Official Olympic Basketball Thread

[N Ireland Nets]

I no I no I no, we got completely destroyed but im proud of how far british basketball has come in a short period of time.

Hopefull Freeland does well for Portland and then that would give us 2 legit NBA players on the team. Ben Gordon dropping out from the British team really has hurt us because we have no guards what so ever.

I believe the Olympics will open the UK public at large to the game of basketball.

Also a side note, what does everyone think of the FIBA rules?

I feel like games have so much more of a flow to them because there isn't a foul called for the slightest touches and the game just feels so much better to watch but maybe thats just me though

[deepblueday]

absolutely agree. its a joy to watch basketball flow up and down like this, its insane to me how the NBA has destroyed the watchability of it's game.

[vincecarter4pres]

Also a side note, what does everyone think of the FIBA rules?

I feel like games have so much more of a flow to them because there isn't a foul called for the slightest touches and the game just feels so much better to watch but maybe thats just me though

Love it.

[vincecarter4pres]

bad at defending these rolling european sets, will never steal the ball

I don't know, I thought he actually looked pretty good on defense.

actually, he looks outright small out there, both in height and girth, in comparison to the last two front lines we've played.

Yeah was thinking this myself. Almost looked like a stocky small forward.

i dunno he just seems like one of those guys whose ability to put numbers stands on a pin needle, one small change in role/situation/style of play might just drop his game off a cliff

I wouldn't go that far. But he doesn't look on par with the other superstars out there. This is why I think LMA is the better power forward. He has the length and athleticism and different approach that Love does not and in cases of physicals, cannot have to play top level defense and also to be more of a go to scorer you can dump the ball to and ask to go to work.

I mean Love gets to the line a ton, which is a characteristic of a go to scorer, but IDK.

He plays more like a wing, but he doesn't have the elite height and length like a Dirk to work in a plethora of isolation and even pick and roll, pick and pop go to moves where he has the marquee ability to take over a game and be a top iso option or lead scorer.

[N Ireland Nets]

absolutely agree. its a joy to watch basketball flow up and down like this, its insane to me how the NBA has destroyed the watchability of it's game.

The prime example is the 2008 Gold medal game between Spain & USA.

Unreal swings, fast paced and just top class basketball without bloody ad breaks every 5 mins. I mean watch the highlights again:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2n2HWX8_pc[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9-MNf2RO5k[/youtube]

Such a fantastic advert for the game

[drejeronfire]

There are less calls because the players are significantly slower (easier to ref) and the referees are terrible, as in worse than the NBA terrible...

Against Team USA the games usually end up being blow outs so the refereeing is overlooked, but it's hard to find many high level FIBA officiated basketball games that don't have some stench of referee bias on them.

[N Ireland Nets]

There are less calls because the players are significantly slower (easier to ref) and the referees are terrible, as in worse than the NBA terrible...

Against Team USA the games usually end up being blow outs so the refereeing is overlooked, but it's hard to find many high level FIBA officiated basketball games that don't have some stench of referee bias on them.

I completely disagree with so much of your post but if tahts your opinion fine but have you watched any games without the USA playing with say Russia, Argentina, Spain, Greece or Lithuania?

Just asking because if the refs are biased towards any team playing against the US national team it would be interesting to see how you think the laws are enforced without these super human Amercian players that non US nationals just can't cope with.

[vincecarter4pres]

Whens the next game?

[Rich Rane]

Exhibition: USA vs. Argentina
July 22 @ 3:30 pm EDT on NBA TV / 12 midnight EDT on ESPN2
Palau Sant Jordi || Barcelona, Spain

[Born_Ready]

I can watch Kevin Durant for hours. Hopefully this Olympic experience forces him to elevate his game even more.

I also would like to see Deron limit his turnovers.

[Rich Rane]

Holy crap, what a game by Team USA today.