USA Basketball

[Guest Redhawk]

Reggie Miller (who just happens to be my favorite player) sprains his ankle in a meaningless game against Germany. A lot of NBA players don't even accept invitations to play for Team USA so they can rest.

 

Why are we still using pros for the Olympics and World Championships? Because we didn't totally dominate everyone in the 1988 Olympics? Dream Team I was fine, and Dream Teams II (1994 WCs) and III (1996 Olympics) were acceptable, but it should have stopped there.

 

We've established that we can kick anyone's ass, so why not go back to using college players? You prevent pros from getting hurt -- and believe me, the more USA kicks everyone's ass, the more they'll be trying to injure us -- and you get some exposure to the college game, which everyone says is suffering. Heck, some kids might even stay in school an extra year or two if they had a shot to play in the Olympics.

 

Just look at 1996. If we'd used a team of college players, the starting five would have been Allen Iverson, Ray Allen, Kerry Kittles, Marcus Camby, and Tim Duncan, with like Keith Van Horn, Stephon Marbury and some others coming off the bench. They would have done okay as far as I'm concerned.

[Guest starvenger]

I think the reason is that the US hates to lose - and even though using pros greatly favours the Americans, they get the satisfying feeling of winning.

 

Still, in a few years b-ball will be more international and you'll see parity start to form as international players get better.

 

Oh, and isn't Duncan from the US Virgin Islands? I thought they treated the US territories as separate countries, so wouldn't he be ineligible?

[Guest Redhawk]

I think the reason is that the US hates to lose - and even though using pros greatly favours the Americans, they get the satisfying feeling of winning.

 

Still, in a few years b-ball will be more international and you'll see parity start to form as international players get better.

 

Oh, and isn't Duncan from the US Virgin Islands? I thought they treated the US territories as separate countries, so wouldn't he be ineligible?

I thought Duncan played on the last Dream Team (2000 Olympics), but I might be wrong. And as long as he's a US citizen, he can play with the US if he wants to, but he can also play for his home team. Patrick Ewing is from Jamaica, and he was on the Dream Team. And I think Hakeem Olajuwon was on one of the Dream Teams as well.

[Guest redbaron51]

i dunno if you go to college, i have a feeling that some times like Lithuania and Croatia(me thinks) can defeat USA college kids

[Guest Bloodice]

The world league championship is just that WORLD!!! Nobody wants the college players everyone wants the best the united states has to offer and you'll find them in the NBA. There have been so many polls and questioners out there that 92% want NBA players representing America not college players. All the other countries use their pros so we should use ours because they are the best point blank.

[Guest pinnacleofallthingsmanly]

I knida like using the pros in a peverse way. It makes me think of an old Married With Children episode where Sugar Ray Leonard knocked out Al and said that he always wanted to see how badly he could hurt a regular guy. Sure we get an All-Star game in the winter, but how often do we get to see Vince Carter jumping over a center to dunk?

[Guest razazteca]

well using NBA stars is profitable but having every game end with a 40pt lead does get boring as there is no real competition.

 

It is time to bring back college players or at least just use players under a certain age to promote use of young players and NBA rookies.

[Guest alkeiper]

IIRC, the USA, has lost a grand total of 2 games in the Olympics ever. And one in '72 was EXTREMELY duvious. The US has dominated regardless of who plays.

[Guest Vern Gagne]

IIRC, the USA, has lost a grand total of 2 games in the Olympics ever. And one in '72 was EXTREMELY duvious. The US has dominated regardless of who plays.

Unless John Thompson is the coach and Hersey Hawkins doesn't get any playing time, but some stiff from Georgetown does.

[Guest imajackoff?]

I always thought that we should have gone back to the college kids after the first Dream Team olympics. The Dream Team was formed out of the frustration of watching the Russian and particularly the Brazilain team acting like beating our kids was some kind of "miracle on hardwood". After destroying everyone in '92, we should have gone back with the college players for the sake of competition, with the knowledge that IF we wanted we could kill them again.

[Guest Youth N Asia]

WAIT WAIT WAIT!!!!

