61-53 for the US against Greece at the moment, shortly into the 4th quarter! At the start of the second quarter, Greece was down by 10, so they've been hanging in there! Phil
Ahh US won in the end 77-71, Greece came back within 1 point, but US took off after that. Greece isn't even a basketball power either. Phil
Greece almost give the Americans a scare... I'm totally dissapointed with the US BBall Team's performance... anyhow a win is still a win.. i hope they will survive the next few rounds
I think US will get thrashed by Lithuania! they showed a better fighting spirit against Greece than against Puerto Rico though... things are getting better...
got to get through the australians first though. Seems like everyone is lining up to take it to the dreamers team. I think its attitude that's killing them. Got to agree with Gheri though...the REAL Dream Team is the 1992 Dream Team.
No one seems to be reacting but U.S. did actually lose against Lithuania! Lithuania played great from what I saw, they really deserved to win! However the US team is getting better and better, they won't be so easy to beat from now on...
I don't think people care now, the dameage was done earlier and the American team are getting such bad receptions every time they go on court it's a shame. Because everyone has beaten them already , no actually 2 defeats and one very close game from Greece, they might not take the gold. I think they are lying 3rd in the pool
I never saw the US as favourites in basketball, so their defeats weren't surprising to me... I think they still are a serious outsider for the title though, they only lost by four points to -mighty- Lithuania!
anybody saw the score so far? in the semi-final. Argentina is leading the US 70-57 in the 3rd quarter!
US just lost 89-81 to Agentina and ended all hopes of a Gold Medal. They got beaten by Lithuania earlier, and I think they have been beaten badly by Italy during the pre-Olympics games. I would make a guess that a disappointed US Team won't mentally fit enough to play the bronze medal game, but we'll wait and see.
Wow, after USA's great win against Spain it looked like they had found the solution... but this wasn't enough to beat Argentina! We'll see now if they are strong enough to take the bronze...
One of the Argentine players gave a very good reason why US lost, "The US have the best players, but it's a 5-on-5 game, not 1-on-1.". Time to build to true basketball team with role players, not an all-star team.
well the world was able to beat what was essentially a college team...but I think next time around it will be different in beijing as now the USA has something to prove..I hpe they learn from this experience as i want to see kobe, tracy, kevin, shaq, play in the next one...but kudo for those that went to represent...they did a good job considering there was so many things stacked against them...they did better than serbia montengro the gold medal favorites....hope we win the bronze...I like ginobille, spelled wrong i don't care ill be rooting for argentina...nba is still the best brand of basketball...untill i see an international team beat a USA all star team in NBA style ball...USA is still the best
Well, I think one important reason why many NBA stars refuse to go to the olympics is the risk of anti-doping controls... It will probably be even stricter in four years so I'm not sure there is much chance of having all the very best stars... And having all the best stars doesn't guarantee anything either, they would need to learn more humility and team spirit... which require a real preparation! I don't know whether so highly payed players are willing to spend one or two months working "for free" to prepare the olympics...
that is definitely true for baseball where many of the home-run hitters are openly taking steriods to boost their performance. probably one of the reason why US didn't even quality for baseball this time around.
doping is not that much of a concern when your talking about the NBA...I have not heard of any marque NBA player getting caught doping...NBA does have a mandatory testing...u are right about money being the problem...mainy NBA players have too much...and pride of country doesn't count as much...hopefully some young players will comeback to beijing as you can clearly see the USA is already getting better...just alittle too late :crying:
NBA brand of basketball isn't the best, it's just more entertaining/showy. International rules favour shooting, but isn't that the whole point of the game? To get the ball in the basket? The American players are more comfortable soaring through the lane than shooting a 20-footer. Phil
100% agree. People keep blaming the loss to the absent of O'Neil, Bryant, Garnett, and too young. If we compare the players one by one, the US team players are better any other team in all 5 positions. They just forgot basketball is a team sport.
For those interested, here's a very interesting article by Jason Whitlock on ESPN.com about the criticism on this USA team. Especially interesting is the comparison of Europeans' refining the game of hockey in the 70's to their changing the game of basketball now. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=whitlock/040826 Phil
