For the Iversons, I agree with the OP.
But for the Tim Duncans, I’m depressed as hell. Believe it or not, folks, there really are some NBA players who are more interested in the game, and their teams, than in showboating. Not many, I’ll grant, but they’re out there.
(Apropos of nothing, one of the best games of my life was Wake at Utah in 96. Keith van Horn and Timmy Duncan were hammer and tongs. Fantastic game.)
I know Allen Iverson can be irritating, but I’ve never seen a harder working basketball player. And he’s not all about dunking, inasmuch as he hardly ever dunks, since he’s a 5’11" guard. He wouldn’t be the first guy I’d blame.
You’d think that for all the millions of dollars these guys make, they would put in the time necessary to learn how to hit an open 20 foot jumpshot. And don’t get me started on their lousy free-throw shooting as well. I for one was glad to see them get their asses handed to them. And BTW, what on earth are Carlos Boozer and Lamar Odom doing on this team? Did (insert mediocre NBA journeyman here) have a previous commitment? 
Oh, I just think he’s a whiny prima donna. I don’t doubt the skills, nor really his effort on the court, but I can do without his ego.
Oh, and BTW Frostillicus … I might well have to lay a smackdown on you for talking shit about Carlos Boozer. Hell, next you’ll be dissing Cherokee Parks, Danny Ferry, or Chris Laettner.
Er, on second thought, maybe I’ll just keep my Dukie trap shut. 
Yeah but whats good for the goose is good for the gander, it was sweet listening to the wailing , and gnashing of teeth as America beat portugal in the world cup of soccer.
It might have only been one game that may never be repeated , but ya think that the porkchops would have realized it was only a game 
Declan
I’ll be keeping an eye on the Jazz a little more this year. I like the cut of Arroyo’s jib (gib? 
)
Being sick with little motiviation to do anything, I caught the last quarter of this game. One of the comments that I found most confounding was that apparently the coach (highly decorated dude) was saying that his team was going to lose, or if not that, then at least he wasn’t confident that they would get the gold.
What the fuck’s with that? Why even bother showing up if that’s the case? Not following basketball at all, I wonder how much of the poor performance is having your coach not entirely committed to the team.
Actually, the US Coach’s whole line seems to be that he’s pissed at how his players that won’t come together as a team, and how they did not seem to learn anything after the Italy game.
He’s trying the tactic of calling them bums as a way of challenging them to prove him wrong.
Heh, instead, they proved him right!
I bet he was wishing he had his pistons instead.
To spoof a famous line uttered by Alan Iverson (although I believe he probably did think this at sometime before the game):
[AI]
“We’re talking about Puerto Rico, not the Pistons, not the Lakers, but Puerto Rico.”
[/AI]
When I heard the so-called “leader” AI blowing off a meeting before the games started, I knew the “leader” of the US team was not going to take anything seriously and the team will probably lose a game or three. The belief that a bunch of semi-superstars (except Duncan) thrown together with little meeting and practice time is good enough to beat any fundementally sound team that practices and practices and practices until the games start is a fatally flawed view of a sport that AI and others of his ilk believe is a God-given right.
I’m right there with the rest of the world that our “superstars” need a dose of reality, because we here are just as sick of it as you are. My sincere thanks goes to Puerto Rico for responding in such convincing manner.
We got eliminated from Olympic baseball competition by Mexico, so, uh, we can’t.
I just wonder if it’s true that Nike has dispatched a planeful of lawyers armed with fresh contracts to Puerto Rico this morning. 
Dose of reality? Those dudes are staying on the QE2!
Additional thought:
Why don’t we just send the winner of the NCAA tournament (would have been UConn this year) to games instead…they deserve it and I think their solid team chemistry and additional months of practice would have been a better representative for the country than these boat-hopping fools that are there now.
I know we used to send amateur athletes to the Olympics to get bitch-slapped on a regular basis before Dream Team I, but I think they too came from different college teams similar to the situation we currently have with the NBA players. I think we should stick with whole teams who have proven themselves at some level. I guess sending the Pistons there would be my second choice, but then there are contracts and other BS that tend to get in the way with the pros.
