Yes, they are going to take home the gold. Yes, they are going to whip everybody’s ass. Yes, some players are missing because of injuries or personal motivations. But still, the selection committee did a pathetic job at selecting this team. Therefore I present my “official” Dream Team:
Starting lineup
G Gary Payton
G Kobe Bryant
C Shaq
F Grant Hill
F Kevin Garnett
Reserves
G Ray Allen
G Jason Kidd
G Allen Iverson
F Vince Carter
F Chris Webber
F Tim Duncan
C Alonzo Mourning
Center - Shaquille O’Neal
Rest of the squad - any 4 random people off the street.
That sould be enough to completely squash the likes of Krackstickenstein-stan-burg.
They ought to just give us the Gold, and let the others fight for Silver and Bronze. We wouldn’t want our professionals to strain something in such a meaningless game as any in which they might compete in the Olympics.
Except we got tired of their pros beating up our amateurs.
Turn about is fair play. Except we are better. Could a team of our pros get beat. Actually yes if USA basketball isn’t careful.
Duncan and Hill both pulled out of playing for this team due to injuries. I’m not sure the exact original list but you have to remember that USA Basketball also has to worry about image. We don’t want to send a bunch of all-star chumps over there.
Vince Carter is already showing why they didn’t want him on the team in the first place. Vince brings highlights and attitude.
Vince Carter
1.) scrap match with the Australian team.
2.) blatant elbow in the Japan game when we were up 40.
3.) Dunks on one of the Japanese guards and then gets in his face with some trash talk. Also when we are up 40.
The guy is a punk and looks like he will lose it on an international stage.
His polar opposite would appear to be Ray Allen who was selected instead of Vince originally. Coincidence?
Personally, I believe that the Olympics are SUPPOSED to represent the best of the worlds best in sport. Thus, I think the Olympics should just ABANDON all sports in which there are better, more prestigious events.
Olympic baseball will NEVER matter as much as the World Series. Olympic basketball will NEVER matter as much as the NBA title. Olympic tennis will NEVER matter to players the way WImbledon does. SO, as far as I’m concerend, none of those sports should be Olympic events in the first place. I’d say, let the gymnasts and swimmers and sprinters (for whom the Olympics ARE the high poiunt of their careers) have the Olympics to themselves.
Fat chance of that happening, though.
Now then, I can sympathize with those who say it’s no fun watching the American pros stomp hapless basketball players from around the world. But I remind you of this: back in 1956, Bill Russell and the U.S. collegians spanked the rest of the world at LEAST as badly as the Dream Team did in 1992. It only took the rest of the world 16 years to catch up to our collegians (the Russians won the gold in 1972).
So… who’s to say that, as basketball becomes more and more popular around the world, and as more Europeans and Africans and Australians play in the NBA, that in 16 years, the rest of the world won’t catch up to us?
There’s always a tradeoff, you know. AMericans face that dilemma in soccer. How do you learn to beat the best if you don’t PLAY the best? It’s hard to know whether the best thing for U.S. soccer is a domestic pro league… or to have our best players getting experience in Europe.
What has Ray Allen got that Latrell Sprewell and Jerry Stackhouse don’t?
But if I was picking any 2guard then I would choose Isiah Rider.
He might cause something worth reading about.
I attended the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. I had a choice of going to either the track and field finals or the basketball finals. Given that the basketball finals have degenerated into NBA-land, I opted for the track and field finals. Watching an upstart challenge the favorite for gold in the women’s high jump and seeing an American make a serious run at winning the 5,000 meters (which Americans never win because the Kenyans are so good at it) meant a whole lot more to me than seeing the U.S. basketball squad ritually sacrifice some bunch of second-rate goobers.
I agree with Astorian too, except for saying that the Russians won the Olympic gold medal in basketball in 1972. Altough the Russian team’s play was equal to that of the American collegians’, which was Astorian’s point, the Russians only won the gold medal game because they brought their own timekeeper and refs.
I remember the end of the 1972 basketball finals well, and I was as outraged as anybody. Yes, the U.S. team was ripped off by a series of bad calls.
The fact remains, though, even if there’d been no funny business, the Russians would have lost by just 1 measly point! That alone proves how much they’d closed the gap. In 1988, we saw that the Russians and the Yugoslavians were DEFINITELY as good as our American collegians.
SO, while the U.S. should continue to dominate basketball for a while, don’t be too sure that’s going to last forever.
The only problem I see for the US is not being able to select from the top tier of talent for the Olympics. Heck 3 or 4 guys said no this year. Once the guys playing have a medal will they be as motivated?