Down with the USA!
NBA flunkies. MUHAHAHHA!!!
I actually feel sorta bad for American athletes at some of these types of competitions. I don't imagine they get a lot of sympathy a lot of the time, and have to deal with the added pressure of being American. No problem if you're a marquee athlete -- comes with the territory. But if you're just some poor amateur skeet shooter or some such, I think you have to put up with a lot of shit for being American without any of the real benefits of the American Olympic machine to fall back on.
But on to these NBA flunkies.
That is truly pathetic. It shows how poor the attitude of US basketball players has become, and to a degree, how pointless the pretense of coaching seems to be in the NBA culture.
The rest of the world is catching up, and the US will have to face the same reality as English Soccer, or Canadian Hockey have had to face. Can't show up with the 4th string and expect to walk away with the prize anymore. And it's only going to get harder as time passes.
Maybe this will spark a change in NBA basketball, which has become progressively less watchable the last couple of years.
I actually feel sorta bad for American athletes at some of these types of competitions. I don't imagine they get a lot of sympathy a lot of the time, and have to deal with the added pressure of being American. No problem if you're a marquee athlete -- comes with the territory. But if you're just some poor amateur skeet shooter or some such, I think you have to put up with a lot of shit for being American without any of the real benefits of the American Olympic machine to fall back on.
But on to these NBA flunkies.
That is truly pathetic. It shows how poor the attitude of US basketball players has become, and to a degree, how pointless the pretense of coaching seems to be in the NBA culture.
The rest of the world is catching up, and the US will have to face the same reality as English Soccer, or Canadian Hockey have had to face. Can't show up with the 4th string and expect to walk away with the prize anymore. And it's only going to get harder as time passes.
Maybe this will spark a change in NBA basketball, which has become progressively less watchable the last couple of years.
Comments
I've never been a huge fan of American Football, but at least those guys go out and play a team game. I don't care for the grunts of the sport, but there are a few dozen guys on a football team that put their bodies on the line so that the stars/team can score. I never see that in an NBA game anymore. The players only have two speeds, a hip-hop strut, or a mama called me home early skulk.
Somewhere after the Johnson-Bird-Dumars-Thomas era it al started falling apart. Jordan ascended in the last real era of NBA basketball and retired just as it all started to sour.
It seems like the game just ain't what it was, and the pomp and stupidity is making its way down to the college and HS ranks too.
Originally posted by Matsu
It seems like the game just ain't what it was, and the pomp and stupidity is making its way down to the college and HS ranks too.
High school and college is actually where most of the stupidity comes from.
Maybe HS, but college? The coach still has a role in college ball.
Originally posted by Beige_G3
The "Dream Team" represents most of what is wrong with America.
s/America/NBA/
Don't be that guy.
Wanna blame someone? Here's a couple things to consider:
-The selection committee made a big mistake in selecting the players it did. This team was very unbalanced. No consistent outside shooters.
When you have to depend on Marbury and Iverson for your outside shooting...you have a problem.
Why the problem if you don't have good outside shooting? International rules allow you to play zone D without having to worry about 3 second violations so it's very difficult to play an inside game against it.
-For years now, basketball in the US has turned into showmanship. The flashy play, the monster dunk, the one on one street ball style so some of the basics have become secondary.
Boxing out, finding the open man,freethrow shooting and more importantly the jump shot (especially the midrange jumper) have become secondary to coaches all over the US.
-The geniuses who thought they could put a team together good enough to win the gold in just a few short weeks. Like the World Championships debacle wasn't enough of a wake up call.
"White Men Can't Jump?" Maybe not but like Magic Johnson once said... "Yeah, but they can do a lot of other things."
I guess they can.
I think this is the best thing that could have happened to American basketball, and basketball in general. It's time for people to realize that fundamentals are important, although as so many people complain, the NBA rules do not emphasize what you could consider as strategic ball.
We saw a similar thing happen in hockey, but Canada and America strated to adjust a bit, and now things are really interesting in hockey. I hope the same can be done for basketball, but I think the American egos are too high to let it happen very quickly even with the loss.
Olympic style hockey has an even greater advantage over NHL than the corresponding difference in basketball. I dunno how much of that is the increased nature of the talent but the game is so much faster and more exciting. Obviously it would be a logistical nightmare and maybe they cannot replicate that same game on a daily basis but I think it would be great if they changed the rink sizes. As well as throwing in the 15 second rule.
Originally posted by ColanderOfDeath
Olympic style hockey has an even greater advantage over NHL than the corresponding difference in basketball. I dunno how much of that is the increased nature of the talent but the game is so much faster and more exciting. Obviously it would be a logistical nightmare and maybe they cannot replicate that same game on a daily basis but I think it would be great if they changed the rink sizes. As well as throwing in the 15 second rule.
Olympic hockey has the huge advantage that it's played on a larger rink, so the faster skaters and better passers have a bigger advantage. Plus, there's a lot of national pride at stake, even for the bigger countries -- like Canada -- and everyone seems to play really hard. These days, olympic hockey is about the best hockey you'll see. Some of the Avs-WIngs showdowns in the late 90's came close, though.
Some Olympic games were very entertaining. I enjoyed the ball movement, the variety of plays, but most of all....the better jump shooting.
I was watching a couple Lakers-Celtics and Lakers-Sixers games from the 80's( Lakers Complete History on DVD was an x-mas present) and man, what a difference compared to today.
It seems like almost EVERY player back then could shoot the midrange jumper and that no matter who you were(few exceptions) if you were open you were supposed to shoot it. Great ball movement too.
"We can't continue to do this with a different set of rules," Brown said. "I would hope that some day we have one set of basketball rules for everybody. Take the best of international rules, the best of the NBA and move forward. I think that's really important for our sport."
Larry Brown
It's not the rules. It's the fact that none of these guys can shoot from midrange.
Originally posted by Eugene
Heh, Rick Barry has been ranting about fundamentals and the NBA for the last decade or so.
A lot of people with much better credentials than Barry have been making that point for years...John Wooden being one... and more recently Dean Smith. Maybe we need to get our asses kicked a couple more times in international play before it sinks in with the powers that be.
Then again, you're talking about a guy who shot 90% from the line for his career. What the hell does he know? And nobody wants to hire the guy to coach in the NBA...
He was a great freethrow shooter....but you did know he shot his freethrows......underhanded....right? Not sure I wanna see players shooting that way.
Originally posted by Matsu
But on to these NBA flunkies.
That is truly pathetic. It shows how poor the attitude of US basketball players has become, and to a degree, how pointless the pretense of coaching seems to be in the NBA culture.
The rest of the world is catching up, and the US will have to face the same reality as English Soccer, or Canadian Hockey have had to face. Can't show up with the 4th string and expect to walk away with the prize anymore. And it's only going to get harder as time passes.
Maybe this will spark a change in NBA basketball, which has become progressively less watchable the last couple of years.
Amen. Other than Duncan and one or two others, what a punch of punks. Like I really want Allen Iverson and Stephon Marbury representing the US in an international competition. This wasn't even close to being a "dream team".
The only one, was the first one IMHO. Nobody could touch those guys not only because of their skills but because they knew how to play team ball and they knew how to lead / take every game seriously. That's why they pounded every team they played. And yes the competition has improved, but that dream team in their prime still would've dominated every team in this year's field.
Today's NBA crop is truly a bunch of HS and college dropouts who are more interested in being perceived as a bad-ass and getting huge contracts than anything else. The NBA sucks.
Goons just take cheap shots and fight each other these days. An enforcer, a classic, like Semenco, kept the other guys honest, gave the Gretzky's room to skate.