2008 USA OLYMPICS BASKETBALL TEAM

Jason Kidd

I like that Dwight Howard will be there. But the selection process has been totally captured by the NBA front office and now has nothing to do with try-outs or competition for spots on the roster. It's nothing but a bunch of phone calls and a team materializes. Even the NBA all-star selection process is more fair and competitive than that.

no pierce no credibility

lol international basketball single elimination tourney who gives a fuck

who really cares about fairness and competitiveness. i mean as long as the team is good, does it really matter?

amon i dont think pierce put his two years in cuz i don't remember seeing him on the final list (the one that had like heinrich and ridnour on it). i guess the same goes for amare?

as a celtics fan let me take this opportunity to thank the olympic committee for not selecting any players from said team. advantage: boston!

george karl labeled pierce as selfish and tried to scapegoat him for the 6th place finish a few years back. i'd heard it soured pierce on international play.

who the fuck wants to loose their summers and possibly shorten their career for the opportunity of playing in a stupid single elimination tournament w/weird rules and horrible refs.

if the situation were more titled toward the best team winning i could understand it - but its a total crap shoot now

is there a track record of anyone's career being shortened by playing for a us olympic team?

go china, beat kobe

is there a track record of anyone's career being shortened by playing for a us olympic team?

-- J0rdan S., Monday, June 23, 2008 1:40 PM (26 seconds ago) Bookmark Link

imo anytime yr playing games yr shortening yr career - then theres always injuries - and yr giving up the time generally used to work on improving yr game and get healthy which could also shorten a career

plus the court look funny
http://www.maplefloor.org/literature/gameMarkings/images/olymbasket1.gif

so you weren't thinking of this as any kind of pr issue - 'omg he sucked so bad on olympics team' then no one wants to trade for him, sponsorship deals fall through, etc.
xpost

o yah that too - dudes on the recent flame out teams reps def suffered

ya i guess j but basically all of these guys grew up idolizing jordan and barkley and hakeem and pippen etc. and were all kids when the dream team was a huge deal, so to live up to their own idolizations and the comparisons ppl throw at them, doing the olympic team is kind of a big part of it

but yeah, tbh i don't think anyone gives a shit about the olympic basketball team. winning would be cool but whatevs... and as for selection, it's not like they can have some kind of 'all around' gymnastics style trials... who does best layup? who has best dunk? judges rate on 1-10 scale. wld be fun to watch but not really a good way to build a strong team.

i think you might see the "why do i want to waste my summer w/ this shit" attitude with kids that are in high school right now (so maybe idk the 2016 olympics or something) who were in some cases not even born in 92 who don't really have that connection to the dream teams like these players still do

well the gold medal will always have pull - but if yr chances arent good enough to offset the risk then fuck it

tza i think when your whole identity from like 15 years old on is STAR BASKETBALL PLAYER you grow into like this insular basketball universe (nba big part obv) where usa olympic bball is stilla huuuuuge deal even tho the general population is like "eh it would be cool if we won but..."

tho i do think the olympics in general has lost some luster - when i was a kid it seemed like a much bigger deal

i really thought htat whole dream team ideal had kind of died down by now...

exactly, jho. when i was a kid, it was omg hueg deal and now it's a bit more ehh whatevs.

it has for the general population-- but kobe was still being told after they won the western finals "hey kobe, you could win the mvp, the nba championship and the gold medal all in one year! JUST LIKE MJ!" so i still think for this generation of players it's still kinda ingrained in them as part of their "legacy"

apparently european players consider the basketball world championship a much bigger deal than the olympics - its like the world cup

that makes sense.

who really cares about fairness and competitiveness. i mean as long as the team is good, does it really matter?

AFAIC, the Olympics are there for the athletes, not the spectators who sit on their butts and wave little flags. There are world-class athletes who would kill to make the team, but who are never given a fair shot at it. They might care a whole lot.

gtfo with that

i really thought htat whole dream team ideal had kind of died down by now...

-- tehresa, Monday, June 23, 2008 1:54 PM

exactly, jho. when i was a kid, it was omg hueg deal and now it's a bit more ehh whatevs.

-- tehresa, Monday, June 23, 2008 1:55 PM

cold war is over

lol truth bomb

i wld not get excited about a gymnast on a wheaties box anymore, either, ftr.

i think shawn marion will survive xps

nike chooses team nba?

how many things that were a big deal for you as a kid aren't nearly as big of deals now? i'd be curious as to how 10 year olds of today view the olympics. most americans having the "yeah it'd be cool if they won, but whatever" outlook is more a function of USA men's bball sucking ass the past 8 years or so.

ARENAS :(

tournament w/weird rules and horrible refs

lol playoffs?

Nobody really cared about DT2, right? No Bird, MJ, Magic, Mully, Charles, no cred.

good start! so far this seems to be way more ego-free than nba play, which i really like.

that third quarter turned into a dunk fest. The defense and forced turnovers reminded me of playing USA Basketball on the Genesis...wasn't so much that China was bad but that the USA was just fucking in the zone.

There's hope yet!

lebron is a god

i liked seeing tayshaun prince there

yes! also love that even from huge overhead shot he is SO recognizable from his weird posture/lanky physique </girl>

I don't think you have to be a girl to notice that Prince has a weird physique.

oh haha i left out the part where it's cute.

i cant decide if lebron's monster alley oop in the face of some chinese dude or his block where he just took the ball from the air was my favorite play of today

i love how fastbreaks turn into the nba all star game ,like lol dwyane wade just alley ooped it to dwight howard from behind the three point line

man, i keep sleeping through these games.

yer not missing much. They're pretty much destroyin' people.

probably true. I just kind of want to see them execute really well for a couple quarters against a good team. Still kind of scarred by watching all of the game against greece in 2006.

