Yeah I guess there is a minute chance but it is very unlikely considering how USA has played so far. The only bad game was against Brazil and they are a pretty good team with fast guards.
hahaha Brazil cannot even be compared w/the great teams argentina, spain and they are even worse than italy, greece.... in other words, brazil is a weaker team than them by far, far, far and still USA struggled with them... so i would not be so overconfident if I was u
Troll for being what? Never attacked anyone on this board, but you did which makes you a.
You seem to be familiar. You post on KingsFans.com and Sackings.com. Don't want to with you since we support the same team.
P.S. Say hi to VF21 for me.
Chris Broussard, ESPN Insider
No more excuses
posted: Friday, August 18, 2006
With all due respect to my man Chris Sheridan, I've got one thing to say about the upcoming World Championship:
We better win!
Chris made some great points in his column about why we won't win, but I don't want to hear them. I don't want to hear them because basketball is basketball, and if we've got the best basketball players in the world -- like we and everybody else say we do -- then we should win.
Period.
Enough about the opponents not fearing us anymore; enough about other teams playing together since they were 13 years old (last I checked Manu's been in SA for the past four years, not in Argentina playing with Pepe Sanchez, so save it); enough about us not taking these games seriously; enough about mismatched rosters.
And enough about the zone defense (in international play, a standard zone is allowed whereas in the NBA, it isn't because of the three-second defensive rule). Yes, I'd love to see the rules standardized around the world, but enough already.
I'm sick of all the excuses.
Breaking a zone is not that hard. People talk about it now like it's rocket science. Here's how you do it:
Just move the ball around with quick, crisp passing (no dribbling) to get the zone moving and soon holes big enough for Butterbean to saunter through will open up for cutters or penetration.
Penetrate the gaps for mid-range Js; penetrate gaps and kick it outside for longer jumpers; penetrate gaps, draw defenders from the back of the zone, and dish it to our big men for dunks and layups; or beat the zone down the floor by running.
It's as simple as that. Now tell me, what international defender can stop Dwyane Wade from penetrating the gaps? Plus, it's easier to grab offensive rebounds against a zone, so even when we miss, we should be dominating the glass.
Of course, asking guys not to dribble is like asking them not to wear $100 kicks. Gotta' show off that handle, right? (That's part of our problem).
No more excuses.
If we don't win this World Championship, then let's just take our medicine like men. Let's give the team that beats us its props, admit that our big men are soft, admit that our stars aren't as good as they think, admit that our coaches have been getting out-coached by their foreign counterparts, admit that our beloved NBA has become 30 one- or two-man teams, and go back to the drawing board.
I mean the big drawing board. The one that includes how we teach the game from elementary school on up. The one that includes the hype machine I talked about in my "Busting a 12-year-old" article. The one that includes the silly NCAA limits on the amount of time a player can be coached. The one that has the NBA marketing individuals over teams.
It all has to be revamped if we don't win this World Championship. I loved David Stern's comments in the Aug. 7 issue of The New York Times. He talked about building a basketball academy for youngsters.
If we don't win this thing, I say open Stern's academy the day after the Worlds end.
^^^ Good counterpoint
As usual, no context given so that golden boy can continue to be mythologized to no end.
They couldn't have possibly won those 2 because they had much better teams.
Now the stage is set for him (yet to play in the Olympics) to join a group of A listers next year, win the gold and receive all of the credit.
Good. Anything to thwart media.
Sounds like sour grapes, but the US stopped caring about international basketball when it started recruiting international players into the NBA. The best NBA players are international players. It's a bit antiquated to say the US has the best players, they just don't play. Many don't play because they don't want to lose on a world stage.
I think the US still had the most talented team overall. Probably the biggest problem with the US is that they change most of their team every year and then I don't know if they even train long enough together. It's hard to win that way (especially when it's elimination style) against teams who mostly play the same players, at least if the talent difference isn't too big.
The problem is that for US players there's not much benefit in playing because of the, perhaps unrealistic, expectations. If they win gold, nobody really cares because that's what was already expected. If they don't win gold though it's basically an embarassment. For other countries any medal is awesome, making top 8 can be great, heck for some even managing to win a game can be nice.
US sports really need to stop calling their champions "World Champions". Not because they aren't the best, but because it is so self-centered and baggy. The UEFA Champions League winners would probably win the World Cup too, but they don't call themselves "World Champions".
todays nba.
We will small ball and out quick everyone. We can’t guard anyone so we will just outscored them. We can shoot threes.
Reality is that this style was purely rule driven. Change the rules that allows perimeter defence and nothing would work.
All true, plus the risk of injury and losing money.
Hey, the best in the US and Canada.
amb
We will small ball and out quick everyone. We can’t guard anyone so we will just outscored them. We can shoot threes.
Reality is that this style was purely rule driven. Change the rules that allows perimeter defence and nothing would work.
Ya stoolie, you.
The same way rules favored big men back in the good old days
We will small ball and out quick everyone. We can’t guard anyone so we will just outscored them. We can shoot threes.
Reality is that this style was purely rule driven. Change the rules that allows perimeter defence and nothing would work.
The NBA has always been unbalanced
The sport favours big men. The rules are changed to disallow any type of perimeter defence inThe same way rules favored big men back in the good old days
The NBA has always been unbalanced
Again,,,The sport favours big men. The rules are changed to disallow any type of perimeter defence in
amb
Lost the Bronze medal match to Canada? Brutal.
Let 'em crawl back...
- "Oh. Oh, it wasn't fair. Oh, they called us the (N) word. Oh, they were White. Oh, that ain't right. Oh."
wrongThe sport favours big men. The rules are changed to disallow any type of perimeter defence in
big men are being hacked regularly, no calls
just ask Jokic
Jokic does get hacked but then he puts that sweaty Serbian armpit in the defenders face as he busts all in their face
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