So the US didn't make the B-ball final

[HEyHEY]

How is the reaction down there? Have any blow-hard sports analysts been spouting off about unfair rules?

[David Dunham]

1. Let's blame it on Bush.

[HEyHEY]

2. Good idea!

It IS his fault after-all

[miss_kitty]

3. So the US didn't make the B-ball final

bwahahahahahahha!

it's about time...

[HEyHEY]

4. I know

Dream team - ha!

[Fionn]

5. Arrogance...

They assumed they'd win so they didn't bother sending a proper team. Same way we assumed we'd crush all resistance in Iraq. he arrogance of this country amazes me.

[HEyHEY]

6. Welcomet to DU!

[Fionn]

7. Thanks!

[arwalden]

8. A Brilliant Analogy!!

Welcome to DU!

[daveskilt]

11. welcome and I agree

arrogant, overpaid, whining gits. sitting on their cruise ship too good for the olympic village. Can't make a free throw to save their lives, making excuses about different rules etc. they don't deserve the bronze just for getting lucky against spain.

although an article on ESPN said that rooting against the US team makes you a racist - presumably since the players are all black this time around and they were beaten by mostly white lithuanians, italians, puerto ricans, argentinians and who else beat them in the warm ups I forget?

racist eh? perhaps I am also a terrorist for hating the US team for its astounding hubris. haters of freedom lovers of terra...blah blah



anyway welcome to DU! (my daughter was named fiona for about a day then we went with Kate - but we still call her fiona a lot - good name)

:toast:

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

9. Can't speak for others, but I certainly felt such a result was almost

inevitable based on the team's performance in pre-Olympic play.

Definitely heard some sportscasters predicting a dismal and possibly even non medal performance also. Let's face it, anything less than a gold medal from a team of multimilllionaire pros, no selection restrictions on the team, from what is SUPPOSED to be the best basketball league in the world, is a dismal performance.

I hope this is a good thing for U.S. and NBA basketball, causing everyone to take a good hard look at what American basketball has become.

[KG]

10. a low-key but spot-on take about this

U.S. never wakes up
A far cry from the Dream Team, USA loses in semifinals.

Archive
By GARY SHELTON, Times Sports Columnist
Published August 28, 2004

ATHENS - Think of it as a charming Olympic story of a nation overcoming the odds in a sport where, really, it isn't very good.

Think of it as a plucky little team trying to overcome its natural disadvantages on a world stage.

Think of it as an awkward, flawed bunch of athletes who have stumbled a bit, staggered a bit throughout the Games, yet somehow find themselves with a chance to win, gasp, the bronze medal.

Doesn't such a story tug at your heart? Doesn't it warm your soul? Doesn't it say something about the realization of dreams?

Ah, yes. Someday, perhaps, the United States will take up this strange game called basketball for real. >>>MORE

http://www.stpetersburgtimes.com/2004/08/28/Columns/US_never_wakes_up.shtml

[FlyByNight]

12. From what I've been seeing and hearing...

the "analysts" have been pretty much quiet about the rules, wider lane, etc. It's been mostly about the makeup of the team itself and the - for lack of a better phrase - "NBA culture": the emphasis on making the nightly highlight reel.

Mainly, the criticism has hit these main points:
1) the rest of the basketball playing world has simply gotten better.
2) there was an obvious lack of consistent outside shooting as there were no "pure shooter(s)" in the makeup of the team. Even with the pulled in 3-point line (the NBA line is further back), it didn't make much of a difference.
3) there was no one to give Tim Duncan a needed break. The US team was smallish, quick and athletic but there were no legit big-men after Duncan, except maybe Okafor. But Okafor didn't play much (and he'll be a forward in the NBA; he was UConn's center - go Huskies!).
4) the All-Star makeup of the US team. The non-US teams have played together for quite some time and there's real team chemistry involved.
5) the "NBA culture" (I'm paraphrasing). Generally, there seems to be an emphasis on making the nightly highlight reel: slashing to the basket and dunking. The art of "team ball" - unselfish, team defense, passing, hitting the open man when there's a double team - seems to be a lost art (with the noted exception of the Pistons - the NBA champs).

That's pretty much it in a nutshell.

[GOPisEvil]

13. Nope. They've been bitching about the way the team was selected.