 

Are you trying to tell me that you don't love the idea of NBA players with millions of dollars competing in an amature sport just so they can add a gold medal to their of achievements while pouncing on countires where basketball hardly exists and running up scores to win by 60...?

 

Are they going to let NBA players compete in the special olympics now? Since they seem to have no regulations anymore...let's let Shaq and Kobe beat up on Corky.

 

Seriously...how can they justify this? The olympics are events for amatures, yet they openly let pros compete in the basketball, hockey, and baseball events.

 

Was it Joe Thisemen (sp) that won a medal in one olympic event and had it stripped because he played pro football, a completly DIFFERENT sport?!

 

This is the main reason I watch little or no olympics anymore...I would love to see one of these pro allstar teams take a beating by some no names...like the 1980 US Hockey Team. Hell, even if it is U.S. getting its ass kicked I'd love it...it's bullshit letting PROs play in AMATURE sports.

[Guest alkeiper]

Its always been a grey area between pros and amateurs. Less and less people spend careers as amateurs, because modern athletics require more and more time and money spent training, and your average person can't do it.

 

Personally, I'd like to see college players in Basketball. They could use it as a showcase, and say "coming soon to the NBA!" and people could get to know the kids.

 

And Youth n Asia, the fellow you're thinking of is Jim Thorpe, who played Track in the olymmpics and I believe baseball professionally. He eventually had his medal reinstated posthumously.

[Guest Youth N Asia]

Thorp...thanks...I knew it was a J.T.

 

College played on the way to the NBA would be perfect! I just hate 10 year vets playing in the games.

[Guest Leena]

I have always been against the NBA pros playing in Internation competition. The whole point of the Olympics is fair competition, and this insures the farthest thing.

[Guest Redhawk]

If we can use pros in the Olympics, why not put together a USA Boxing team of Mike Tyson, Roy Jones, Oscar De La Hoya, Bernard Hopkins, Vernon Forrest, Johnny Tapia, and other pros? We'd show Cuba who's boss!

[Guest alkeiper]

Because we'd still get screwed by the Koreans.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

oh come ON. I love watch the NBA guys murder the Mongolian national team. Hell, during the first dream team, there were players for other teams asking for Barkley and Jordan's autographs after the fact for the foreigners' kids. Imagine breakfast at THAT table.

 

"Daddy, you're playing against America today, right?"

"Yes, son, and we've trained very hard."

"Um, dad, do you think you can get MJ's autograph after he scores 70 points on Mr. Bagdeserian from down the street?"

"Shut up and eat your oatmeal."

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Because we'd still get screwed by the Koreans.

That decision was SUCH bullshit. Jones rocked that guy. Did you know that well after the fact, the judges were interviewed, and one judge thought it was such a blowout, that he didn't see how the other judges could call the fight anything but a Jones victory, so he voted the other way JUST to keep the home nation from being embarassed. He thought Jones won the fight handily, but STILL didn't give him the nod. That is such horseshit, considering Jones lost 3 judges to 2.

[Guest El Hijo Del Lunatic]

Anyway, for the record, Germany hung in with the USA for about three quarters last night. Nowitzki had 34 points and 10 boards. It took a scoring explosion

 

Also, the biggest threat to the US this year, Yugoslavia, got uspet by Spain 71-69. It'll be interesting to see if the Slavs (Divac & Stojakovic, most notably) get PISSED OFF after this one and start tearing people new assholes. Of course, Spain's got Pau Gasol, so they're not slouches.

 

Next up for the US is China (for real this time). Ben Wallace vs. Yao Ming! WHOO!

 

I also will say that it's a shame that Nash, MacCullough, and Magloire couldn't play for Canada. They'd probably give Yugoslavia a GREAT game.

 

LUNATIC

- Pimpin' ho's and clockin' a grip like my name was Dolemite.

[Guest Ripper]

Basically all the players from every other team are pros...just for leagues in thier contrys. If the US starts using college players only, they will be the ONLY team without pros on the team.

