posted Aug 25, 2008

chris1arch, pitiful yank

Point 1: The 11 points difference was very deceiving; the game was much closer than that. Also the americans played defence to their best ability, however the Spanish played good offence, I know as a bitter yank you could never accept that from 12 skinny white euros, but it is the truth.

Point 2: “America could bring dozens of teams!" If you forget the past it is bound to repeat itself, keep underestimating sorry loser.
Take away Kobe, James and Howard, and they are nothing. Kobe for its talent the other two for their brute force, I am yet to see a skillful move by “superman” Howard (more like roids He-man)
As a matter of fact, kobe (+refs) bailed them today, when bad smell was coming out of the rest of the Americans backside. Kobe got the 4point rudy out play.

Come give me a second US team that could have done something!

BTW, I have been in the inner cities of the USA, and they are trash!!! WTF! We are talking about real basketball to thugs that are all mouth and no skills.

China did not support Spain nor US, applauded the best basketball at each time…

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Aug 25, 2008

Spain hasn't beaten the US in six years. And if they get a silver medal in the Olympics are they still considered world champs?

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Aug 26, 2008

F1 mania...
I can'y understand why the refs allow the Americans to make so many travelling offenses and fouls. The ref was totally biased for USA. This terrible refering was the deciding factor. I think Spain are a much better team than the USA. On even playing terms the USA would be trounced.

--------------------

F1 mania- you are absolutely right. The refereeing was utterly scandalous- almost constant travelling, roughing under the basket (Jimenez almost got his head knocked off 5 or 6 times)and then the double technical near the end of the game for complaining about a blatant travel- that's 2 points for the (no) basket, 4 points in free-throws, and retaining possession. It defies belief. Spain were robbed in this match.
Add to this that the NBA players union forbid testing for Human Growth Hormone and you see the playing field is not at all level (just look at the size of these guys compared to every other national team, for goodness sake....). But like everything in this world, the USA play to their own rules- so long as they keep winning. And an olympic games without the 'stars of the NBA' represented wouldn't look good would it..?
We all know who the real winners of this tournament were and wasn't Lebron and co.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Aug 26, 2008

The refereeing in this match was amateurish and abysmal, however anyone that knows anything about basketball would know that it actually helped Spain more than it hurt it. The referees called fouls on everything that US players did defensively, which lead to Kobe and LeBron's benching early on. With competent referees the US would have been allowed to play defense and it wouldn't have been nearly as close. Also the insinuation that the NBA players are taking growth hormone is absurd; most of them come from inner city environments where there is little access to performance enhancing drugs. Spain was very lucky in the match and virtually everything they threw up went in, however the US was clearly the dominant team over the entire tournament and anyone looking at it fairly would realize that the best team (by far) won. I can't say that I would expect to see intelligent and non-biased discussion about basketball on this site but I would expect a little bit better than what I have seen on this thread so far! Please, actually watch basketball, learn the rules etc. before you make such silly comments about the American team!

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Aug 26, 2008

also chris1arch is hardly a "pitiful yank"; the only thing that he says which is incorrect is that the US could field dozens of teams that could win which of course is not true. I think it's hard for many of you to watch the US team without viewing through a prism of anti-Americanism; that's fine but don't expect your opinions about basketball to be taken seriously!

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Aug 26, 2008

Ok enough of the pleasantries...time to let the rest of you USA haters hear the truth. Spain have a good team and that's about it. You people ever thought about the US catching up on how you play the International game? Yes, that's right...we're picking the best players that can play the FIBA rules. Mobile and Versitle BIGS. Live balls on the rims...physical plays on the screeners. Yes we have adjust to the INterN'l. game. So wine all you want, bitch all you can...you'll see the same in London. This team wasn't put together in two weeks...this was a three year commitments. If you think for one minute that the US will let this be a one shot deal then go ahead. As for Spain being the current World Champs...you wipe your @ss with that crap. 2008 Olympic Champion...end of story.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Aug 27, 2008

End of the day - the U.S. have (at least) 10 times more basketball talent to choose from than any other country. The bottom line is whether or not they assemble this talent into a real team.

Most of the Spanish squad have played int'l basketball together since they were teenagers. Fortunately we have a number of very promising young players coming up the ranks too.

Don't forget - Spain won the final in '06 by over 20 points without their no.1 player. They gave Team U.S. a run for its money without their #1 playmaker - and a 17 year-old kid showing the world that the U.S. can no longer walk tournaments as they'd like to think.

This time round, the U.S. managed because they more or less built a team - they asked for player commitment 3 years before the Games.

They had to. Having to compete with teams like Argentina or Spain, nothing else would do.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Aug 27, 2008

Palisade21- do you know under what terms the NBA allowed their players to enter the games? That they wouldn't be drug tested!
Now, Usain Bolt is a helluva sprinter, but how would you feel about his achievements if he was exempt from drug testing?
And you are very impolite to patronize people on here who may have followed NBA and FIBA basketball for 30 years or more, and hold FIBA coaching qualifications.
Let's be frank here, USA have an awesome team with awesome players. So why should they have biased refeering and favoritism from the IOC to help them win? If we playing field was level in these respects they would probably still have taken the gold, but you wouldn't have all this polemic surrounding them.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Aug 27, 2008

Team USA does get tested, Wikipedia is wrong again. the original terms of the deal, team USA did not get out of competition testing (don't know how literal that is). But they have complied with the USADA and the WADA since 1998 on all the testing.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Aug 28, 2008

The whole photo affair is skewed by cultural and historical backgrounds.

I must admit that, sadly, Spanish society does not seem to be sensitive enough regarding racial issues, and I also recognise that I don't like the eye-pulling gesture in the least, but that's most probably related to the fact that I had an Anglo-Saxon upbringing; here in Spain the gesture has none of the over- or undertones of racial insult that it does in other countries.

Spain hasn't spent any of it's modern history killing Asians by the millions, working them to death building railroads, addicting them to opium or invading them - neither does Spain have a problem with racial immigration from Asia.


While there have been other chapters in this "racism-in-Spanish-sport" saga that are utterly condemnable, this current "controversy" has nothing to do with it.

It's simply wrong for British and/or Americans to judge the rest of the world on the back of their own history and hang-ups or to try and impose their own (double) standards. In itself it demonstrates the US/UK perceived sense of superiority over others and shows the same lack of respect for other cultures that the Spanish are being targeted for.

And as a Spaniard who was brought up in England, I know pretty damn well what I'm talking about.

add comment | complain about this comment