Day of mourning for American basketball

[Hoop Fan]

man, what a disappointment. I've heard all the analysts who said the US team did not have the right pieces and they are right. Still, how could this team lose 3 games and not even medal? 2 wins, 3 losses? Truly pathetic.

correction: They might still get bronze, but it makes no difference.

[OldPony]

Larry Brown will get a lot of criticism for this. He played Carmelo and LeBraun about a total of 5 minutres between them. NBA basketball doesn't travel well when you have to play by real basketball rules.

[couch 'em]

They would have been fine if they brought at least one person who could shoot the ball. NBA still has the best players in the world by far - but you can't win if you don't have some sense in your selection. The team should be picked by who can best win - not who will sell the most Tshirts after they get the gold.

[PK]

IMHO, most NBA teams and players are a joke. Any team that can really play as a team and with real defense will beat the pants off all the other teams. Why do you think the scores are so high in pro ball...no defense and lax observance of rules. All you really have is a bunch of over paid street ballers.

[gostangs]

The younger guys could have done alot more towards winning - Carmello in particular. This is going to cause uproar for years - many NBA'ers will see it as a no win for them going forward - so they will have to broaden their reach a bit - which might help.

[Waz]

Too bad a clause couldn't be added to contracts concerning the Olympics, ie The NBA Championship team in the year of the Olympics would represent the USA, or the All Rookie Team in the year of the Olympics would represent the USA. Could you imagine the screams from the Players Union and the Agents if something like this was attempted?

[OldPony]

Especially from the foreign born players. I think I read earlier this year that 1/3 of the NBA was now foreigners.

[EastStang]

I think that the word TEAM is important in international basketball and putting a celebrity all star group out there just doesn't work anymore. We'd almost be better using the reigning NCAA champions. They play as a group, they play zones, they have set plays geared to beat zones, and they can match-up with most of these international teams. Think of it as a bonus gift to the team that wins the national championship. They could also give the coach a right to add five players to his roster for the Olympics from the NBA. They would get the message real fast, run my plays or ride pine.

[OldPony]

I agree. I would like to see the NCAA champs play (or even any team from the FF). I don't know how you could hold them together for that long though with many trying out for NBA teams. I think that the difference in rules from International to NBA is serious and that our guys don't really know how to play without taking 4 steps to the rim or the continuation rules (which get silly) and being able to push anyway they want under the boards or backing in to shoot. NBA is showtime, not really basketball. It effects who makes the league as well as how we play Internationally. I imagine we'll just see some tweaking on how players are selected rather than anything meaningful though. By the next Olympics, more than 1/2 of the players from the NBA could be foreign if the trends don't change though.

[moodymadness]

I beg to differ on some of the arguments. PK, nba games are not very high scoring and scoring has been on a steady decline in the league for some time now. if there is no defense in the nba, how did the detriot pistons win the nba championship against the lakers (with the two best offensive forces in the league)? and sending the college champs is far from the solution...UCONN would have been smashed by the foreign teams...their best player Okafor didn't even get off the bench for the US team that finished 3rd. So how would UCONN have done against those international teams WITHOUT Ben Gordon and Okafor, who had been drafted into the nba? NBA players are the best in the world and should represent the US at the Olympics...the key is finding the right group of guys and inserting a mix of defensive specialists, shooters, post players, slashers, etc. The latest team had too many penetrators and was too young. Hopefully the US can learn from its mistakes and reclaim the gold in China.

[PK]

I admit I was probably over the top with my comment, but I did say "most" nba teams and players, not "all"...the pistons proving my point that a good defensive team will beat the pants off of the rest.

[giacfsp]

Add Richard Hamilton, Michael Redd, Reggie Miller, Brent Barry or Stephen Jackson to this team and we're talking about another gold medal. Maybe two of them. But a couple of shooters, and we win the gold, even without Shaq, Garnett, Kobe, etc. Even someone like Austin Croshiere would have been a big help over all the all-dunk/no-shoot team we trotted out there.