 

Plus, the rest of the world stopped being starstruck a long time ago. THe first couple of teams had the advantage of guys being fans first, and then playing. NOw, they want to win and they are coming closer and the games are VERY competitive. In the ;last Olympic games, there were some down right great basketball games that came down the the last posecession and one went into OT.

[Guest Redhawk]

Basically all the players from every other team are pros...just for leagues in thier contrys.  If the US starts using college players only, they will be the ONLY team without pros on the team.

You're acting like college players don't get paid themselves. But anyway, I think it shows how important it is to the pros when most of your top-notch stars either decline the invitation or aren't even invited because everyone knows they'll decline. Teams like Germany and Yugoslavia are using pros, sure, but they're using their absolute best pros. If we're not able to use the best pros we have -- Shaq, Iverson, Kobe, McGrady, etc. -- why not use college players? At the very least it gives them some more experience, and they'll be that much better when they go pro. Besides, I think a team of college players (some of who would be NBA rookies right now) would still win the gold. A team with guys like Jay Williams, Drew Gooden, Nick Collison, Mike Dunleavy, Chris Marcus, Luke Walton, Jason Kapono, Juan Dixon, Jared Jeffries, Chris Wilcox, Fred Jones, Luke Ridneour, and Udonis Haslem would do okay.

[Guest Ripper]

I'm sorry, but those pros from other countries would eat the college players here a live. Germany, Yugoslavia, Spain, hell, probably even China would destroy a group of college players. The world is better now, they are adjusting.

[Guest ant_7000]

I remember about 2 years go when US college played the Puerto Rico pro players (mostly consist of) They were blowing them out for a half, Then they end up losing the game. So overseas pros would probably beat US college guys but not by much thou. Yeah, eventually the European/overseas will beat the US regularly they seem to focus on the fundmentals more the US players whom rely on more athletism now a days.

[Guest Redhawk]

Everyone's saying "The rest of the world is catching up," but think about it -- sure, you've got Nowitski and Peja and those guys, but for the most part the league is still American players. Out of the Top 50 players in the league, how many are foreign? 10 at the most? Other countries can produce a star (Peja, Nash) every now and then and a role-player (Turkolu, ZhiZhi) sometimes, but as you can see from the World Championships, we still beat everyone handily.

[Guest Ripper]

But as we saw in the last olympics the can't beat everyone that soundly. This year, it is all about a defensive team and yeah, they are out lasting most teams, but they aren't trashing everyone. The world is catching up...but some of them are getting paid more to play in other countries. Many players that would have been, could be allstars/hall of famers have never played in the NBA.

[Guest Redhawk]

After these two losses, I think it's more apparent that USA BAsketball should dump the NBA players and go back to college guys, AT LEAST for teh World Championships. Why?

 

1. College players would have more time to practice together. Their seasons end in March/April, whereas most NBA players aren't done until June.

 

2. College players would have more to gain and therefore play harder. Almost every player on this year's team said they were embarrassed to lose to Argentina, but you wouldn't have known that from how they played. Even when they were losing they didn't seem to be trying that hard to come back. But can you blame them? They're alredy rich and famous...what do they have to play for? However, college players would be playing with the knowledge that a good showing in the World Championships improves their stock in the NBA Draft.

[Guest Ripper]

More apparent??? The international teams would beat the pissy shit out of the college players, bottom line.

 

The Usa team just lost to better teams, and it was bound to happen eventually. They had the Best 2 guard in the leage(iknow, I know, Its my opinion sue me) and the rest of the players were amoung the best in the leage and one day allstars. They might not have been the best available but they were diffenately better than anything that the college ranks could have put together.

[Guest ant_7000]

Who knows if Kobe, McGrady, Iverson, and Duncan was playing would they have lost?

[Guest MarvinisaLunatic]

It would totally be cool if the US can't qualify for the Olympics because they decided to go with the popular demand to use College players. The US has to qualify for the Olympics since they didnt win the Championship. Dude, if Argentina and Yugoslavia schooled a US Team with a couple of NBA All Stars, can you only imagine what they'd do to a team of College players? I say stay with the NBAers until after the 2004 Olympics..