USA Basketball Loses, Ends Chances for Olympic Gold

AP ^

[Admin Moderator]

Regarding #10, Fox must be excerpted, whether in article posts or replies.

Reference.

[Cacique]

ping

[BIGZ]

I wish I were an Oscar Myer wiener.

[montag813]

I celebrate this loss like I celebrated the ladies soccer win. This band of jerks was an utter embarrassment to this nation. Good riddance. Let's hope they don't medal at all.

[dfwgator]

Here's what we are going to have to do to stay competitive in International basketball. First, hire a full-time coach, whose only job is to coach the USA Men's team, not an NBA or college coach moonlighting as an Olympic. He should have the power to make all personnel decisions. An Olympic team should not be composed like an All-Star team. You need to have guys who play well together, and can keep their egos in check. Also the coach, would only coach games playing by International rules, and also have good knowledge of the foreign teams, so he can know their strengths and weaknesses.

This is how the Men's soccer organization does it with having Bruce Arena as full-time coach, and it has paid off handsomely. If we are going to stay competitive in international basketball, they need to take the same approach.

[dfwgator]

They came, they saw, they got their asses kicked.

[dfwgator]

The problem with just using the NBA champs (or college champs for that matter) is that more and more, their rosters consist of non-Americans.

[dfwgator]

Those Lakers and Celtics teams from the 80s were much more than just Bird and Magic, they were great teams, period.

[PeoplesRep_of_LA]

You can call it black basketball but it is realy junk basketball, street basketball, the kind of crap you play on the playground and white kids in America play the same junk ball. It is a game that is dominated by players "making their moves" There is no offense, there is no defense. There is really nothing you can watch on NBA basketball that you can go down to the local park and see.

I agree, but don't you still have to term it "black basketball"?

I would prefer to call it "street basketball" as in; The 2004 Olympics marked the end of the illusion that US Street Basketball was superior to the rest of the world.

But it begs the obvious point that you simply can't say out loud in our society- the term "street" refers to black ghettos, so this undisciplined work ethic, resulting in this unbelievable embarrassment of 3 (and counting) USA losses when we'd lost one other time, when the officials cheated for the Soviets in 72-in 80 years. Its a game we invented, and this is an indictment of that entire thug mentality NBA fans have allowed to take over the sport.

They should take away Lebron James' shoe contract and give it to one of the Argentinians who whooped him.

[2rightsleftcoast]

Maybe it's just me, but did you watch the medal ceremony.
The American team were jerks. IMHO. They acted like it was a bore to be standing up there. No smiles for the Argentinians etc. It was great watching how happy the gold and silver medal winners were. It would have been a good time for some manners and dignity from our team.

[Bobby Chang]

Another statistic:

No undefeated teams.

The Medalists:

1. Argentina, 6-2. Finished third in Group A with a 3-2 record. Losses to Spain and Italy. Lost to Italy to be determined third in Group A. Defeated #2B Greece, #4B United States, and avenged first-round loss to #2A Italy for Gold. At-large bid, 2nd Americas. Earns a guaranteed free pass to the 2006 World Championships in Japan where the winner of Saitama tournament wins 2008 Olympics automatic bid. At-large bids for Olympics based on performance at 2002 World Championships of region.

2. Italy, 5-3. Finished second in Group A with a 3-2 record. Losses to Spain and Serbia-Montenegro. Beat Argentina in preliminary round to be determined second in Group A. Defeated #3B Puerto Rico and #1B Lithuania to advance to finals. Lost to #3A Argentina to clinch Silver. At-large bid, 3rd Europe. (Beat France when the Spurs' Tony Parker Jnr, born to a Chicago native playing pro ball in France and a French wife, missed free throws with 9.9 seconds remaining to seal the final bid.)

3. United States, 5-3. Finished fourth in Group B with a 3-2 record, losing a three-way tie-breaker with Greece and Puerto Rico based on best record among the three teams in a tie-breaker as the three-way record was 1-1, and total net point differential favored Greece. Losses to Puerto Rico and Lithuania. Defeated #1A Spain to advance to semifinals. Lost to #3A Argentina to be relegated, and avanged loss to #1B Lithuania in the finals to clinch Bronze. Automatic bid, won Americas.

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The rest of the quarterfinals

4. Lithuania. 6-2. Undefeated against Group B (United States, Puerto Rico, Greece, Angola, Australia) to finish first in Group A. Defeated #4A PRC in quarterfinals. Lost to #2A Italy in semifinals, shut out of medals when #4B United States avenged loss in preliminaries. Automatic bid, won Europe.

5. Greece. 4-3. Finished second in Group B with losses to United States and Lithuania in preliminary round, but on the point differential matches among three tie-breaking teams for second in Group B. Lost to #3A Argentina in quarterfinal, relegated to fifth place game. Automatic bid, host country.

6. Puerto Rico, 3-4. Finished third in Group B with losses to Lithuania and Greece in preliminary round, tie-breaker. Eliminated by loss to #2A Italy in quarterfinal, relegated to sixth place game. At-large bid, 2nd Americas.

7. Spain, 6-1. Won Group A with sweep of New Zealand, PRC, Italy, Argentina, and Serbia-Montenegro. Eliminated in quarterfinals by loss to #4B United States. Beat PRC to finish seventh. At-large bid, 2nd Europe.

8. PRC, 2-6. Fourth in Group A with wins against New Zealand's "Tall Blacks" and 2002 World Champion Serbia and Montenegro, the latter advanced them to the quarterfinals. Losses to Argentina, Italy, and Spain. Eliminated by #1B Lithuania. Lost to Spain in relegation game. Automatic bid, won Asia.

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9. Australia, 2-4. Won once, against Angola, in Group B. Beat New Zealand in classification game. Automatic bid, won Oceania.

10. New Zealand, 1-5. Won once, against Serbia and Montenegro, in Group A. Lost to Australia in classification game, will be costly at 2006 World Championships. At-large bid, 2nd Oceania.

11. Serbia and Montenegro, 2-4. Won once, against Italy, in Group A. Lost tie-breaker to New Zealand based on head to head. Defeated Angola in classification game, will be costly at 2006 World Championships. Automatic bid, 2002 Indianapolis World Champion.

12. Angola, 0-6. Winless in Group B. Lost classification game. Automatic bid, won Africa.

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The three medalists may earn an automatic 2006 Worlds bid.