Friday, September 01, 2006

USA Bball just isn't that good...

For those of you surprised by Team USA losing to Greece, I ask you this: have you watched the NBA lately? American BBall has turned into a mess. Sure, NBA players are freakish athletes. But, the game has transformed into one involving no jump shots, defense, or team play. Maybe the "rules" of the NBA should be included in international play: stars cannot foul out, if Lebron misses it's a foul, you can carry as long as you have a nice finish, if Lebron looks sad it's a foul, etc...

Add in the fact that NBA players are currently more concerned with being the next on the "Caught with an Unregistered Handgun " list (see Wilcox, Chris;Baxter, Lonny) than they are with defending the backdoor pass or pick & roll, and it makes perfect sense that Team USA loses to a team from Greece with no players that you can name (unless you happen to be the one guy familiar with the career of Theodoros Papaloukas). Shockingly, this league of quality citizens makes articles like this seem entirely plausible.

Sure, having Ben Wallace, Shaq, & Kobe might have helped. Maybe watching instructional videos on how to throw a chest pass would have helped. Maybe if Coach K wasn't distracted by the presence of his 2 lovers (Wojo and Battier) on the bench, he could have coached this team to a victory. But, inevitably, this team would have lost to some country who actually plays basketball isn't concerned with making a highlight that would impress Hot Sauce. Well, congrats Greece...I'm sure you made Uncle Jesse proud.