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I just read a little blurb that mentioned Howard when talking about Team USA and Nike, so I thought I'd share.

I remember not too long back there was a picture of the entire team lined up, and all of the shoes being visible with the exception of Howard, the only non-Nike athlete.

Anyhow, here is the little piece talking about Nike's "Road to Redemption" documentary of Team USA:

That comes along with what is, to me, an outdated notion for a modern media era. That would be the breathless "elite players as deities" approach to the game. (Some Nike copy on the "Road to Redemption" website: "Kobe. LeBron. J-Kidd. Individually, they're untouchable. Together, they're invincible.")

Either we know those players are beatable or we have not properly learned from the recent history of international basketball. The notion that the these players are superhuman might be useful for selling shoes, but I'm not at all sure it describes where we are at this point.

(A quick note about Nike's role in this documentary. I salute the sponsorship of a long-form, painstakingly made look at our national team. Those dollars could have gone to more billboards in Beijing. But it is also undeniable that there is a lot of attention paid to topics that serve Nike. For instance, while there is barely even mention of Team USA's opponents, there is a lengthy visit to meet the marvelously patriotic people who lovingly make each jersey. I half expected someone to turn to the camera and say "and you can have one of these jerseys for just $89.95." And before I started watching, I wondered if Nike would have the nerve to keep the one non-Nike athlete, Dwight Howard, from the spotlight. It's galling: Howard is a ghost. Almost never on the screen at all. We are told again and again that nothing matters more than representing your nation, being a selfless teammate, and being patriotic. Then we don't see Dwight Howard, and we do see archival footage of Michael Jordan covering the Reebok logo on his Team USA warmups with an American flag. So, nothing matters more than all that stuff, except perhaps your choice in sports apparel brands.)

Link - ESPN

Adidas should make a commercial like, support Dwight and while you're at it root for team USA..

MagicHolland wrote:Adidas should make a commercial like, support Dwight and while you're at it root for team USA..

That honestly is a great idea. I have been watching that Road to Redemption show and he is practically never on it. They act like he is the 12th man on the team who doesn't matter at all. You would think they would be showing the starting center on the team with the personality that he has all the time. You should call Adidas and tell them to do that and make some money off of it lol.

The Olympics stopped being about national pride a long time ago... I don't remember who said it, but I heard a quote a couple of months ago, and it sounded fitting...

It won't be long before we hear... "GE presents... The Olympics!"

For the individual athlete it may still be about representing the country, but the way the games are packaged and presented to the world at large??? Might as well be a multi-week commercial. It's a billion dollar business...

Edrock wrote:It won't be long before we hear... "GE presents... The Olympics!"

The basketball arena in Colonge was the Kölnarena, which literally means Cologne Arena. Now its Lanxess Arena. Lanxess is after the specialty chemicals group Lanxess AG. The team itself was named after the local electricity company RheinEnergie. It is typical for team sponsors t effect the name of the team. Cologne's basketball team will probably change its name to Lanxess. Isn't that special.

This reminds me of when FedEx got involved in the Grizzlies move to Memphis. There was a request to change the team name to "Memphis Express." The NBA came done with a flat no to that request. Will that change in the future??? I can't wait for the new Seattle team. "And now Starbucks presents you'rrreeee Seattle Cappuccinos. Starting at PG ...."

All of this started with the 1984 Olympics. And McDonald's and Coca-Cola's influence on that one sporting event. Now, forever, this will be commercial.

drsd wrote:This reminds me of when FedEx got involved in the Grizzlies move to Memphis. There was a request to change the team name to "Memphis Express." The NBA came done with a flat no to that request. Will that change in the future??? I can't wait for the new Seattle team. "And now Starbucks presents you'rrreeee Seattle Cappuccinos. Starting at PG ...."

Starting at PG would be Darrell Armstrong ... no?

Edrock wrote:The Olympics stopped being about national pride a long time ago... I don't remember who said it, but I heard a quote a couple of months ago, and it sounded fitting...

It won't be long before we hear... "GE presents... The Olympics!"

For the individual athlete it may still be about representing the country, but the way the games are packaged and presented to the world at large??? Might as well be a multi-week commercial. It's a billion dollar business...

Read page 33, particularly paragraph 3: Link

That third paragraph really rubs me wrong.

nike always hates the magic

Wow.

As a side note, Shard signed with Adidas this summer.

Uh oh.

