The Bestest: No Mario Chalmers? Why are we conceding the gold this year?

They knew if they selected Chalmers, all the other teams would forfeit.

mitchcumstein1: doglover: America being the only country with a sizable pro basketball culture, we've got a team of giants and heroes heading over there. However, if you had basketball as a worldwide thing then we'd see the same equality you get in soccer. As it is, we're beating them at our own game and since all these pros have more to lose from an injury than in not getting the gold medal, it's possible you'd see amateurs blow through them if said amateurs were drilled hard enough.

Basketball is wildly popular throughout the world, it is by far the most popular "American" sport there is. The NBA is massive in Europe, China and the rest of the world, absolutely massive, due in no small part to the '92 Dream Team. The level of the European leagues would shock you, it's not the same as the NBA, but it's damned good. Spain, Italy, Turkey, Israel, Germany and Russia all have leagues that are somewhere in between most college ball and the NBA. That's why we have to send our best, the kids would get beat.

1: The only "game" the Dream Team ever lost was a scrimmage to an NCAA All-Star squad. I doubt that would ever happen again, since the NBA's entry rules have royally screwed over college basketball.

2: The U.S. Olympic Basketball Team in 2004 was a bunch of pros thrown together with no proper coaching, and as a result they got steamrolled. It was the first time since 1992 that American fans cared, and ceased caring a whole lot once the 2008 squad won its gold medal.

rickythepenguin: that the USOC left Steve Nash off is criminal.

wat

rickythepenguin: //the list is largely notable for the howard omission

I doubt he'd be all that helpful coming off back surgery

TRY AND STOP US

/be proud of your country's strengths, douchebags

UNC_Samurai: mitchcumstein1: doglover: America being the only country with a sizable pro basketball culture, we've got a team of giants and heroes heading over there. However, if you had basketball as a worldwide thing then we'd see the same equality you get in soccer. As it is, we're beating them at our own game and since all these pros have more to lose from an injury than in not getting the gold medal, it's possible you'd see amateurs blow through them if said amateurs were drilled hard enough.

Basketball is wildly popular throughout the world, it is by far the most popular "American" sport there is. The NBA is massive in Europe, China and the rest of the world, absolutely massive, due in no small part to the '92 Dream Team. The level of the European leagues would shock you, it's not the same as the NBA, but it's damned good. Spain, Italy, Turkey, Israel, Germany and Russia all have leagues that are somewhere in between most college ball and the NBA. That's why we have to send our best, the kids would get beat.

1: The only "game" the Dream Team ever lost was a scrimmage to an NCAA All-Star squad. I doubt that would ever happen again, since the NBA's entry rules have royally screwed over college basketball.

2: The U.S. Olympic Basketball Team in 2004 was a bunch of pros thrown together with no proper coaching, and as a result they got steamrolled. It was the first time since 1992 that American fans cared, and ceased caring a whole lot once the 2008 squad won its gold medal.

According to that recent documentary on The Dream Team, Chuck Daley 'threw' that one game they lost-kept guys like Jordan on the bench to ensure they lost and thus didn't get too overconfident. At least that's what Coach K claimed.

Awesome that Harden made it!!!

Your_Huckleberry: According to that recent documentary on The Dream Team, Chuck Daley 'threw' that one game they lost-kept guys like Jordan on the bench to ensure they lost and thus didn't get too overconfident. At least that's what Coach K claimed.

I heard something like they didn't take it seriously at first and the college kids got out to a big lead. When the pros started coming back, the coach cut the scrimmage short so the pros lost.

They played again the next day and the pros told the college kids they wouldn't do as well that day. The pros won by 50 or some such.

But how will these players adjust to having to play without a script? Or do they whisper moves in each other's ears like the wrestlers?

kobe? really? past his prime by more than a few years... need more defenders. and harden?

A Fark Handle: kobe? really? past his prime by more than a few years... need more defenders. and harden?

Kobe is the veteran presence like Jason Kidd was on the last team. Harden is a great 11th/12th man because he has no expectation of playing much, but can stick the international three and create off the dribble. Iguodala, Paul, and LeBron are all terrific perimeter defenders. This team should be alright, the competition is down as well with some major injuries.

And nary a fark was given.

/bring back the college kids then it will a big deal to win
//NBA could fall off the face of the earth... and only the _______ would notice

stolibro: And nary a fark was given.

/bring back the college kids then it will a big deal to win
//NBA could fall off the face of the earth... and only the _______ would notice

Millions of fans from around the world.

/2nd/3rd most popular sports in the US and the world.

borg: The Gold Medal in Olympic Basketball means nothing lets go back to amateurs already.

It's basically the World Cup of basketball as far as the US in concerned, no one gives a shiat about the FIBA world championship (or whatever it's called). Plus the reason we use pros is because the rest of the world started catching up and they were using their pros. How is that fair?

This might be the second or third best team ever put together.

Mike_LowELL: ITT: College butthurtsketball.

TheJoe03: Millions of fans from around the world.

/2nd/3rd most popular sports in the US and the world.

Seriously, who walks into an internet pissing match and ends their post with a "FILL IN THE BLANK"?

this guy

The Stealth Hippopotamus: Peepeye: 3 Thunder players? Plus Griffin? Oklahomans are going to be watching olympic bball this year.

