USA Basketball loses by 19

[Coach]

This is no dream team, just a bunch of BIG EGO's that can't figure out the TEAM game wins not the individual. We should have sent the Pistons team to kick the worlds ass like they did the Lakers. The Pistons did it playing TEAM ball not this sloppy ass individual, no D, stuff. :yuk:

[XtrmWakeborder]

I say no more pro's allowed, they don't even care about the olympics anymore..it's embarrassing

[framer1]

They flat stink :2purples:

[Kilrtoy]

What do you expect they have that tattooed shit bag sprewell on their team....

[framer1]

Don't forget A.I. with the really nice neck tattoo :rolleyes:

[master13]

I'm on this mass email list and have been getting emails from this American Olympian Judo guy. I thought you all would like to see what he sent me.
__________________________________________________ _
Last night was INCREDIBLE!!!! The Opening Ceremonies of the
Olympics has to be the most amazing sporting ever!! I was there on
the worlds' stage, with the worlds' best athletes, with the whole
world watching!! I really enjoyed myself. I had an opportunity to
take lots of pictures which I will probably share after the judo
competition ends on the 19th and I took lots of video footage.
Yao Ming has to be the tallest individual that I
have every seen in
my life!! He was literally heads and shoulders above everybody
else.
Most disappointing moment.
Some of the members of the Men's USA Basketball
team refused to take
pictures with the other Olympians!! I will not mention any names
because I don't want to go there. I will just say their behavior was
not received well by a large contingency of the US athletes. I was
really surprised that they would act in such a way. We are all the
best'
at what it is we do. We all practice hard and long, sweat and
bleed,
and we all are here to compete for the USA. That part of the
evening
really left a bad taste in a lot of the athletes mouths. I know
for a fact there are some jerseys that I will not spend my money on
EVER!!!!
Hey, I talked to Andy Roddick today - what a cool dude. He is really
down to earth and just a smooth cat. It was a pleasure to talk with
him
and grab a couple of laughs. It was real refreshing to rap with him
after the behavior of the basketball players the other night.
Well, I gotta go. Just got a massage and got iced up. I'm going to
do
my laundry and get something to eat.
Rhadi Ferguson
2004 Olympian

[framer1]

It's hard to believe how those basketball babies :cry: act. You would think at least one of them would be a stand up guy :yuk:

[Dr. Eagle]

What do you expect they have that tattooed shit bag sprewell on their team....
Don't forget the spinners...

[Coach]

Outside of Tim Duncan I don't think much of our team of thugs. They all act like a bunch of getto superstars with no class. :220v:

[Kilrtoy]

Don't forget the spinners...
Dont go there some board members may get mad and want to bench press me.....

[MagicMtnDan]

(from MSNBC)...
"I don’t know what we can get out of this," said U.S. coach, Larry Brown, who surely deserves better than this outfit. "We’re going to find out what we’re made of and what it means to truly be a team."
It may be too late for that. Unless these guys can learn how to pass and set screens and run plays in the next couple of days, they are going to be hard pressed to make the medal round.
Richard Jefferson, who did not distinguish himself, thought that the loss was simply an aberration. "You know Allen Iverson’s going to knock down shots," he said. "You know I’m going to knock them down."
Actually, we don’t know that. We only know that they lost to Italy and needed a miracle shot at the buzzer to beat Germany in a pre-Olympic tournament.
You have to wonder what Shaquille O’Neal, Kevin Garnett, Kenyon Martin, Vince Carter, Tracy McGrady and the other stars who couldn’t be bothered to come were thinking when the saw the debacle. You have to wonder if Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan retched at halftime or waited until the end of the game.
But you don’t have to wonder if any team in the world will ever fear a U.S. team again. They won’t. They learned Sunday night they don’t have to.

[totenhosen]

(
You have to wonder what Shaquille O’Neal, Kevin Garnett, Kenyon Martin, Vince Carter, Tracy McGrady and the other stars who couldn’t be bothered to come were thinking when the saw the debacle.
Why should they play?

[Essex502]

