If you've been following FIBA Americas tournament, you've probably heard that Team USA is the best they've been since 1992. They're more organized, more focused, playing as a team, well coached. Jerry Colangelo and Coach K must be geniuses, how did they (with most of the best basketball talent in the world) figure out how to beat countries like Venezuela, Canada (without Nash or Magloire), US Virgin Islands (without Tim Duncan) Brazil (without Varejao) and Mexico (without Najera)? Sounds exactly the same way that everyone was talking about this team when the got the bronze last year.
If you watched the Mexico game, you would've seen Kobe getting crossed over like this. Yes, that's the same Kobe that has taken the role of defensive specialist. This was by far the best play of the day in the FIBA tournament, but ESPN's and NBATV's highlights didn't show this play. Not only that but top 10 plays of the day in the FIBA tournament didn't include it. Not even in the top 10 for the day? Did Kobe pay someone off to make sure that nobody saw him almost fall over? Good thing someone was filming their TV during this game, otherwise it might've disappeared forever. Here's some numbers from the game. In the second quarter Mexico outscored the U.S. 28-20. For quarters 2,3 and 4 combined the U.S. outscored Mexico 82-77. That's a 5 point advantage for the U.S. in 3 quarters. If Mexico can keep the margin that close in 3 quarters what will Argentina be able to do in 4? Since the current U.S. team has the goal of winning the gold in Bejing, maybe the better question is what will a full-strength Argentina, Spain, Greece, Italy, etc. be able to do next year?
1 comment:
Good question. I don't know what will happen when the real competition comes to play. But if I were the U.S. managers I'd add Joakim (the joke) Noah to the squad so we could get some more fist pumping, chest thumping, victory dancing, and camera stare downs. That's what is really lacking in the international game.
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