USA Basketball is Serious Again
After a dismal bronze medal performance in the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece the, "Dream Team" is coming back. A complete reversal of the Allen Iverson-led roster demonstrates the commitment Director Jerry Colangelo and Coach Mike Kryewski have to winning.
I had previously been fairly critical of the roster selection of the USA National Team, but this could be one excellent roster. It's currently still in the "training camp" stage, so the final cuts have not been made, but it features an excellent mesh of different playing styles. Michael Redd and Paul Pierce are on the roster providing a previously lacking outside shooting presence. Defensive specialist Bruce Bowen of the San Antonio Spurs was added to the roster, a much needed addition. There is a plethora of big, athletic forwards who hopefully will drive other countries nuts.
The point guards on this roster are a huge improvement over the last. Chris Paul, Gilbert Arenas, and Chauncey Billups are all on the training camp roster. I wouldn't be surprised to see one of them not make the cut, but any combination out of those three will be such a huge improvement over Stephon Marbury and Allen Iverson.
Want to compare yourself? Here's the 2004 Olympics roster and here's the current training camp roster. Which one do you think would be a winning team?
There are already lots of stories circulating in the news already about how this is a complete reversal of previous team strategies (here's a good one). For the first time in too-long it seems like everyone is genuinely excited to be there.
Oh, and I love this note from a reporter's notes and quotes list.
All I can say is, thank god they're not letting Isiah Thomas run this thing.
Tags: USA basketball, Michael Redd
I had previously been fairly critical of the roster selection of the USA National Team, but this could be one excellent roster. It's currently still in the "training camp" stage, so the final cuts have not been made, but it features an excellent mesh of different playing styles. Michael Redd and Paul Pierce are on the roster providing a previously lacking outside shooting presence. Defensive specialist Bruce Bowen of the San Antonio Spurs was added to the roster, a much needed addition. There is a plethora of big, athletic forwards who hopefully will drive other countries nuts.
The point guards on this roster are a huge improvement over the last. Chris Paul, Gilbert Arenas, and Chauncey Billups are all on the training camp roster. I wouldn't be surprised to see one of them not make the cut, but any combination out of those three will be such a huge improvement over Stephon Marbury and Allen Iverson.
Want to compare yourself? Here's the 2004 Olympics roster and here's the current training camp roster. Which one do you think would be a winning team?
There are already lots of stories circulating in the news already about how this is a complete reversal of previous team strategies (here's a good one). For the first time in too-long it seems like everyone is genuinely excited to be there.
Oh, and I love this note from a reporter's notes and quotes list.
Michael Redd shooting from the international three-point line is just not fair. The man is money.That's my man, I can't wait to see him shooting out the lights over other countries.
All I can say is, thank god they're not letting Isiah Thomas run this thing.
Tags: USA basketball, Michael Redd
posted by Jeramey @ 7/22/2006 05:51:00 AM
1 Comments:
At July 24, 2006 2:49 AM ,
treego14 said...
I'm a little worried that Dwayne Wade will think he can still take 3 steps without a dribble or palm the ball nearly every time he touches it during international competition. Same might be said for Lebron James. Hopefully, Coach K is aware of how the NBA rules allow for a lot of garbage (blatant infractions of basketball rules in terms of traveling, palming, and preferential treatment for guys that are the "face" of the league) that is not permitted in real basketball leagues like the college/high school/international levels and warn/coach his players accordingly.
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