OT: London 2012 Olympic Basketball Thread

[suckfish]

Davis could play a role on this team.

[suckfish]

AND1!!

[suckfish]

Durantula trolling.

[ManualRam]

just once in my lifetime, i'd like to see a smart senior team usa again.
if this team played with half the intelligence that teams like argentina play with, none of these games would be this close.

[Captain Thrust]

86-80
USA FTW!!!

But Gotta LOL HARD at this BleacherReport article/prediction from earlier though.

But that won't happen today, as Argentina doesn't have the type of big men to take advantage of the U.S.'s lack thereof.

I spoke a little bit about the athleticism of Team USA before, but it also has the advantage of being younger than the Argentina squad, as noted by my colleague Brian Leigh in his article.

Lee calculates that the average age of Team USA is 25.75 while Argentina comes in at 30.75.

In the end, I think both age and athleticism factor heavily into this one, giving United States the edge.


Prediction: Team USA takes this one easily, winning by at least 25 points.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1267 ... on-matchup

[jax98]

Kobe should probably have hushed a bit.

[Captain Thrust]

Kobe should probably have hushed a bit.

What happened?

[suckfish]

I just don't know where all this confidence came from. After all what has happened in the last 10 years with the rest of the world closing the gap, team USA still come out comparing themselves to the 1992 dream team..

Right.

[jax98]

A week or two ago, Kobe suggested this Team USA version could be as good as the 1992 team, which was rubbish when he said it and rubbish now.

[Captain Thrust]

A week or two ago, Kobe suggested this Team USA version could be as good as the 1992 team, which was rubbish when he said it and rubbish now.

Oh haha my bad..
Yeah I heard about that.
Agreed, the '92 team was in a league/class of its own..
Even when you factor in the opposition and other countries around the world getting better, I still have no doubts that that team in today's tournament would never win a game by less than 10..

That team had EVERYTHING you need and then some.. 2 Prime 7 foot HOF'ers while this years squad has a lack of big men/interior play with only Tyson..
I'd even take '92 over the 2008 squad..

[jax98]

I just don't know where all this confidence came from. After all what has happened in the last 10 years with the rest of the world closing the gap, team USA still come out comparing themselves to the 1992 dream team..

Right.

I blame social media. Chuck, Magic and Mike never got Facebook feeds from half a billion people telling them how godly they were.

Okay, weak argument. But there has been a larger focus on ego and personal "brand" since we hit the year 2000. MJ is kind of at fault, unintentionally at least. Everybody wanted to be as recognized as him, even lesser players. So when the iso crap really began developing as an *cough* art form, the league changed and the players changed with it.

Nowadays you see Lakers and Celtics players tweeting each other with "sup bro?!" - If that had been 1984, Larry and Magic would have smacked the living hell out of whoever did that.

The players on that '92 team were primarily born in the early to mid 1960's. Growing up, the immediate entertainment selection quite simply didn't exist. They didn't have 10,000 people chasing them to go on AAU teams and promo tours. "Get into college. Get a name for yourself. Then enter the draft". That was the philosophy.

Today, most players look at college as an inconvenience. Howard, James and Bryant never even went. We damn sure Anthony Davis would have skipped it, despite the championship. Hell, Derrick Rose likely would have too.

So a lot of these youngsters never truly grew up learning team oriented basketball. Kobe and LeBron learned, but frankly, it took a while. Kobe really began understanding it after he was close to 10 years deep. Same with LeBron who really began first began understanding balance this year, his ninth.

Overall, I think there are several psychological aspects where the Dream Team completely owns this current group.

[suckfish]

USA vs Spain in 20 minutes.

[Bomba Navarro]

USA vs Spain in 20 minutes.

I hope Scariolo will not lay his cards on the table tonight. If we have a chance to beat this USA Team, be it a remote possibility or not, I don't want Sergio to show our weapons.

[Rerisen]

USA vs Spain in 20 minutes.

Your best chance in a while Suckfish. You do have the field.

Spain looks amped up.

[imagge]

USA too small for Spain and Marc Gasol has not even played.

[Bomba Navarro]

USA too small for Spain and Marc Gasol has not even played.

Marc is injured. He's supposed to be ready for the Olympics, but I'm kind of worried.

Spain's possibilities rely upon our bigs.

[imagge]

USA too small for Spain and Marc Gasol has not even played.

Marc is injured. He's supposed to be ready for the Olympics, but I'm kind of worried.

Spain's possibilities rely upon our bigs.

They better consider playing Anthony Davis. Love can not guard Marc or Pau.

[Future Coach]

westbrook should fly around the court on defense like that all the time

[Rerisen]

I continue to not see why we need pure PGs out there. Just get scoring PGs and let LeBron run the offense. He's more decisive and can make a wider range of passes due to his height.

[suckfish]

Melo gone off.