in town right now.
PBA aces suit up for RP-Lebanon series
By Nelson Beltran
The Philippine Star 08/12/2006
The Philippine-Lebanon goodwill series is pushing through as scheduled after PBA ballclubs decided to field their top players for the dual meet slated tomorrow and Wednesday in two separate venues here.
Released by their respective clubs for the series are Jimmy Alapag, Don Allado, Renren Ritualo and Asi Taulava of Talk n Text, Mick Pennisi and Larry Fonacier of Red Bull, Willie Miller and Mike Cortez of Alaska Milk, Rafi Reavis and Billy Mamaril of Ginebra, Dennis Miranda of Coca-Cola and Ranidel de Ocampo of Air21.
The squad takes on the World Championship-bound Lebanon team at 6 p.m. tomorrow at the Astrodome and at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Araneta Coliseum. The Lebanese arrived yesterday.
Ateneo coach Norman Black will call the shots in place of national mentor Chot Reyes who left for Taiwan yesterday together with the San Miguel team seeing action in the Asian Professional Tourney. The Beermen will go up against top commercial teams from China, Korea, Japan and Taiwan among others.
"Looks like a solid team. It’s a commitment to the RP team that the ball clubs came forth and offered their players," said PBA commissioner Noli Eala.
The Nationals expect to go through a tough grind against Lebanese who are here for the final stage of their buildup for the World Championship in Saitama, Japan.
The Lebanese moved out of their war-torn country and pitched camp in Syria to prepare for the World event. They later played a series of games against Jordan, Slovenia, Canada and Germany before flying here yesterday.
The Lebanese, runners-up to China in the last two FIBA-Asia championships, are playing in the World Championship. for the second straight time.
they didn't look very sharp yesterday. anyway, it's just a warm-up game so it doesn't really tell you much about how they actually play next week.
ARG - Argentina back to winning ways
SINGAPORE (FIBA World Championship) – Argentina shook off the disappointment of a heavy defeat to Serbia & Montenegro by trouncing Slovenia 94-72 on Saturday in their second match at the Philips Singapore Cup.
The Olympic champions broke open a close match by outscoring the Slovenians 29-7 in the third quarter - 24 hours after an 83-64 loss to the two-time defending world champion Serbo-Montenegrins.
Argentina trailed by seven points early in the second quarter but with Carlos Delfino coming off the bench to score 12 points in the period, the South Americans went on a 17-5 run that turned the match in their favour.
Sergio Hernandez, the Argentina coach, said: "We played better today. We ran our offense well and made easy baskets."
Forward Luis Scola was the leading Argentinian scorer with 21 points, while Andres Nocioni had 17 points and Delfino 14. Guard Manu Ginobili finished with nine points on four of nine shooting and also had six assists.
For Slovenia, guard Beno Udrih top-scored with 18 points while center Radoslav Nesterovic had 18 points and seven rebounds.
Nesterovic, the Slovenia captain, scored eight and grabbed four boards in the opening quarter as the European side jumped out to a 22-20 lead and they built a 28-21 early in the second quarter before Delfino found his range.
The shooting guard nailed a three-pointer for his first points as the South Americans outscored their opponents 27 to 14 for the rest of the half to take a 48-42 lead at the break.
Nesterovic began the scoring in the second half with a lay-up but Slovenia’s shooting then went cold and Argentina took full advantage, reeling off 11 straight points to lead 59-44.
With Slovenia making only three of their 15 shots in the quarter, Argentina took full advantage to open up a 77-49 lead with 10 minutes to play.
Argentina were in front by as many as 30 points early in the fourth quarter.
Slovenia cut the deficit to 22 points by the end of the game but they walked off the court knowing they had been well beaten.
Hernandez revealed after Saturday's game that the team had not practiced earlier in the day.
Instead, the coach gathered with his players to discuss tactics, the need to have better shot selection and the importance of maintaining intensity on the defensive end.
"We didn't practice today," he said. "We had two meetings. In the first one, we talked about us and about the problems we had yesterday.
"In the afternoon, we talked about Slovenia, watched a DVD and talked about how we were going to play against them. We played very well on defense."
GRE - Greece suffer Stankovic Cup setback against France
NANJING (FIBA World Championship) - France brought Greece back down to earth on Saturday with a 72-68 triumph over the European champions in the Stankovic Cup.
The Greeks, whose play this summer has led to many of the experts placing them among the favourites to win the FIBA World Championship, started the Stankovic Cup with a 68-60 win over Australia but France proved tougher opponent.
Panagiotis Yannakis’ Greeks started well enough and boasted a 23-18 lead after the first period and they also still led by one point at the interval, but France dominated after the break to claim the four-point victory.
There was relief on the face of France coach Claude Bergeaud after the game.
"At last we played a complete game," he said. "We managed to correct what was missing in the last games, that's to say rigour and constancy for an entire match.
"After the three consecutive defeats of last week with the one against Greece this victory is a positive point even if the Greeks maybe were a bit relaxed. We still lost lots of balls this evening (19 turnovers) and we must correct that in the future.
"We finally played as a unit of five with the same intensity on the court and not as four or four and a half.
"This evening the bench was at the right level and we must continue in this direction."
Greece came from behind in the final minute to beat France in last year's EuroBasket semi-final and then won the le in Belgrade, overcoming Germany in the championship game.
The Greeks also defeated France in the final of the Acropolis Tournament earlier this month.
Benetton Treviso guard Nikos Zisis led all scorers with 12 points for Greece while his team-mate Lazaros Papadopoulos added 11.
For victorious France, the points were shared around with Mickael Gelabale the only player to reach double-figures in scoring after netting 10 points.
Captain Boris Diaw had nine points and six rebounds.
Bergeaud decided to play Johan Petro instead of Cyril Julian, with the pair battling it out for the final place in the 12-man squad for the FIBA World Championship.
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