Why should they play?
You're right....they shouldn't play.
Bill Plaschke, L.A. Times writes:
"What James Naismith so beautifully built, the culture of slam dunks and shoe contracts and selfishness shamelessly reconstructed until, finally, Sunday night, the sport of basketball fought back.
Call it Air Disgrace.
In front of thousands of jeering, dancing fans in a cramped seaside arena, the monster turned on the master. The U.S. lost its first Olympic men's basketball game with professionals, and only its third in 68 years, for one horrific reason.
We have forgotten how to play our game.
Puerto Rico scored 92 points with passing and defense and purpose.
The U.S. scored 73 points with bricks and bombast.
With two NBA players, Puerto Rico made more than half of its shots, grabbed seemingly every loose ball, and scored 28 points in the second quarter.
With a dozen NBA players, the U.S. made barely one-third of its shots, was pushed from here to Thessaloniki, and scored seven points in that second quarter.
Ten minutes. Seven points. With two former NBA MVPs in uniform. Think about it.
Walking off the floor, Carlos Arroyo grabbed the front of his Puerto Rico jersey and shook it at the roaring crowd.
"They have the best players in the world," Arroyo said. "But basketball is about a team."
Walking off the same floor, Carmelo Anthony was apparently so ashamed, he removed his USA jersey altogether.
"I'm humiliated," said Coach Larry Brown, speaking not only for himself, but surely for any of the millions of Americans who have ever played one-on-one against the garage or banked in a three-pointer off a barn.
Hoosiers? This was more like Who?siers, the story of a small-town sport whose fundamentals and values have become impaled on a picket fence.
"I guess the word right now is, shocked," said Elias Ayuso, the former USC guard who scored 15 points for Puerto Rico.
A more appropriate phrase would be, of course.
Four years ago, the U.S. team was one missed three-pointer from losing in the Olympics to Lithuania.
Two summers ago, a professional U.S. team lost three home games at the world championships in Indianapolis.
Then, this summer, the Lakers lost to the Detroit Pistons in the NBA Finals.
Sense a trend here?
It's not only about the rest of the world catching up to the U.S. in basketball, although dozens of NBA players now hail from foreign countries.
It's about fundamentals catching up with flash.
"Those guys play basketball the way the game is supposed to be played," Allen Iverson said of Puerto Rico. "They think the game out."
He shook his head and added, "They don't use just their athletic ability. They have that Karl Malone-John Stockton kind of thing.
"It's good for kids to see a game like this."
What Iverson lacked in shooting accuracy, he made up for in honesty.
Some folks, of course, will cry that because seven of the original nine Olympic selections turned down the invitation, the U.S. didn't send its best team. Please.
So the likes of Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal and Kevin Garnett stayed home. So what? Are they really obliged to serve their country in any manner other than paying taxes and obeying the laws?
Those who stayed home should not be ridiculed any more than a citizen who does not choose to serve his country for free during his summer vacation.
Others will claim that, having played together less than a month, the U.S. has trouble competing against teams that have played together four years. Again, please.
"If any team can pull it together in two weeks, it's the United States," said Arroyo, who scored 24 points.
Indeed, look who showed up.
Iverson, but he missed nine of 10 three-point shots. Tim Duncan, but he had seven turnovers.
Richard Jefferson, although he missed 13 of 16 shots. And that fabulous kid duo of LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony, well, it combined for one basket, one assist and two turnovers.
The best available individual players were here. The problem is that those players are not necessarily the best team or championship players — only Duncan has won an NBA title — and shame on USA Basketball for not knowing that.
Where was the great shooter to foil the international zones?
"Usually you have a shooter on your team in these kind of events, but they don't have one," Ayuso said. "They couldn't single anybody out to beat our zone."
Where was the great interior defender to help protect Duncan?
"They were a little mismatched in there," Puerto Rico's Daniel Santiago said.
This being Larry Brown's team, where were more of those Detroit Pistons?
They were lost, that's where. They were back in the U.S., where ESPN highlights tell us that basketball is an individual sport, and Nike ads tell us that it's a first-person sport, and did anybody ever get a guaranteed contract for a bounce pass?
Several times late in Sunday's game, the U.S. closed the gap and seemed to gain momentum.
Then Rolando Hourruitiner would hit a bank shot — a bank shot. Or Jefferson or Iverson would lose the ball. Or Dwyane Wade would make a ridiculous high(low?)light-video drive that would result in a silly miss.
In the end, three wild U.S. bombs were countered with three Puerto Rico layups.
In the end, Shawn Marion missed a bad shot and fans were actually laughing, then singing, then waving flags from all over the world.
Our creation. Our destruction. Our own high-flying, trash-talking, look-at-me fault.

[Scream]

I read an article on Yahoo news this morning and the picture was perfect. Iverson and Duncan sitting on the bench lookin stupid. Like has been said before, a TEAM would have wiped the court with anything put up against it, but 5 individuals with no direction...

[MagicMtnDan]

I saw a few minutes of the first half of the game and it was all I needed to see...
Did you realize that the three-point line is closer to the basket in the Olympics than in the NBA? Not that it matters - I saw more air balls and more brick laying by "Team USA" than I see at the court in the park near my house.
I saw a few shots taken from the side sail completely over the rim.
I saw Puerto Rico do a pick-and-roll play that left everyone on "Team USA" looking like they were fishes out of water. They had no idea what just happened to them. Heck, I learned the pick-and-roll in junior high school. Today's NBA players still don't know what a pass is!
Having these egotistical over-paid it's-all-about-me basketball-is-my-life boys lose to teams like Puerto Rico is the best thing that ever happened to the NBA. It may just teach them all a lesson. Nah, what am I saying?! They're all being paid not to pay attention to lessons. :mad:

[NoCal NoBoat]