Ugh. Don’t remind me.
Actually, our amateur basketball players only lost two games in Olympic history - 1972 and 1988.
As JRD mentioned (and I’m repeating), the Puerto Rico team is not really a team as one from the NCAA or NBA would be. Many of the players have competed against each other in the Baloncesto Superior Nacional (our NBA), plus compete in other professional teams such as the NBA. But… being part of the national delegation is important, and many of those players want to qualify and be part of it. And the national delegation plays in other international tournaments like the World Basket, Panamericans, Centroamericans, Centrobasket, pre-Olympics, Sub-22 (where we send the younger players), etc.
That’s probably a big difference from the US, where making the Team-USA is not looked upon as worthy and prestigious as it is in other countries.
Personally, I never thought basketball should be an Olympic sport in the first place. As far as I’m concerned, the Olympics are SUPPOSED to represent the best of the world’s best, competing for the greatest prize in their sport. In my opinion, any sport that ALREADY has events more prestigious than the Olympics shouldn’t be part of the Olympics.
Tennis? Wimbledon will always be far more prestigious. Drop it.
Soccer? The World Cup is infinitely more important than the Olympics to any soccer fan. Dump it.
Baseball? The World Series will always be bigger. Ditch it.
Basketball? Once again, the NBA championship is far more prestigious. Most top pros would rather skip the Olympics- even the ones who actually show up for the Olympics!
But of course, NBC would never allow this, so I’ll get back to reality.
The U.S. is now in the same position with respect to basketball that Canada is with regard to hockey. Canada STILL has the world’s best hockey players, but they can’t dominate the world in hockey as they once did, and as their fans still feel they’re SUPPOSED to. There are now great hockey players in the U.S., in Russia, in Sweden, in Finland, in the Czech Republic, et al., and the NHL is filled with such foreign interlopers! So, while Canada remains the favored team at every Winter Olympiad, NOBODY is shocked when the Russians, Swedes or Czechs manage a win.
So it is now with basketball. I remain convinced that the U.S. still has the best basketball players in the world, and that a properly conceived, decently motivated U.S. team should still win gold almost every time. The problem with the current “Dream Team” (and really, who but the media have been calling this squad “the Dream Team”?) is NOT that they’re selfish, egositical thugs who only care about shoe contracts! It’s that the team was badly put together (only one big man, no pure shooters, too many small forwards, etc.). I have no inside knowledge of how the team was put together. MAYBE David Stern was too eager to put marquee youngsters on the team, or MAYBE every good big man and every good shooter said “No” when invited to join the Olympic team. Regardless, a well-designed team of American pros would still be favorites every 4 years.
But the fact remains, there are now great basketball players all over the world. The NBA is filled with them. On a regular basis, foreign teams, led by players with NBA experience, are going to give the U.S. teams all they can handle, and even beat them. And we Yanks will have to stop thinking of such events as “upsets.”
We’ll still win the gold in basketball most of the time, just as Canadians will win Olympic gold in hockey more often than not. But just like the Canadians, we have to accept that we can’t win the gold in “our” sport any more just by showing up.
The situation is not yet anywhere near that of hockey. Canada hasn’t been dramatically better than all others since the 72 series against the Soviets, and while a Canadian all-star team that had the time to become a team would likely beat all others in lengthy series fairly reliably, there have been a half dozen nations that play at essentially the same level for a couple decades. A hot goalie a la Hasek in 98 is all it takes for our team to get its ass handed to it quite legitimately, particularly in single games.
Basketball may reach that point in another decade or so, but it’s not there yet. It’s still the case that all the American stars need to do is show up to win. Of course, as Puerto Rico has shown, they do have to show up now, unlike the first couple dream teams.
Canadian hockey improved when they stopped letting Bobby Clarke run it. He was trying to force Lindros into being something he wasn’t - a leader. Now that Gretzky is in charge things look up. Canada can’t dominate the way they used to, but they can still win every tournament they play in. In fact we will soon see as the World Cup of Hockey (nee Canada Cup) gets started at the end of the month. Of course, when in doubt, just bury a Loonie at centre ice.