Excellent article by Fran Fraschilla on state of USA b-ball

[adidas11]

sports.espn.go.com/oly/su...id=1869953

[Whottt]

Change the rules of the NBA to mirror international rules just so we can win Olympic gold?

Screw that. It's our damn game. **** FIBA.

Their 3 point shot is weaker and their zone defense rules take away a players opportunity to be a great individual defender.


I would like to see the return of shooting but...it does still exist...stick Brent Barry or Ray Allen on this team and it is a much more functional team...

All our ball control guys...Duncan, Marbury, Iverson and LeBron...they all rely on spot up shooters...none of them fill that role themselves...Marbury and AI need a lot of shots to get hot and be effective.

I'd rather just send our college kids then change the rules of the NBA game on defense...we already have enough zone as it is.

[ducks]

change the rules of the nba


yeah lets change everythign for 1 tournament once in 4 years
get a grip addias
the nba season is not to long
the nba is more important in america you can not change the fact
Let it go

[adidas11]

I'm surprised that FIBA doesn't force the NBA to conform to standard basketball rules and regulations. I wonder what the relationship between FIBA and the NBA is like?

[SequSpur]

I would like to see 3 steps called as traveling and I would also like to see the Shaq circle taken out of the NBA as well. Those rules I will agree with.

[Whottt]

I'm surprised that FIBA doesn't force the NBA to conform to standard basketball rules and regulations. I wonder what the relationship between FIBA and the NBA is like?

FIBA can't make the NBA do because the NBA isn't a member of FIBA.


As for us following FIBA's rules...we never have before..and our independent league the NBA...well compare the value and earning ability of any NBA team to any other team...

Playing our style of ball, our rules, enabled us to produce the most dominating, and popular basketball players and teams in Olympic and basketball history.

FIBA was around before the NBA more or less...yet they were never as successful as the NBA has been, financially or on the court.....and even the Euro players like the NBA style better...

The NBA rules have nothing to do with the loss of shooters...the loss of shooters has been caused by demand of the fans and coaching.

Us use their rules? I don't think so...we just need to start emphasizing shooting more...and besides...if we had wanted to put some shooters on this team we could have.

You give it a couple of years...our Euro players will start to feel the effects of the brutal grind of the NBA schedule...

There simply isn't enough time to play a full NBA season and still expect to be able to throw an undefeated team togeher in a month and half, time and time again.

[Whottt]

Just to prove how much of an over-reaction this article is...

In nearly 70 years of Olympic play our Olympic team has a record of 110 - 5.

We have had winning streaks spanning 65 games and nearly 40 years...


The first time we failed to win the gold medal was one of the biggest controversies in Olympic history.

The second time...we lost 1 game...and we were using our college players, kids basically, against a team that had been playing together for years and was built around a great Russian Center..., our starting PG was injured, it was a subpar team even by collegian standards with only 1 future NBA great... and we lost 1 game by a total of 6 points.

This time...it's easy to say this is the dream team...but Okafor is a kid...Melo and James are basically kids...Boozer and Odom had never played on winning teams before...

You look at the Argentinians those guys are experienced players, they have been playing together for years...most of them have either played in the NBA, play in the NBA, or are going to play in the NBA..and they are all more experienced than our guys...

Now I am being classy and giving these other teams credit...but you can't ing tell me if we trotted Shaq, Garnett, Duncan, Kidd and Kobe out there that we wouldn't have blown these teams off the court.

We had Duncan and a pair of guards, that weren't used to playing each other...that just got done playing and 82 + games season, and the guards are volume shooters who are used to dominating the ball...that we tried to use as spot up shooters...We had no true bigman behind Duncan...

It's not as bleak a picture as this article paints...if we want to win take it seriously...but we don't have to change the rules of the NBA or even our college teams.

[T Park Num 9]

Odom played witht he Heat last year, so I think that is a winning team.


But I agree, the playes are young, adn in 4 years will be much improved.

in 4 years keep the same core, Anthony, James, and others together, and add in future stars and shooters.


Not that far off.

[Slomo15]

Changing the rules of the NBA is just as stupid as changing the FIBA rules. The NBA has been very successful (maybe a little less recently) at marketing basketball and providing a very attractive sport for viewers/fans. Of course it had to incorporate a few rules that are really crowd/media pleasers. And why the not? The NBA rules work fine for the NBA.
Now these same rules are not necessarily acceptable to FIBA since it has a whole different set of problems and goals (the consensus of the vast majority of members being one of them). And again, why the not?
The difference quite frankly is not big enough to be blamed for team USA result. The blame must really go to the MANY good players that were just too lazy to represent their country.