They should execute Spain. >.<

Oh wait bad smiley.

lol, if SI is to be believed, Boozer's Chinese nickname is "Betrayal Skull Dude"

kobe vs pau

marc gasol's got a fucking mane

haha he looks like this roommate i had in college who was into d&d and ren faire shit

i luv coming home ripped and turning this game on

its like xmas in august

lol craig sager is probably feeling so oppressed in his plain blue polo

i was about ready go to bed and then it was oh shit basketball game

kobe kinda complainy and wanting the refs to bail him out

yeah srsly 4 pt game. wtf

david beckham reaction shot wtf

got the nba on nbc music!

fuck this shit

melo ur killing me

2 point game

these idiots think this is the NBA

ok, that's better ...

keep doing that Kobe

theres a little devil on one of my shoulders rooting for spain :|

whoa rudy f

yah kind of with you on that ... if only because I like the fact that this thing is actually interesting :)

like, I don't want ESP to get all blown out and shit .. fuck that

lol wtf @ announcer: "it seems like kobe bryant's on this team."

i'll be happy for chris paul. kobe can fuck off

it is really sweet to see kobe looking so innocent and smiley and like he is really enjoying the camaraderie with his teammates, though!

Nice

thanks for "redeeming" us, millionaires

no but seriously, that was sweet, the guys played well ... tough-ass Spain team and our guys got the job done

granted i missed 97% of this game, but the seemingly ego-less play is really refreshing.

kobe's nice to have around sometimes, but he just has too many "i'm kobe bryant" moments

we would have lost without him

"we"

how did nbc get the abc basketball music rights?

$$$$$$

;-)

sup haters. but the women's team has won 33 games in a row oh my dam

lol basketball

oh yeah women's team won too :(

hahaha i love how the commentators are celebrating an '8-year losing streak' as if they've lost every year for 8 years instead of just losing 1 olympic gold in the last 8 years.

"we"

-- tehresa, Sunday, August 24, 2008 3:31 AM

uh, why the toolbag response? this is the Olympics not the NBA

sorry i guess we is more applicable in basketball, but generally when people win olympic medals i have a really hard time feeling any ownership of it since even the teams are only celebrated for 2 weeks of every 4 years.

http://hometown.aol.com/queenwizzard/images/eagle%20eye%20american%20flag.jpg

yeah whatever .. i barely care about this shit but these guys played very impressively, and I *never* use that "we"/"us" construction when I talk abt the Pro teams I follow (even when my beloved Red Wings won the cup this year), but I dunno just so happy for these dudes and olympic competition does lend itself to a nationalistic fandom ... how crazy a response ! it's not the stupid lunkhead "ownership" that like a Yankee fan spouts fer chrissakes

but yeah be all cool and bust on the "we" during a moment of joy, whatever, douche

"the teams are only celebrated for 2 weeks of every 4 years" and that is PRECISELY why it is so cool ... sheesh .. I can't WAIT to see my guy TAY up on that podium

no i totally get what you're saying etc i just have my own feelings. i am totes happy for these dudes! just not trying to claim it as an accomplishment involving myself at all. but i guess that might just be a little too detail-oriented.

i think it's great prince gets to be on the podium! and he is on the team i root for! rock on, dude! maybe the 'we' thing just touches on that australian 'our ______' shit that i find really silly?

however it should be noted that i root for tay ALL the time, not just during the 2 weeks every 4 years period, but i'm still not trying to make it a 'we'. anyway.

yay

kobe did look all smiley. maybe there's hope for him yet

Athletes holding bouquets of roses just seems so lol!

uh, nationalism is almost always entirely silly (if not frightening). and yeah, well, whatever .. like I say .. I *NEVER* use that "we" thing with some random stupid pro team that I follow. Even me beloved Detroit Lions (who went 3-0 in the Pre today, I might add). When the Red Wings brought home the Stanley Cup, I don't recall *ever* being one of those typical blowhards that goes on a forum to proclaim how great "we" are.

But again, this is the olympics. Which the US sucked at last time! yeah, "we" sucked at it last time! this is not a US Pro sports tribalistic "we", it's a proud American [Summer Olympic Contests] "we" !

sheesh

Who woulda guessed a country can win a sport they invent?

^ redcoat

well, we didn't win it last time .. and we looked foolish in defeat!!

so, "yay" for the kids and "Coach K" !

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_tennis

The game has its origins in England as an after-dinner amusement for upper-class Victorians in the 1880s. Mimicking the game of tennis in an indoor environment, everyday objects were originally enlisted to act as the equipment. A line of books would be the net, a rounded top of a Champagne cork or knot of string as the ball, and a cigar box lid as the racket[2].

Table tennis evolved into the modern game in Europe, the United States and Japan

Table Tennis Day 11 Review: China sweeps medals to achieve perfect Olympics[2008-08-23]

wtf you guys doing anything but vituperating that minge-faced Pau and his fat brother Geico Gasol and the rest of his race-baiting turd-monger teammates/country.

afraid i missed the race-baitings and turd-mongering

i.e. i slept thru every fucking game but the final one

haha "Geico Gasol"

i just got that

"i"

I ?

"we"

The Olympics:

"Us" Vs. "Them"? Or... "We" + "We" + "We" + "We" + "We", etc?

me

how did nbc get the abc basketball music rights?

-- tehresa, Sunday, 24 August 2008 08:32 (5 days ago) Link

nbc retained rights to this song even after they lost nba games. abc has got some ersatz tesh bullshit. i am already missing this song. ;_;

the return of the tesh theme was the best part of olympic bball to me!!!!