8/17/2004
No...Iverson...Don't...Shoot...oh, crap...
Sunday's loss to Puerto Rico is still lingering in the back of my mind. It doesn't help that the Wet Dream Team just snuck by a Greek team who had George Papadapolos from Webster playing power forward. I am a fan of basketball, one of 217 Americans who still have a rudimentary understanding of the game. Watching this collection of B-list NBA talent play in Athens has now left me with a facial cringe which may take a few days to go away. When our best "outside shooter", the highly overrated Richard Jefferson, is too concerned about what to yell after his next dunk- that he can't even square his shoulders with the basket before shooting a trey- then our team is in big, big trouble.
This is not the player's fault. Although most of them look like they're trying to duplicate the play of Michael J. Fox in Teen Wolf, they play the way that they have been playing all their lives. The American's who would make the best international players either did not want to go to Athens, for whatever reason (Jason Kidd, Michael Redd, Mike Bibby) or were not invited (Brent Barry, Fred Hoiberg, myself.) The selection process simply must be changed when picking the next Olympic team, remembering that the 2008 Olympics will be held in Beijing, not at Rucker Park.
Alas, how the Americans could lose to Puerto Rico bothers me for only one real reason. Puerto Rico is part of the US. I'm fairly certain that they're citizens, too (I might be wrong about that, though.) Either way, if P.R. gets a team than they're is no reason (NO FUCKING REASON) that Illinois shouldn't have their own team. A team from Illinois (Kevin Garnett, Darius Miles, Quentin Richardson, Corey Magette, Michael Finley, Brian Cook, Frank Williams, Al Fritz, etc) would not only beat the likes of Puerto Rico, they'd probably beat the USA, too.
P.S. - Allen Iverson, you went to Georgetown...start sounding like it, please.
This is not the player's fault. Although most of them look like they're trying to duplicate the play of Michael J. Fox in Teen Wolf, they play the way that they have been playing all their lives. The American's who would make the best international players either did not want to go to Athens, for whatever reason (Jason Kidd, Michael Redd, Mike Bibby) or were not invited (Brent Barry, Fred Hoiberg, myself.) The selection process simply must be changed when picking the next Olympic team, remembering that the 2008 Olympics will be held in Beijing, not at Rucker Park.
Alas, how the Americans could lose to Puerto Rico bothers me for only one real reason. Puerto Rico is part of the US. I'm fairly certain that they're citizens, too (I might be wrong about that, though.) Either way, if P.R. gets a team than they're is no reason (NO FUCKING REASON) that Illinois shouldn't have their own team. A team from Illinois (Kevin Garnett, Darius Miles, Quentin Richardson, Corey Magette, Michael Finley, Brian Cook, Frank Williams, Al Fritz, etc) would not only beat the likes of Puerto Rico, they'd probably beat the USA, too.
P.S. - Allen Iverson, you went to Georgetown...start sounding like it, please.
