balefire88

...to italy

teams liek italy, serbia and montanegro get more time for their squads to practice, and for these guys, winning for their country in the Olympics is the highlight of their 4 years, where as we have nba stars looking for a nba championship first, and a medal second, no wonder we're losing

seems like this shows teamwork is necessary, if not more, rahter than just having better players (refer to pistons beating of lakers for further proof)

perhaps now that the team is practicing by playign earlier, when athens comes around, they will be ready to play better..


to end on a funny note, what is duncan thinking here?



"ooh, i guess italian men got 'em big too"

canuckguy

nice picture lol, still think the americans will win no matter what ball duncan goes for!


go canada...wait are we in it?

Grondar

Is the US team automatically in the Olympics, or if they lose enough can they not even make it?

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Cross-Over

Team USA is automatically in the Olympics. They qualified last summer. They can lose again tomorrow and that wont change their status.

Ace_O_Spades

You didn't mention how BADLY they lost

it was quite disgusting... but hilarious at the same time... especially after CA's comments about how they would cruise to a gold.

Eat shit and die USA Men's Basketball Team

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Feh.

silent_jay

I hate basketball, but I love when the American's lose,



Go Canada

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Absence makes the heart grow fonder

silent_jay

Sounds like excuses to me, I thought the USA was the "Dream Team" of Olympic basketball, they should be able to beat teams regardless of practice time.

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Absence makes the heart grow fonder

lyxo

oh, you're so senile

basketball players that know each other and how each other play together usually play better than a bunch of punks put together

Skill usually can outweigh teamwork on the offensive side, but it's the defensive side that falters more. And when you play poor defense you lose confidence and don't produce on the offensive side out of frustration

balefire88

yea...teamwork is paramount in bball..

u can see it in any level of play. in the olympics, national teams that play together and have mroe pride, and genearlly are much better passers win.

in the nba, the pistons, teh better passing team, and members who played to their strengths, and passed whenever they were in a bad situation, won.

even in simple pick up games where i play everday, sometiems, with a weaker team, u'll simply win cause one player on the other team will be a ball hog, and all u need to do is throw bodies at him to stop their entire team.

what i was doing was not making an excuse, but giving a reason. the world level of basketball is catching up, so its not liek other teams are useless and pathetic, or that our team memebers are not better 1-on-1 palyers, but in the end, its the 5 who work together that win...even jordan played better when he learned to pass it more in the 90s than he ever did in the 80s

silent_jay

Really, I beg to differ, my opinion does not make me senile, believe me I have a few more things to say but it's not worth it.

You mean like all team sports.

What I meant was this is supposedly the best team in basketball, and not enough practice time is their excuse, I mean at least use jet lag or something, but come on they just finished a season practice should be the least of their worries.

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Absence makes the heart grow fonder

dylanmarsh

Oddly enough, I enjoy seeing the Dream Team lose, as well... and I'm an American!


Go Jamaica!

sixate

The US should not send NBA players if they aren't the top 10-12 players.

silent_jay

Gotta cheer for the underdogs like Jamacia and Canada

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Absence makes the heart grow fonder

Grondar

This isn't the best team America could put on the floor by any means.. Shaq, Kobe, T-Mac, Garnett, and others aren't on the roster, and instead there are quite a few younger guys that will be good, but right now, don't have the experience.

If everyone was available to play, and they did play, then I think the USA could put together a roster that would be unstoppable; but as it stands now, there are some superstars there, but also quite a few younger players, that are average to good talent-wise. But it is certainly not the best team USA could put together without limitations.

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"Yes, I rather like this God fellow. He's very theatrical, you know, a pestilence here, a plague there. Omnipotence. Gotta get me some of that." -Stewie

Nimbletoe

They just finished a season, true... playing for their own teams. They have something like 5 weeks before the olypmics start to practice together (that being the key word, oh holy canadian god). This is a B rated team, because our best players have better things to do. Like rest.

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Go Pistons!

dylanmarsh

Well, I can tell you they wasted part of those 5 weeks. I saw Richard Jefferson at Tucson bar with Luke Walton drinking and partying it up just two weeks ago. I think this team just doesn't care.

cameroncrazy822

Get used to it folks.... it's gonna be a LONG LONG olympic games for the good old US of A.

Halx

Even Americans love to see the USA basketball team lose. It's our own revenge against the money-grubbing professional athletes.

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[Don't Feed The Animals]

cameroncrazy822

Tru Dat as unpatriotic as it may sound.

UnseenX

Even though they won the game against Germany they still looked completely disorganized. I thought these were supposed to be the best players in the world?

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Bookman

Sharpest person on the court is no-one other than the Al Gore of the 2003-2004 Rookie of the Year Award.....Carmelo Anthony.

silent_jay

Canadian should be capitalized genius.

