Basketball World Championships

[Bondo]

Well, the U.S. proved just how pathetic, arrogant, and lazy they are by losing to Argentina in the World Basketball Championship.  Our team was full of NBA stars so I assume they have the skill advantage.  The game was also in Indianapolis so it was home-court advantage.  Yet they got absolutely crushed by the Argentina team.

Is this just the problem about sending players who don't care, or is it a deeper sign about typical Americans?

[Brain]

well, with out knowing who made up the team it's a bit of a hard question to answer.  that said, i would believe that it is a combination of both apathy  and typical americanisim

it may have been the  fact that these players just didnt care.  i know that some players in the nba really care about the game, they are a rare breed however. looking at the facts show that more often than not sports stars tend to be pompous over payed brats (baseball player are an excelent example) there are some notable exceptions in both players and entire  leagues, but the norm is  that players are apethetic and only care about the money

i also believe that american attitudes also may have affected the outcome as well.  we as a people tend  to be pompus and arogant, what is even woerse is that the majority of us refuse to acknoledge this fact. this set of 'values'(i use values in it's literal sence, i'm neither suporting nor condeming these values, even though i may not agree with them) reflected in our sports.  look ath the time we sent the dream team to the olympics.  we OWNNED the world at basket ball untill the russians beat us.  after a few bad  outings, we sent  professionals into an amature competion.  we have the attitue that we (the americans) must come out on top in every event and that we are superior to everyone else.  this may have caused the basketball team to become overconfident and lax during practice thus causing us to loose.

or maybe i'm overanalizing  what was simply a bad game where luck wasnt on our side (i.e. most of the team was just an 'off' that day)

[Ace]

First off, let me state that this loss was utter bullshit and gives me even more reason to hate the NBA. Outside of Paul Pierce, every single player on the team should be ashamed of themselves. This is a team that if you put it together for the NBA season would win the title with no problems. So what if they were missing Shaq, Tim Duncan, Kobe, etc. No team in this tournament had any business coming close to the US. Yugoslavia is the only team who has even remotely close to the talent of the US, but after Peja and Vlade, they have no depth compared to our star talent from top to bottom. Luckily this happened before the single elimination round so we still have a chance. In fact, I think Argentina may have fucked everyone over. We are going to be mad now. Very mad. I know this is just eating at Paul Pierce. Look for him to put up 40-50 point monster games for the rest of the tourney. Ultimately we should still raise the gold, but this tournament as a whole cannot be viewed as anything but a collosal failure. We are the United States; we do NOT lose at basketball when we send our pros.

As for this being a product of "Americanism," apathetic NBA players, or both, I would place 99% of the blame on rich, pompous NBA players who have no heart or will. First, you have the guys who didn't even feel like they needed to show up, the big stars like Shaq that everyone has been pining for. But besides that, the guys who did show up walk around like the world should just hand us the title cuz we are USA Basketball. These are players who make assloads of money and are used to getting the star treatment from their NBA teams. They don't view it as them getting the privilege to represent our country; they look at as they are being forced to play for our country. Hell, we would probably be better off with college kids who would do it for the love of the game.

[Bondo]

Well, Shaq went under the knife this week to repair something (I think it was a hand thing)...so he has a real reason not to be there.

But the US is so dominant in the sport, that we should be able to send a team of the top college players and have no problem whatsoever...to be losing with a team of all-star players makes it even worse.  Yes the US should win every game by at least double digits.  No the players shouldn't assume this and thus not try...they can only do it if they play seriously.

The reason I think it is more of a widespread problem...I know that some people criticised the US Soccer team for not winning...they played their asses off and got the best finish ever...but since the game finally got the attention of the masses over here, many assumed that we should win.

[Destructo]

Well, i have to say, teh US had it comming to them.

The US players are to worried about firearms then basketball..lol

I don't ge it. There multi-million dollar players have all teh money in the world, yet the get hooked on drugs and shoot guns all over ther place. not to mention they beat thier wives.

