Medal game in Men's Basketball. 1:30 AM if I'm not mistaken on NBC. I think I'm going to brew a pot of coffee around 1 and give it a go.

:rock: ;)

Of course! We will bring home the Gold!

It will be my early morning birthday present. I'm not out drinking at midnight of my birthday for perhaps the first time since I was 14!

Happy B Day man. f*ck that we sh*t, you can't tell me a Team USA loss or our womens' table tennis team not winning gold will piss you off as much as the Giants, Yankees or Knicks falling flat on their face. :no: Stop with the silliness. ™

Thanks.

Haha, I didn't say that. Of course the Yankees, Giants, Knicks, and Rangers mean more to me! However, I'm not a part of it, other than as a fan. Team USA represents my nation. That's all I am saying with the "we" stuff. I don't use it for pro teams, but I have found that I have always used it during the Olympics going back to my childhood.

I've always used "we" for my pro teams, never for the Olympics, I just don't get into the Olympics at all. Never have, I mean I want us to do well (except for those years the Dream Team started to sicken me and like I naturally do at times I root for the underdog when I don't have that much of an interest.) Anyway, I will watch tonight (*this morning*) and hope "we" win.

Yeah, most people say we for pro sports. I just never have.

I didn't get too into Athens in 2004, probably mostly because of the tape delays, but I got into these Olympics way more than I thought I would. It's really hit or miss with me and the Olympics.

doesn't start until 2:30

:hehe:

:dunno:

They'll never make it.

I'm a warrior. I can stay up all night.

The gold is back where it belongs.

This was a great game. Spain is a tough team and hung with USA all game. It got to 2 late in the 4th, but then Kobe took over defensively and offensively. It was a high-scoring, entertaining game. USA won 118-107.

Spain's roster, even with Calderon (Toronto Raptors) hurt, is full of former, current, and soon to be NBA players. Bill Simmons has talked about Rudy Fernandez a lot the past couple of years. He's finally joining Portland this year. They had a good young team last year and this year they'll be adding Oden and Fernandez. Rudy had a sweet drive and dunk in traffic in the 4th. Marc Gasol looks decent and will be joining Memphis this year (his rights were traded by the Lakers for his brother). Then they have Pau Gasol (Lakers), Garbajosa (Raptors in recent years), Navarro (Grizzles last year), and some other guys who will definitely play in the NBA someday.

Wade carried USA in the first half with 21 points with Kobe and LeBron in immediate foul trouble (5 and out in international play). Kobe carried USA down the stretch.

Congrats to architect Jerry Colangelo, my boy Coach K, and the players, who bought into Colangelo's plan of committing three years, took this seriously for a change, and took home the gold.

I was thinking they were going to choke at the end but Kobe took over late (unlike the NBA Finals where he was a gutless whore) and the USA finally wins gold again. His four-point play was money. Don't see those two often and in that spot with Spain making a bit of a run I actually jumped up off my couch.

Good job by Coach K. I have to admit I questioned the choice when they first made it but he was able to make it work.

Anyway nice to have the Gold back in the US. :rock:

Coach K was perfect. Unlike Larry Brown, who feuded with his star players in Athens, K was able to get everyone to buy in.

A very key, but often unmentioned point, is that Kobe almost player for Coach K at Duke, and K almost left Duke to join Kobe with the Lakers. Kobe has always wanted to play for him. When you have a diva like Kobe buy in, it definitely helps.

Carlos Boozer didn't play one second tonight, was DNP'd in another game or two, and played limited minutes in others, but showed his respect for K as his college coach, and desire to win, by being a cheerleader on the bench.

LeBron and Carmelo were the two young guys who clashed with Larry Brown four years ago. Colangelo and K were smart to include Jim Boeheim as an assistant, which had to make Carmelo comfortable since he won an NCAA title with him at SU his freshman year. LeBron became a real leader this time around.

Jason Kidd, the grandpa and previous gold medal winner of the team, started games, but didn't show any ego when Deron Williams and Chris Paul took minutes from him down the stretch.

Throw in the fact that K is a West Point graduate and former coach, and you knew he'd treat this as seriously as he did.

There was a good article about Coach K taking this job and how he would be perceived on ESPN.com the other day. I will look for it and post it. It was well written.

