Don't think they can even beat the Argentines. Not even bronze. What a shame!

FIRE DAVID STERN!!!

GO SHOCK!

Yeah Ok?

This is great, from Hoopshype...

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/s...n.2fab2b9.html

Earlier when someone suggested who would be voted off I chose Brad Miller. Interesting why Miller was kept; because of 3 point shooting?

Coach K deserves some of the blame for the teams collapse, but so should the NBA players.

Bruce Bowen by himself couldn`t have saved this team from defeat. Only a team effort to play defense would have been effective.

Here is an interesting take on the Fiba World Championships by Michael Wilbon, a Washington Post reporter.

http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...090101815.html

One loss by six points... big deal.
The athletisism is what makes this team good.
The FIBA teams are not dominating the USA by any stretch.
I don't think we should expect them to not have a bad game once in a while.... they crushed everyone else.
The right system is in place now... we have a squad comited to several years... they still can add/subtract a couple pieces (shooters and defender)...
What's needed is more time working out the FIBA kinks and understanding competition strategies.
Shame on people for jumping all over this team... they sacrificed their home life for us... they played very well for the most part.

__________________

http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/6137/iverson2ue0.jpg

I didn't expect the Americans to lose to Greece, but I didn't expect them to win it all either. The Olympics are the big stage for US basketball.

From an "outside the US" perspective, it is a big deal for a lot of countries when they can knock of what was an absolutely dominating super power in international basketball. Canadians are really familiar with this from our battles with the Russian Hockey Teams in International Tournaments.

One thing is sure. This fuels Stern's desire to start a European league. It comes down to whether or not he will try the same superstar marketing approach, or play to the existing "club/city/national loyalty" passion of the Euro fans.

__________________
Competition is merely the absence of oppression.
- Frédéric Bastiat

Interesting perspective... I guess the US team is the superbowl of other teams.
These Euro Intenational teams have earned the respect of the American audience.... we now understand the importance of "team play"... hopefully this will help transend to to the American coaches (from AAU to the pros)... we now have a new mission... IMO it starts wih defense... the US squad scored something like 102 pts p/game and still did not bring home the gold... if you want to be technical, they easily could be called the silver medalist.

This is a very young team that is only gonna improve (compared to Argentina & Greece)... the entire team (especially coaches) has learned how to compete in the international environment.... personally I'm very proud of how well this young team has responded.
Bigger and better the next time.

__________________

http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/6137/iverson2ue0.jpg

I hope this series will help to make that so. In the past we have tended to blame the American team rather than give any credit to the quality of the competition. That was easy given the way some of the more recent teams played, but I think our first reaction is to blame the losers rather than crediting the winners. And that won't help develop any sort of interaction with international markets.

Looks like Spain won the gold... the Greek team played awful defense.
Spain was on fire from the perimeter (which we lacked)... this opened up the inside for Spain...
Spain had the P&R figured out... they ran a lot of zone.
Greece didn't shoot nearly as well as they did against the US.
All without Gasol... impressive.