Per ESPN Insider Chris Sheridan chat (paraphrased):

Apparently Dwight and Coach K are having a little bit a feud. I guess Dwight took a cheap shot at a Russian player, Coach K got on him about it, and Dwight was talking back.

For those with insider: Link

Remember, you cannot copy and paste from Insider.


Edit: Looks like the Dukies wear Nike, too. [/conspiracy]

Interesting. We eventually need pics or video of that if possible.

There are a lot of conspiracy theories you could go on here:

1. They want it to be an all Nike team. After all, look at a bunch of the people who were kicked off. Most were adidas guys. Everybody they are playing up is Nike. No wonder Duncan and KG didn't want to play.

2. Jerry Colangelo is heading this entire effort. His son is GM for the Raptors. So he would favor Bosh over Dwight because he is his son's player and wants to make Bosh more visible and Dwight more invisible.

3. Coach K wants to strike back at the Magic for not playing J.J. by not playing Dwight once they get on the big stage.

4. ESPN writer is trying to downplay the accomplishments of a Magic player yet again.

If you're into conspiracy theories, you could find lots of reasons. If they do decide to sit him, though, they had better have LeBron and Melo and Kobe hitting the boards more because they killed on the boards when Dwight doesn't play. All the other guys are too busy running to the other end of the court so they can score. Now, Dwight can't be getting into a fight with Coach K, if that did happen. (You wonder, because he didn't play much against Russia. And even though he was in foul trouble that game, even the TV commentators mentioned it.) But he also is one of only three guys to take part in the program all three years. Bosh chose not to play one of those summers while Dwight sacrificed his summer for Team USA. In the end, though, it might be that they play the guy more who they think will help them the most against particular opponents. But that's probably not going to be only Bosh or only Dwight in all of the games once they get to medal-round play.

I saw their disagreement. From what I saw it wasn't much. Coach K took Dwight out of the game and you could see Dwight raising his arms and talking to Coack K as he came out of the game. From what i could see it looked like Lebron yelled at Dwight the posession before for missing a defensive assignment. To me it looked like Dwight was a bit annoyed with running up and down the court only to see his teammates jack up perimeter shots over his head.

One thing I will say about that....They are having a difficult time connecting with him on the alley oops. Most of the time, it doesn't look like the passes are all that great. Some of them have bounced off the rim and others are out of his reach. Fran Fraschilla even was commenting the other night how they were trying to pass the ball to him with four people around him and that the team needed to stop trying to make the all-star game play.

But there might be times when they think he should track them down. Bosh was in a similar circumstance the other night and somehow found a way to get the ball in the basket. And Dwight has missed a couple bunnies right at the basket, but he is not alone there. Most all of the guys have (except maybe Deron Williams, who usually is taking the ball to the hoop himself).

All in all, I think Dwight has played pretty well except for against Canada, when he didn't look good, and against Russia, when he was in foul trouble and barely played.

Overall, it often appears that LeBron, Kobe, D.Wade and Melo figure they could play without anyone else. But there are games when they try to involve the bigs. Deron is more comfortable with Boozer because he plays with him every night, but all the point guards have tried to involve Dwight. Their timing just doesn't seem that great on some plays.

Devin 1L wrote:Uh oh.

Per ESPN Insider Chris Sheridan chat (paraphrased):

Apparently Dwight and Coach K are having a little bit a feud. I guess Dwight took a cheap shot at a Russian player, Coach K got on him about it, and Dwight was talking back.

For those with insider: Link

Remember, you cannot copy and paste from Insider.


Edit: Looks like the Dukies wear Nike, too. [/conspiracy]

I remember in some of the regular season games where Dwight pouted and got into foul trouble because of the way he was acting on the court.
I can see why Bosh may be favored over Dwight. Dwight has one shot in his shot selection the dunk while Bosh can do a lot more and he is more mobile and he also can shoot free throws. ESPN said most of this, but I do have to agree. That Dwight needs to improve his overall game when it comes to shooting, free throws and being more mobile on the court. When he does all of that then he really will be the beast on the court.

F Chris Sheriden. I never seen him write anything nice about us.

Also, no.. Bosh hasn't played that great either when he was out there, Dwight is still the best option

The thing with this current US team, they are still playing like its an all star/and 1 game. Lebron, Wade, Melo and Kobe have been mostly about making fantastic play/highlight. That is not the way to win games and eventually gold medals.