ESPN article on World Championships Pop and other Spur notes

[duncan2k5]

side note...Manu vs Bruce will be very fun to watch. vbookie on who throws the first frustrated elbow.

[diego]

i think the reporter's point is that this is a young team and if you set dominance as an aim, you run two risks:

a) they succeed in the prelim round and get overconfident in the elimination games, a la Spain 2004
b) they fail in the prelim round and get spooked in the elimination games, a la USA 2004

sure these are plausible scenarios, but in the end its better to have a winners at ude and manage mistakes as they come. I do agree however that the last 4-5 winners in the WC and Olympics have not been the perfect teams, but the ones that ramp up their play as the tourney progresses.