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer08/col..._pat&id=3549065

Getting Boeheim to coach on the team was a good move, I also think getting D'Antoni on the staff was great so you could get a respected and winning NBA coach's voice in there as well.

I saw the article you're talking about concerning coach K. It basically said he won't get much credit but he should and I agree. Taking a group with as many egos as this team has (and lets face it, you have to have a bit of an ego to be as good as these guys are at what they do) and getting them to buy into this, especially after the disaster of four years ago couldn't have been easy. He definitely made Larry Brown look like an ass. Should be a fun trip back to Duke for him.

Yes, my new buddy Mike D'Antoni and Nate McMillan were good additions from the NBA, plus Coach K had his Duke staff of Chris Collins, Wojo, and Johnny Dawkins (now the Stanford head coach) helping out, as well.

By the way, it's almost a lock Vinnie drank too much, and fell asleep/passed out.

:bc:

I'm always into the Olympics and even though I didn't like some of the Dream teams ball handling, I wanted the Gold. I was pretty proud of the Water Polo Team (sh*t, did I say that????) Was really happy for the Volleyball teams with a new appreciation for that game than I have ever had. Even though I hate soccer was proud of the American girls beating a number 1 Brazil team. Now they better not cancel baseball for the next Olympics if they keep silly assed "sports" like syncronized swimming :wtf: They should replace that sh*t with Countries that their swimmers can hold the head under water the longest for the gold. If you pay the ultimate price and go all the way, you even become a member of the VC..... :rock:

I was out at about 1:30 :bc: Didn't drink shockingly, but was just tired. Anyway, I woke up at 2ish to take a giant sh*t and table tennis was on, I was very confused. Finally at about 3 I woke up again and there was the game. I listened for a few minutes before I was back to sleep. Glad we won, figured we would.

Calderon's injury was a huge blow for Spain. It left them with only one real PG in Rubio, and while he dishes out some great assits, he's not a scorer by any means. Navarro can play the point, but he's a natural 2-guard.

I think the refs leaned a bit towards the Americans in the first half, especially in the first quarter. There were a couple of calls (and no-calls) that left me puzzled.

All in all, though, I think the biggest reason for this loss was actually Spain's coach, Aito. I thought he should have started the game with both Garbajosa and Fernandez (who's gonna rock your socks next season), or at least give the former more than the 5 minutes he got.

...a bunch of immature, douchebag Spaniard f*cks weren't beating a well-assembled American team at basketball. All other reasonings and explanations are extraneous. All that was missing was Vince Carter being there to teabag one of those assholes.

People just hate the US basketball team for whatever stupid reason. This team wasn't the same collection of douchebags we had four years ago headed up by a dumbf*ck coach.

No but isn't it pretty much the same team and staff that got beat in the World Championships two years ago?

:-|

:rolleyes:

This team was criticized by everybody (even in their own country) and they shoved it up all the doubters' asses. :rock:

Vince Carter is the perfect example of the type of guy Team USA didn't need this time around.

Vin, it's not the exact team that lost the World Championships (Kidd is still undefeated in international play), but the three year commitment from most of the players, even with two previous losses, was key, as was ridding the team of losers like Carter and Marbury.

I just can't get pumped up about this like you and Matty can, I mean it's nice we won but in the scheme of sports for me the only reason I'm really happy is because one of my guys, Dwight Howard, was on the team. Other then that I don't get off on the Olympics like others do.

Well I just like watching some of my favorite players on the same team and they're from my country so I'm going to root for them. That's really all it is. And as a sports fan, I can get into great games and last night was a great game.

Some people would rip on USA for not winning by 30, but like YF03 said, it was actually a great game. It was entertaining from start to finish. I enjoyed it a lot more than I would have a 30 point blowout.

No doubt. I think it was more satisfying this way. It's one of those games too that everybody was saying "the U.S. hasn't had a close game, how will they handle it?" Well they got their answer. Everything people said this team couldn't do they did. They represented this country well both on and off the court. This was a real likeable team.

I've got a Gold Medal celebration cap on the way from the website. Looks pretty cool. :rock:

What does that have to do with anything I posted? The only reference I made towards the American team is that Wade was good.

I still believe that if Garbajosa and Fernandez had started the game, Spain would have been in a better position.