Free Republic

Team USA with Gregg Popovich as Head Coach2019 Pre-FIBA Exhibitions 3-12019 FIBA Bball World Cup 6-2*2021 Pre-Olympic Exhibitions 2-2 2021 Olympics 0-1*7th-place finish was Americans’ worst ever in a major tournament pic.twitter.com/P8i8Ol0JUI— CBS Sports HQ (@CBSSportsHQ) July 25, 2021

Giannis Antetokounmpo has led the Milwaukee Bucks to their first NBA championship in 50 years, closing out the Phoenix Suns in the Finals on Tuesday night, 105-98. Antetokounmpo scored 50 points, grabbed 14 rebounds, recorded five blocks and dished out two assists in the win. He is the first player since Shaquille O’Neal to record 40 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks in any playoff game, according to ESPN Stats & Info. O’Neal did it in 2001. He's also the first player to have a 50-10-5 stat line since blocks were first tracked in the 1973-74 season.

These games don’t count. Right now, that is the only saving grace for USA Basketball. And for the first time in 29 years of NBA players suiting up for the national team, there was a smattering of boos when a game ended — on home soil, no less. Patty Mills scored 22 points and Australia held the U.S. without a field goal for the final 4:34 on the way to beating the Americans 91-83 on Monday night, dropping the three-time defending Olympic gold medalists to 0-2 in their five-game slate of exhibitions leading up to the Tokyo Games. “I thought...

LAS VEGAS (AP) — This is not how USA Basketball expected to open its Olympic summer. Nigeria probably didn’t expect it, either. If there was any expectation of invincibility for the Americans heading into the Tokyo Olympics, it’s already gone — after Nigeria beat the U.S. 90-87 on Saturday night, an international shocker pulled off by a roster primarily filled by little-known NBA players that found a way to beat a group of All-NBA, All-Star and max-contract performers. “We just wanted to compete,” said Nigeria’s Gabe Nnamdi, who goes by Gabe Vincent when playing for the Miami Heat. “We know...

LAS VEGAS — This is not how USA Basketball expected to open its Olympic summer. Nigeria probably didn’t expect it, either. If there was any expectation of invincibility for the Americans heading into the Tokyo Olympics, it’s already gone — after Nigeria shocked the U.S. 90-87 on Saturday night. Nigeria pulled off an international shocker with a roster primarily filled of little-known NBA players that found a way to beat a group of All-NBA, All-Star and max-contract performers. “I thought that the Nigerian team played very physically, did a great job in that regard and knocked down a lot of...

Since President Donald Trump took office, his administration has secured the release of 17 prisoners foreign governments had detained. “We’ve had 17 released, and we’re very proud of that record. Very proud. And we have others coming,” Trump said Saturday evening as he welcomed home Joshua Holt, an American citizen who had been detained in Venezuela for two years without trial. Unlike his predecessor, the president has managed to bring these prisoners home without freeing terrorists or paying millions of dollars in suspected ransom payments. 1. Sabrina De Sousa: Portuguese-American Sabrina De Sousa, a former CIA agent, was arrested and...

President Donald Trump says he should have left three UCLA basketball players accused of shoplifting in China in jail. Trump's tweet Sunday comes after the father of player LiAngelo Ball minimized Trump's involvement in winning the players' release in comments to ESPN. "Who?" LaVar Ball told ESPN on Friday, when asked about Trump's involvement in the matter. "What was he over there for? Don't tell me nothing. Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out." Trump has said he raised the players' detention with Chinese President Xi Jinping (shee jihn-peeng) during the leaders' recent meeting in Beijing....