The U.S. is now 109 - 3 in Olympic competition.
In 1972, it seemed like the referee was going to give the Soviet Union "do overs" until they got it right.
In 1988, our college players lost in the semi-finals to the Soviets. This caused the U.S. to start bringing our professional players to the Games.
Unfortunately, our professional players do not play the international version of the game.
They are not used to playing against a disciplined zone defense.
Whoever put this version of our national team together apparently forgot to include someone who can shoot a middle to long jump shot.
The international 3 point line is 20' 6".
The international game also apparently allows contact, grabbing, etc. that is called as a foul in the NBA. You could see that the U.S. was slow to realize that the referee was going to let them play and the amount of contact that was to be allowed.
I hope that somebody realizes that this "Dream Team" concept of putting together a "team" on short notice is over.
The international version of the game is a different animal than the NBA, and
hopefully someone gets the memo.
The next game is against Greece on their home floor, and I don't expect a whole lot of love in the building for Team USA.
I was angry and disappointed by the game. I wasn't surprised, however. I saw Puerto Rico beat an American college all-star team that included Richard Jefferson and Wally Szerbiak during the Goodwill Games at Madison Square Garden. The crowd was mostly Puerto Rican, and they were not there to support Team USA.
I think the U.S. should seriously consider putting together a professional team,
separate from the NBA, to play internationally. The rest of the world has caught up with us in professional basketball. We need a team that plays together over several seasons if we expect to dominate every four years at the Olympics.
The fact that the U.S. is now ranked seventh in the world in soccer does not make me feel any better...

[totenhosen]

Unfortunately, our professional players do not play the international version of the game.
Thats a weak excuse. I had no problems adapting to the international version of the game after playing four years in college and I don't have half the skill that these NBA players have. The better excuse would be that they don't know hoe to play the game period!
They are not used to playing against a disciplined zone defense.
See above! In addition the NBA uses zone defense and I'm sure these guys played against zone defenses before the NBA. The biggest zone buster is an outside shooter though.
Whoever put this version of our national team together apparently forgot to include someone who can shoot a middle to long jump shot.
Agreed!
The international 3 point line is 20' 6".
More reason why the NBA players should be nailing threes left and right.
The international game also apparently allows contact, grabbing, etc. that is called as a foul in the NBA. You could see that the U.S. was slow to realize that the referee was going to let them play and the amount of contact that was to be allowed.
Thats a weak excuse too because when you grow up playing on the playground that is how you learn how to play so these guys should be use to it.
I think the U.S. should seriously consider putting together a professional team, separate from the NBA, to play internationally.
How do you do that when these guys makes millions of dollars. Should they turn down the money that they make to play for a medal. To them the best team in the world is the one that wins the NBA championship and not a gold medal. Or should the US gov't pay them. (Hell no)
The rest of the world has caught up with us in professional basketball. We need a team that plays together over several seasons if we expect to dominate every four years at the Olympics.
They should get a four year commitment from players so that they all play together through the qualification stages etc.

[NoCal NoBoat]

Totenhosen:
I'm sorry you thought I was making weak excuses for the NBA players. I wasn't. You didn't hear what I was calling them last night, and I won't spell them out here.

[MagicMtnDan]

There is an easy answer to this but it won't happen...
Select one team from the NBA and enter them into the Olympics every four years. It can be the NBA champs or one of the other teams but it needs to be a group of guys who play together regularly.
I'm ready for us to start sending a college team - how about the national champs? Apparently, most of the egos playing in the NBA making millions a year couldn't care less about representing his country in the Olympics. :jawdrop: :jawdrop: :jawdrop:

[totenhosen]

Totenhosen:
I'm sorry you thought I was making weak excuses for the NBA players. I wasn't. You didn't hear what I was calling them last night, and I won't spell them out here.
I know it wasn't you personally. But I think they are weak excuses from the NBA players and the USA Basketball Association.

[totenhosen]

There is an easy answer to this but it won't happen...
Select one team from the NBA and enter them into the Olympics every four years. It can be the NBA champs or one of the other teams but it needs to be a group of guys who play together regularly.
I'm ready for us to start sending a college team - how about the national champs? Apparently, most of the egos playing in the NBA making millions a year couldn't care less about representing his country in the Olympics. :jawdrop: :jawdrop: :jawdrop:
Not that easy. Most teams have foreign players. During the summer is when you have trades etc so you would be bringing in new guys to the team and than again the lame excuse of not having played together for a long time. NBA season and than the playoffs are too long. These guys need a break.
College same situation. Players leaving for the pros or incoming freshman and NCAA rules only allow them so many games/tournaments per year.
And could you please tell me why they should represent the country in the Olympics. Like I said before to them the Gold medal isn't the pinnacle of their career or even who the best is.

[Essex502]

Two words: Overpaid Underachievers
Larry Brown shoulda' taken the Detroit Pistons entirely (w/o of course Darko Milicic & Carlos Delfino - international players) as they knew how to play together as a TEAM - so the Fakers found out!