Ya where did I say I was a god? Or because I'm from Canada I'm not allowed to post? Why don't you pull your head out of your ass before you go spout off about things. I was merely commenting on the thread and you feel the need to be a jerk off. I wonder if I would of gotten in shit had I said " of course you are correct, you cheer for the Pistons you must be right oh great American jerk off? Same thing different words.

Come on mods do your job, or is being a smartass suddenly allowed? Because if so I have a few more things I would like to say.

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Absence makes the heart grow fonder

uncle phil

ok...let's cool it, you two...if one of you has a problem with the other, report it to a mod; don't rely on a third party to do it; remember, it's only a game...

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"We were wrong, terribly wrong. (We) should not have tried to fight a guerrilla war with conventional military tactics against a foe willing to absorb enormous casualties...in a country lacking the fundamental political stability necessary to conduct effective military and pacification operations. It could not be done and it was not done."
- Robert S. McNamara
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"We will take our napalm and flame throwers out of the land that scarcely knows the use of matches...
We will leave you your small joys and smaller troubles."
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you both get dirty;
the pig likes it.

silent_jay

sorry about that

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Absence makes the heart grow fonder

bwhetsell

I spent 50 bucks on two tickets to watch them play Puerto Rico and James and Iverson spent the game on the bench. Everyone in the Arena was pissed becuase of those two sorry losers. I'll never spend a dime to watch a NBA game again.

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SPACEMAN

Nimbletoe

No you aren't.



Sounds awful elitest to me.

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Go Pistons!

Nimbletoe

How can you say things like this, yet be an "avid fan" of the team that is the GUILTIEST of this? Boggles my mind.

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Go Pistons!

Halx

I can make observations.. meanwhile your comment was speculation as well.

The Lakers are comprised of only a couple maxed players and a TON of players who took less money on their contracts just to get on a good team and win a championship. *sigh* When will people get that? Why don't you look at Dallas first?

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Nimbletoe

The lakers were Kobe, Shaq, Karl and Payton (who have already made enough money and could play for free for the rest of their careers), and a few other decent players. Look at the contract they gave shaq, the contract they just gave Kobe... Dallas? I saw Dallas refusing to match Nash's contract, who was vital to their team. Anyway, I was just saying, its kind of odd to be a fan of overpaid players, then laugh at other overpaid players when they go to represent their country for free, while the players you root for are nowhere to be found. *shrug*

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Go Pistons!

Halx

I still have not said anything about my personal stance on USA basketball. So quick of you to assume...

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Nimbletoe

Well, when you talk about Americans, and I assume you're american... unless you were talking about some Americans, which you didn't specify.

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Go Pistons!

dylanmarsh

I'm still not understanding the hostility associated with this thread. It's only basketball, people.

silent_jay

You know what I'm sorry and not sorry about, I don't think so, now I'm trying to make things civil again so why don't you talk in your big boy voice or go and take a timeout in the corner. I'm an elitest, wow you assume so much but know so little, must be a curse.

There wasn't hate here at all until a certain someone with a pistons logo for an avatar showed up.

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Nimbletoe

There's no hostility when you say "I love to see american's lose"?

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Go Pistons!

dylanmarsh

Okay, I'm not interested in getting into the middle of this pointless argument, but I will defend what I wrote and what I didn't write.

I did NOT write: "I love to see american's lose."

What I wrote was this: "I enjoy seeing the Dream Team lose."


I feel that stating "I enjoy seeing the Dream Team lose" versus saying "I love to see american's lose" is in two completely different categories and/or levels. The Olympics is about amateur athletes, not professional, taking time from their own lives to represent their country. What I was alluding to with "I enjoy seeing the Dream Team lose" is that they should not be participating in the Olympics and that there should be a collegian team competing. That is all.

silent_jay

Nope no hostility at all, if you can find some I'd love to see where you find it from. Now that I think of it I never actually typed that anyways what I typed was See show me the hostility in that sentence, if you can find some.

Maybe you should stop reading so much into things, I think that would help a lot,

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Nimbletoe

Nevermind, you aren't worth it. I'd rather keep my board access than continue this argument, you're too stubborn to understand anything.

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Go Pistons!

Nimbletoe

I agree. However, I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to silent jay, who DID say that. Sorry if you thought I was directing my posts at you.

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Go Pistons!

silent_jay

How can you lose your board access? Why are you getting so worked up over something that I didn't even type? I'm not stubborn at all I just don't usually agree with people when they say I typed something when I obviously didn't.

Seriously though get over yourself, here again is what you said I typed
Now this is what I typed, now remember read the whole post not just what you want to see, or what you think you see read what is actually there
There now does that clarify things or shall I draw some pictures? Just joking, but seriously read what I typed, please don't put words in my mouth.

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Sargeman

I think the dream team WAS the original team which had Jordan, Barkley, Magic, Bird, etc.

This is just the US team made up of NBA players and as someone else pointed out, not even the top 10-12 US players available. Just a team of those that didn't mind going.

However to believe that the US team should be able to just go in and beat everyone no problem, is like saying the Canadian hockey team should always be able to beat everyone.

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