[Jeb]

In internation or olympic competition it just seem that we end up using only our basketball allstars.
 I remember a while ago when Micheal jordan, magic johnson, lary bird, karl malone and some of the other great basketball players of the 90s were on a team and dominated the olympics. Everyone was talking about how unfair it was. I haven't heard anything about our basketball  team losing before this topic, it ends up showing how arogant alot of our "heros" are. Combine that with Major league baseball trying to strike last week and it makes me sad.
I'm from seattle, home of the mariners and my family has been season ticketholds ever since i was 5. I grew up cheering for a team that had no great players and had never even made the play offs untill 1995. Kids in the area looked at Alex rodrigeuz and ken griffy jr as "Heros" untill we traded them to the team that could pay them the most money. The team now has virtualy no cocky or arogant players and is one of the top teams in the nation. I've ended up watching only the mariners and college football now because money doesn't play a big issue.
As for basketball its starting to seem that its only important for a player to have a good Shoe named after them. Professional basketball is going down a bad road.

[Bondo]

Jeb, the reason you just heard about the US losing is because this was the first time the US ever lost during the professional player era.  They had a 60 or so game winning streak dating back to the first game of the '92 Olympic Dream Team (Jordan, Magic, Bird, etc.).

Prior to that we'd lost although we had only lost in two Olympics...one of which was allegedly complete bullshit.

[Jeb]

Why don't all star baseball players play in the olympics? i know that quite a few baseball players from the olympic team make their way into major league baseball, like tino martinez from the Yanks

[Ace]

Bondo, we were 58-0 before that game when we used professional players. We had only lost twice before as you said, and there is no "allegedly" about 1972 being bullshit. That game was stolen from us by the damn Commies. Our loss in 1988 was just us sucking up the joint.

Pro baseball players (not just MLB, but any league like Japan's) are allowed to play in the Olympics, but the problem is that it conflicts with the season. Maybe if the MLB were to take off time like th NHL does we could get a real American Dream Team going for baseball. Just imagine facing a lineup like this:

1 - Torii Hunter (CF)
2 - Nomar Garciparra (SS)
3 - Barry Bonds (LF)
4 - Lance Berkman (RF)
5 - Jason Giambi (1B)
6 - Mike Piazza (C)
7 - Scott Rolen (3B)
8 - Jeff Kent (2B)

Then for pitchers having:
P - Randy Johnson
P - Greg Maddux
P - Curt Schilling
RP - John Smoltz

After thinking of that, I really hope baseball finds a way to let these guys play in 2004 (if there is still baseball in the Olympics then.)

[Bondo]

Todd Helton should be 1B, he is better than Giambi and stuff...just plays for a bad team.

Larry Walker would be good choice except he is Canadian.

[jn.loudnotes]

Ace you've almost got it right about using only collegiate players.  However, too many of them use school only as a stepping stone to the NBA.

I'd advocate going back to amateurs only (in the Olympics as well) for highly paid sports.  It's one thing to have a professional track star run for the country, because most of them get paid squat.  However, I can do without seeing millionaires represent our country.

Oops, did I say that?  Anyone know the average net worth of a congressman?

[Bondo]

Well, national polititions no matter what branch of the Government they are in get "paid" around 100-250k/year.  What they make in a year is a different story altogether

Update, the US lost to some other country tonight and now at best can finish 5th.  Pathetic is the only word I can find to describe it.

[Brain]

hopefully this will get the concept that they arent the shit into their thick skulls. but in reality, what's going to happen is that were just going to throw more money at the problem untill it's fixed.
the american way, isnt it great?

[Ace]

Fuck. That's all I have to say. Fuck.

[PsYcO aSsAsSiN]

I suggest you all read what David Aldridge of ESPN had to say about the USA basketball team. Pretty in depth as to reforms needed if you ask me.

[*DAMN Mauti]

You guys must really be shocked about the US desaster or why nobody dares to post here anymore? Losing 3 games at a worldchampionship... happens not every day.

[Brain]

well mauti, alot of it is that
1. i dont care all that much about basketball
2. what's done is done, griping wont do jack(although it does feel good sometimes )

[Bondo]

The first two losses happened during the week, but the third one that doomed them to finish in 6th place happened on the weekend when football, the much greater sport is on

[*NADS Lo$eMoney]

It's funny how New Zealand made it to the semi finals.
But anyway I thought the olympics was an all amature compatition, why are pro basketballers allowed to play?

[Ace]

Mauti, our performance was such utter shit that I don't want to post about how those fucking bastards need to pull their heads outta their asses cuz I'll just keeping getting more mad that they are FUCKING EMBARASSMENTS!!

Ok, think I got that out of my system now...