Sedale Threatt wrote:First one you can just chalk up to a bad tournament. Second was proof of systemic failure, at which point USA Basketball responded. Perhaps if 02 had been the Olympics it would have prompted a super immediate reaction. But it barely registered given that it was the Worlds and I don't think that was an irrational chain of events that prompted the overhaul. Two tournaments in two years isn't exactly being asleep at the wheel.
And yes, of course 06 was a disappointment. Massively so, in fact, and easily our biggest since we revamped. Talent was off the charts, everybody was all in, etc etc. We should have won that tournament and would have 98 out of 100 times. Because I do remember that game, very vividly because of how agonizing it was to watch, and Greece will not play like that at that stage in a major tournament against an opponent of that caliber in another 100 years.
Regardless, the details of the game don't really matter. Unless you think never, ever losing under any circumstance is a realistic goal, perfection is simply impossible even with the massive edge in talent we will have in almost all of these games.
The 04 Olympics sucked because of all the circumstances leading up to it. It was embarrassing. But I'm 100 pct satisfied that we gave it our best effort in 06 and just got beat. Not best performance -- that would have precluded getting totally dismantled by pick-and-rolls -- but, for the most part, best effort. At the very least we got full by-in from the players, and when that happens we're almost unbeatable. As our ridiculous record since we started using pros will attest.
The 2006 World Cup semifinal wasn't even the best game that Greek team played. The best game they ever played was the 2007 EuroBasket semifinal against Spain, on Spain's home floor. They were missing some key players (Antonis Fotsis / Big Sofo) due to injury, and were playing against a full Spain, with Pau, Navarro, Rudy, etc., etc. all in their prime.
And even then, Spain, at home, needed the refs to help them, to pull the win out. The refs made 4 really bad calls that were to help Spain and push them to the final of the tournament, as they were the hosts. If the reffing was even, Greece would have won the game.
Then Spain lost the final by one point against Russia, to what was probably the best team Russia ever had, and they said after the game that they were completely exhausted after the game against Greece, and that it took their greatest possible effort to beat Greece, which left them with almost nothing left in the tank against Russia. Greece's players said the same thing, that they had nothing in the tank left for the bronze medal game against Lithuania.
Again, that was with Greece missing some key players, against a full golden era Spain, being at it's absolute peak time (2006-2008), being at home, and having the refs help them. If the refs just stay out of that game down the stretch, that would have been an even greater accomplishment and more legendary Greek win than the 2006 USA game was.
So Greece actually topped that 2006 USA game performance, just one year later, and not 100 years later.
