TEAM USA LOSES

[tornado]

101-95 to Greece.

I saw some of the game and it was an absolute deja vu, with all those multimillionaire superstars all standing around wanting the ball so they could shoot, but NOT ONE of them made the tiniest effort to stick a hand up and play defense.

The Greece players took wide open three pointer after wide open three pointer.

Sad---now Team USA plays for 3rd place.

I found this comment by one of our posters, and it is eerie...

http://www.bradleyfans.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?p=25014#25014

[Eddie]

When will the USA basketball people learn? Ever since the 1988 Olympic fiasco, they have still not learned that the international game is a much more perimeter oriented game. They need to have better outside shooting, and quicker defensive guards, instead of a whole team full of Carmellos and LeBrons.

[collegehoopjunkie]

They selected a bunch of great athletes, but indeed were done in by the zone and the inability to defend against the three pointer, as well as bad outside shooting.
Reminds me of when Hersey played in the Olympics in 1988, and coach John Thompson openly stated
he wasn't interested in shooters, he wanted the best "athletes".
This is on par with the Americans beating the Russians in hockey in the "Miracle on Ice", as these guys from Greece probably wouldn't even beat a decent college team if they just stepped out and played a little average defense.
The Greek's overall shooting pct was 63% (35-56).
US was 9-28 from behind the arc which is substantially shorter than the NBA arc.

[tornado]

Carmello and LeBron can play offense, but they were fully part of the poor defense.
The funniest excuse I saw in all the reports on this fiasco was,
"They played like a champion plays," U.S. forward Shane Battier said of Greece.

Yup--that says it all, the guys who beat you played like champions while you played like fat cats who expected to win without trying.

[flipper]

really don't like nba or olympic(international) style basketball. to me there is nothing like college basketball.

[oilerpimp]

59% free throws...not good.

[tornado]

http://www.hoopshype.com/world/boxscores/gre_usa.asp

Here is the box score.

and overall stats:

http://www.usabasketball.com/seniormen/2006/06_mwc_stats_leaders.pdf

The things that stand out:

--Greece had more assists than the US (19-17)
--TEAM USA starting and fulltime point guard, Chris Paul had only TWO assists in this game. The Greek PG had 12 assists, and six other players had as many or more assists than our PG!
--The US actually shot 63% on 2-pt FGs, but Greece shot 71%
--LeBron took and missed four 3-pointers
--Shane Battier and Chris Paul also took and missed all their 3-pointers.
--Only Kirk Hinrich and Carmelo made more than ONE 3-pointer
--The US has only ONE player even in the top 20 of FG shooting pct stats, and that's Chris Bosh who only has 17 baskets in 7 games.
--not one of the top 20 rebounders are on the US team
--Only Dwayne Wade and Carmelo have averaged more than 12 in this entire tourney

--In the overall team stats, the US leads by far with scoring offense, 106ppg, 13 more ppg than #2 Spain.
--The US is 16th in scoring defense, even considering we played teams like Senegal (0-5), Puerto Rico (2-3), and China (2-4), and Slovenia (2-4), Australia (2-4) all of which were among the weaker teams which finished well below .500 and some of whom (Senegal, Australia) hadn't been able to exceed 70 points a game until they played the US!

In team stats, the USA is 9th in FT shooting, 6th in 3-pt shooting, 15th in 3-pt defense,
6th in rebounding.

[TheAsianSensation]

You're not going to win international competitions unless you practice and play a bunch more with the team together. And in today's day and age of NBA, they won't allow that to happen. The other teams get to have more cohesion than the US. And there's no logistical way the US can fix that problem.

[AB99]

Too many egotistical, me-first scorers, and not a balanced team with role players.
I recall in 1988 when Steve Kerr had just finished his career as the all time best 3-pt
shooter ever in history, and they left him off the team in favor of players like
Willie Anderson, Stacy Augmon, Jeff Grayer, Charles Smith, Bimbo Coles, and Danny Manning.
John Thompson's reasoning was they were all better athletes than Kerr and could play several positions.
They had lots of talent but Hersey was the only decent 3 point shooter, and he was hurt.
They need to select at least a couple of guys who put defense first and a couple who are
lights out 3-point shooters.

[flipper]

in the long run who really cares?

[tornado]

Really, Flipper?
You don't think people care?

Maybe you are right to a degree.
This used to be pretty big stuff when the Americans competed in the premier sports, we really, really wanted to win and we (as Americans) sometimes take it pretty hard when we lose.
It was almost a mini-Cold War back when I was growing up in that it was us against the bad Russians and East Germans.

[collegehoopjunkie]

Greece will face Spain as both teams go to 8-0.
Spain's win over Argentina was a nervous one as Pau Gasol hurt his ankle and was carried off the court.

[it's boogie time]

I've lost interest since they began using pro players.

[BuBraves55]

hahhahahhahah

[MacabreMob]

Really, Flipper?
You don't think people care?

NOBODY CARES!

We care to the point of - "Haha - we lost. What a joke we are" or "Oh, we won. Whatever."

The bottom line is...

THE PLAYERS DON'T CARE!

WHY SHOULD WE?