As a native Tulsan and someone who loves the Olympics I say fark'em! The USA Men's Olympic team is the only time I pull for someone else. I detest the whole thing. I guess what pushed me over the edge was the complete lack of respect they have towards the Olympics and their fellow players.
They don't stay in the Olympic Village, you don't see them at any of the other events, and one of the actual was balancing thier silver metal on their head while the anthem of the winning team was playing!!

i don't think you watched the 08 Team. they were in the thick of everything. the 96 team (16 years ago) is what you are thinking about.

04 also, maybe, but that was a train wreck of a team, so i didn't follow too closely. it did give us the ReDeam team, and i was happy to watch Kobe in the Final game.

R.P.M.: The Stealth Hippopotamus: Peepeye: 3 Thunder players? Plus Griffin? Oklahomans are going to be watching olympic bball this year.

As a native Tulsan and someone who loves the Olympics I say fark'em! The USA Men's Olympic team is the only time I pull for someone else. I detest the whole thing. I guess what pushed me over the edge was the complete lack of respect they have towards the Olympics and their fellow players.
They don't stay in the Olympic Village, you don't see them at any of the other events, and one of the actual was balancing thier silver metal on their head while the anthem of the winning team was playing!!

i don't think you watched the 08 Team. they were in the thick of everything. the 96 team (16 years ago) is what you are thinking about.

couldn't be the '96 team he's thinking of, they won the gold, and were some pretty serious characters. Olajuwon, Barkley, Penny Hardaway when he still kicked ass, Gary Payton, Shaq, Stockton/Malone. Mitch Richmond!

yelmrog: couldn't be the '96 team he's thinking of, they won the gold, and were some pretty serious characters. Olajuwon, Barkley, Penny Hardaway when he still kicked ass, Gary Payton, Shaq, Stockton/Malone. Mitch Richmond!

i was thinking more to his comment that they didn't stay in the Olympic village and were very distant and arrogant. there were many reports of the 96 team being like that. (they had an off shore boat and partied, while caring little of everything else. granted the reporters might have been biased).

i could be mistaken on specifics, but the 08 Team was one of the classiest show i have seen professional athletes do in recent times. i remember many articles about them being involved with many different sports and events during their time. it seemed the 96 team was the opposite.

i may be wrong to what he was referring to, but it seemed a bit out dated. the 96 team did kick ass though!

mitchcumstein1: doglover: mitchcumstein1: Having everybody else throw their pros against our kids isn't really fair either.

[jumpingpolarbear.files.wordpress.com image 504x499]

That's why that was such a great upset. There was no earthly reason for that to happen, and 9 times out of 10 it doesn't. Yes, it makes for a great story, but if we're going to put our kids out there, everybody else should too. Why are we punished because our pros are the best? It would have been like making the Soviets send their amateurs while we sent our pros to Lake Placid.

From my understanding of hockey, back in those days most of the NHL was Canadian, and the number of actual US born hockey players in the league was very small. Also the Soviet national team did beat the NHL all-stars, I may be mistaken about that, and it did consist of many players who would defect and become stars in the NHL. So I think you are wrong about our US pro hockey players being able to beat the Soviets at that time. If you said the Canadian Pros, then you might have an argument. But the Miracle on Ice was about some scrappy kids that surprised a team that was looking ahead to the next game, something that always happens in sports and a good coach is supposed to keep from happening.

A better example is if the Dream team would have had to go up against the old Yugoslavian team from before the country broke up. You know the team that had just about every guy on that team competing against the Dream Team members in the NBA. Imagine Dino Radja, Toni Kukoc, Vlade Divacs, and Dražen Petrović on the same team with the guys that took silver in 88 as Yugoslavia, but many of those guys couldn't compete because of sanctions against Serbia-Montenegro in 92.

R.P.M.: i could be mistaken on specifics, but the 08 Team was one of the classiest show i have seen professional athletes do in recent times. i remember many articles about them being involved with many different sports and events during their time.

I very distinctly remember Carmelo wanting to take up team handball after hanging out with the team and watching some of the games.

The Stealth Hippopotamus:
They don't stay in the Olympic Village, you don't see them at any of the other events, and one of the actual was balancing their silver medal on their head while the anthem of the winning team was playing!!

Did you mean bronze? The US only won silver once in basketball and controversial would be a understatement there.

While you can't really ignore the massive corruption of the IOC and attempts by cities to turn themselves into Airstrip One during the games, this is still the ultimate goal for 90-95% of the athletes competing and there are 200 other events in the Games to pick from now that Youtube will be covering all of them live this year. Just pick another sport (Handball is a great suggestion) and watch them since you won't see it again in the USA on a major media platform until 2016.

Glad to see Wade isn't on there. No you don't get paid to play in the Olympics. You should be honored just to be there, douche.

TheJoe03: /2nd/3rd most popular sports in the US and the world.

Basketball at 3rd is probably about right. 2nd? Don't make me laugh.

Cricket is easily the 2nd most popular sport on the planet. It's not even close.

Savage Baggage Master: TheJoe03: /2nd/3rd most popular sports in the US and the world.

Basketball at 3rd is probably about right. 2nd? Don't make me laugh.

Cricket is easily the 2nd most popular sport on the planet. It's not even close.

cricket will be the end of the world

/to be fair, we're mostly harmless