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Anyone else interested? I am a foreigner to this country (came from Poland) and ever since i came, i've always been a huge fan of anything USA, i wish them well in everything. Esspicially in basketball since it's my favorite sport and i am proud to live in this country so i hope it does well. But last 3 tournaments have not been good for USA. I figured i'd start this thread. I think there is alot of hype for these games and US basketball is really taking it seriously now, which i think is great. Chris Paul just said recently this is his biggest success ever if he wins and Kobe said if he wins this, he'd put it over any NBA title he's ever won. Lots of ads for it on TV, magazines and even ESPN2 has a show on the Dream Team.

The world claims they have caught up to the US in terms of basketball.

USA Olympic Roster-

4. Carlos Boozer
5. Jason Kidd
6. Lebron James
7. Deron Williams
8. Micheal Redd
9. Dwyane Wade
10. Kobe Bryant
11. Dwight Howard
12. Chris Bosh
13. Chris Paul
14. Tayshawn Prince
15. Carmelo Anthony

Who's interested? Is this worth a topic on the Pacers board?

Btw,

USA's first game is August 10th, 10pm vs. China.

A few things concern me in our quest for gold:

1. Who is the alpha-dog here? Who do you go to in the clutch? Nearly all of the guys on team USA are their team's respective go to guy. I suspect Kobe or LeBron gets the call.

2. FIBA basketball is not NBA basketball. We have easily the most talent and the most star power of any country, but the rules are different and they do not play to the strengths of American players.

3. The referees. I am not a conspiracy theorist and dont like blaming the refs for every call that goes against my team, but guys like Tim Duncan have sworn off FIBA basketball because of the referees. A lot of people around the world really dont like the USA, and I have read numerous times where our guys complain about the impartial refs in international play.

4. The lack of big men on our team. We do not have a very big team and we do not go very deep. If one of the Bosh/Boozer/Howard combo goes down, we are in trouble. I really like Tyson Chandler for that last spot over Prince (and I love having guys like Tayshaun on the team), but the coaches went in another direction.

5. There are a lot of really good teams in the Olympics. Its not like we have to focus on beating one or two other teams--any team is capable of beating us.

I cant in good conscious pick against the Americans (especially on July 4th), but I dont think it will be easy at all. In international settings such as the Olympics, we have a permanent target on our backs. Everyone brings their A-game against us.

Basically, I hope nobody gets hurt.

I always regretted JO and Reggie playing for the US team. I think the ankle injury Reggie incurred in 2002 basically cost him one of his last effective seasons, and there's no doubt in my mind that the effectively three straight years that JO played without a break had a direct causal effect on how fast his body broke down.

Given the choice between an NBA title for the Pacers and a Gold for the US, I'll take the NBA title 10 times out of 10. The Gold is meaningless to me.