The Other Shoe Drops for USA Basketball
 

[url=http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/wbc2006/news/story?id=2568543]ESPN.com - OLY/WBC2006 - Upset special: Greece stuns U.S. in FIBA semis[/url]

Everyone said it would happen but I didn't believe it, especially against a team like Greece. Good job Coach K, go back to freaking out little kids with your tiny mouth. And nice shooting guys, you've done the U.S.ofA. proud.

Re: The Other Shoe Drops for USA Basketball
 

Not hugely surprised they lost. International Basketball is very very good. But I thought it'd be to Spain or Argentina. Not Greece

Oh well, they should have never let Arenas go

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Exactly, if they had lost to Argentina I would have expected it. But it seemed like the red carpet was laid out for them to walk right into the championship game. Hell, maybe that's why they didn't play well, they just expected to beat them.

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It totally screwed us up here at ESPN. We have to move all these programs around to get this bronze medal game on

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nba players the biggest babies in the world. Too many egos on one team....I tell you what I think Gilbert had the last laugh on this one.

Re: The Other Shoe Drops for USA Basketball
 

[quote=ArtMonkDrillz;210724][URL="http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/wbc2006/news/story?id=2568543"]ESPN.com - OLY/WBC2006 - Upset special: Greece stuns U.S. in FIBA semis[/URL]

Everyone said it would happen but I didn't believe it, especially against a team like Greece. Good job Coach K, go back to freaking out little kids with your tiny mouth. And nice shooting guys, you've done the U.S.ofA. proud.[/quote]

What pisses me off the most is that other countries have a huge, quivering orgasm every time the USA loses in something. We're the New York Yankees of the world. :doh:

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It's just the World Championships, not the Olympics. They played their guts out but didn't want to show too much. They only used 2% of their playbook. They wanted to practice executing specific plays. Really it's just a matter of getting their mental reps down.

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So they're trying to lull the world into a false sense of security?

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[quote=TAFKAS;210737]It totally screwed us up here at ESPN. We have to move all these programs around to get this bronze medal game on[/quote]
I'm suprised the world wide leader didn't already plan on the US playing in the lesser-medal game

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[QUOTE=ArtMonkDrillz;210750]I'm suprised the world wide leader didn't already plan on the US playing in the lesser-medal game[/QUOTE]

Well we had a plan in place. It's just that the gold medal game would have been much easier because it would mean less movement of other programs.

The bronze medal game was just a bit harder to schedule

Don't miss the Peak Antifreeze Indy 300 live from Chicagoland Speedway, Sunday Sept. 10 at 1:30pm only on ABC!!

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[QUOTE=TheMalcolmConnection;210749]So they're trying to lull the world into a false sense of security?[/QUOTE]

Exactly! Shane Battier is like their Todd Collins. He's no superstar but he knows the system

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So when do you think the powers that be in American basketball will finally realize that there has to be something wrong with their system when the team that is undoubtedly 2x more talented than all the others always loses? The problem with NBA basketball is that it focuses on individual play. We baby these guys throughout their lives and when they get to the NBA everything runs through them. It has become and individual game and these guys can't even play a team game. What is scary is that I think this team is as good as we can do based on the current attitudes of our players and the environment in which they learn and play the game. By the way...this is the same reason why basketball falls well short of football in popularity. You can't really root for a team since the team is usually one or two guys and a bunch of nothings.

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we had a lack of 3 point shooters.

gil could have helped, or chancey (sp?) or kobe (!). a guy like barkley to rough things up a bit (ie shaq or ron a) would have helped too.

Re: The Other Shoe Drops for USA Basketball
 

[quote=TAFKAS;210748]It's just the World Championships, not the Olympics. They played their guts out but didn't want to show too much. They only used 2% of their playbook. They wanted to practice executing specific plays. Really it's just a matter of getting their mental reps down.[/quote]


Yeah they actually worked on the game plan with Al Saunders, and they decided not to reveil their playbook. But do not worry, they will show the full book when it counts. They cannot wait till the media sees they are the real deal. I mean usually it takes a team long to adopt to a new policy, I mean they only ran two plays, called "Mello shoot" and "LeBron (not even close to Jordan) James shoot".

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[quote=That Guy;210913]we had a lack of 3 point shooters.
[/quote]

Yeah even with shorter 3pt lines.

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[quote=That Guy;210913]we had a lack of 3 point shooters.

gil could have helped, or chancey (sp?) or kobe (!). a guy like barkley to rough things up a bit (ie shaq or ron a) would have helped too.[/quote]


great point made there... gil sure could have helped not to mention kobe as well as chauncey But yes an enforcer would have helped a big body in the paint...is there an american player that can fit that bill...?

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Ron Artest and Michael Redd are two guys right off the top of my head that team USA could use

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artest...might be some controversy there....lol...if he was on the team he needs someone to keep him from running into the stands...lol

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Actually, for once, this group of guys actually played hard and played well together. I am not too disappointed this time around, we actually played respectably.

Greece was a good team who had a great night. They earned it.

As mentioned, you do have to remember that a lot of these foreign teams are used to playing with each other and are more established than our "all-star" team that gets thrown together. The foreign teams do have a few NBA guys who join late, but for the most part, they know each other's games already.

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Anything less than gold is meaningless in basketball. They are pathetic. I wouldnt even play the bronze game, just send them back home.

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[quote=MightyJoeGibbs;212014]Anything less than gold is meaningless in basketball. They are pathetic. I wouldnt even play the bronze game, just send them back home.[/quote]

and that's why you'll never be in charge of an olympic team.

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Three point shooters or no, it's a flat out disappointment that this team can't go over there and dominate. When we had three point shooters, the excuse was they don't play team ball, we don't have them we lacked zone busters.

I think the some of the comments by the Greek players and coach were warranted following the victory over the U.S. They said, "basketball is more than dribbling and shootig", and another said, "big time players show up for big games."

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[url=http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=klosterman/060907]ESPN.com: Page 2 : A new game plan for Team USA[/url]

Not a bad idea

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page2 is always funny and well written.

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Chuck Klosterman has become my new favorite Page2 writer even though he only writes a handful of articles a year. I've got to read some of his books sooner or later.