Olympic Dream Team more like a nightmare

[Brink15]

Well the pros from the NBA couldn't pull out another gold in Athens.

 

Personally I hope they don't even medal. What a bunch of spoiled over paid whiners.

 

I haven't watched an entire NBA game since the last Bulls championship. Not because of Jordan's departure but due to the fact that the legue has become not much more than a platform for thug culture. They should change it to the NGBA or National Gang Bangers Association.

 

Good that these guys go home losers. It's just sad that they'll probably have no understanding that they were there for their country, not themselves.

[OCgringo]

they did not look like they were even trying ,

 

Argentina were playing like it mattered to them ,

I hope the USA bring back non-pros next time, at least they will give 100%

[check_bin_krap]

To comfort you guys... In football its only a few countries who bother. Brazil usually does. But nobody cares or registeres who comes there.. For crying out load, Iraq???

 

:D :D

[Belem]

What do you think the outcome would have been had Kobe, Shaq, Kevin Garnett, Tracy McGrady, and Jason Kidd played? That was no dream team the US sent to Athens.

[dean]

The NBA's participation in Olympic basketball is purely from a marketing standpoint. As far as the NBA premire stars go, do you think that they want to give up 8-10 weeks of their summer vacation for a chance at gold? Shaq already makes over $30,000,000 a season and has shown that he won't even come to NBA training camp in decent playing shape and refused to have leg surgery a year ago in off season, his reason being that "he injured the leg during the season and should be able to rehab the leg (and have surgery) during the season (not during the off season). While other star NBA players don't share Shaq's extreme belief that nothing should intrude on their "off time," winning an olympic medal means very little in comparison to winning the NBA championship. The U.S. olympic basketball team need more than 4 weeks of practice to play like a team (a point guard also wouldn't have hurt). An easy solution would be to play the reigning NBA championship team in that year's olympics. A combination of NBA and college players is also a possibility, if you can find enough college players that haven't gone pro. Whatever the U.S. does, the days of just rolling the basketball out and claiming victory are officially over. Whatever team represents the U.S. four years from now in China, it will have to play like a team, which means a greater commitment by the players than just 8 weeks.

[Belem]

Good post. I disagree about using college players. Emeka Okafor could not get any minutes for the Olympic team, unless it was during garbage time. Most college players are not strong enough to hold their rebounding position against the "adult" international players. In 1992 with the Dream Team, the rest of the world saw the level where they had to be. In 1992, the average margin of victory the Dream Team had was 40 points(Chuck Daly never even had to call a time out); in subsequent Olympics, the margin of victory has decreased with the US being involved in real competition this past Olympics in Athens. The rest of the world has clearly closed the gap. Look at all the Europeans in the NBA draft compared to twelve years ago. Europeans play team basketball and are good at getting open for jump shots and making them. The players in the US are too preoccupied with playing street ball and throwing down tomahawk dunks so they can make the ESPN Sportscenter highlights and not enough on fundamentals. Even Magic Johnson made the easy pass 99% of the time. Oh how I long for the days of Bird and Magic back in the 80's.

[Brink15]

Belem said:

What do you think the outcome would have been had Kobe, Shaq, Kevin Garnett, Tracy McGrady, and Jason Kidd played? That was no dream team the US sent to Athens.

 

 

Dean answered for me very well with the exception that I think the list of stars you gave is a mute point. Those players lack the class and pride of country the stars of 92' possesed. I would hazard that most if not all of the stars you listed would have serious trouble thinking beyond themselves and therefore would never show for the Olympics in the current climate.

[Belem]

All I'm saying is that had the players I mentioned had played for the US Olympic team, they would have won the gold medal, but not with an average victory margin of 40 points. ::And Carlos Boozer is no dream teamer.

[dean]

I think that with the NBA allowing (or being forced to by the courts) high school seniors to be drafted, you won't see any top flight college players staying for more than 2 years before declaring themselves eligible for the draft. So, I guess that leaves only NBA players. I had season tickets to the Kansas City Kings from 1976-1986 (when they left for Sacramento) and probably the best team that I ever saw was the 1977-1978 Portland Trailblazers, with Walton and Lucas. The year before, they showed what a team could do against better all-stars, the Phily 76ers, with Erving and George McGinnis. If Walton had not had foot problems, they could have been right up there with the Boston Celtic, Laker and Bulls teams. I just hope that the next U.S. team is chosen by audition and not by invitation and is prepared to play by international rules.

[BadaBing]

Your post title should have left out " Dream Team " , that's nothing more than a rip off when Magic , MJ , Bird , Barkley , etc participated , who cares anyway when the what's left are sent anyway. The USA chicks in soccer showed what true heart is , should have sent the Pistons over...