Can't wait to see it.
The chat starts NOW.
China avoids US this time.

6/22/2012 11:35:11 AM

get ready for...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Pnl1ulaG5k

!!!

6/22/2012 11:51:23 AM

6/22/2012 12:01:50 PM

shoot can you tell us some about the China's team?

6/22/2012 1:03:29 PM

6/22/2012 1:09:03 PM

China has three players in this team with NBA experience. Yi Jianlian just finished his fifth season, though seldom appeared on the court. Sun Yue and Wang zhizhi played for several teams before, now go back to China. Yao, who you may be more familiar with, retired.
^ This is an ugly pic. Many young players in China don't go to colleges.

[Edited on June 22, 2012 at 1:12 PM. Reason : add another note]

6/22/2012 1:09:06 PM

I love Wang Zhizhi, its too bad he didn't play one more season with Miami or he would've been on their 2006 championship team

6/22/2012 1:10:59 PM

I love him more than Yao of course. Yao is tricky. He served the media very well with jokes.
If Wang handled the relation with Chinese government better, he didn't need to go back and would have gotten a ring.

[Edited on June 22, 2012 at 1:15 PM. Reason : grammar]

6/22/2012 1:15:11 PM

Final 08 USA VS Spain is a classic game.

6/22/2012 1:22:27 PM

What native land were you borned from, shoot? Will the Olympic Games Basketball represent them?

6/22/2012 1:25:51 PM

Mainland. Yes, not Taipei

6/22/2012 1:34:20 PM

Britain is in the other group but the U.S. will play a warmup exhibition match against them in Manchester, England. Any score predictions?

6/22/2012 2:39:12 PM

Pool A: Argentina, France, Tunisia, USA, Olympic Tourney Qualifier #1, Olympic Tourney Qualifier #2

Pool B: Australia, Brazil, China, Britain, Spain, Olympic Tourney Qualifier #3


Olympic Tourney Qualification: Russia, Macedonia, Lithuania, Greece, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, New Zealand, Jordan, Angola, Nigeria, South Korea

6/22/2012 2:41:20 PM

Should be a huge gap, about 30 pts. I know even China can beat England.

6/22/2012 2:41:51 PM

Dude in the camo shorts looks like the ringleader

6/22/2012 3:08:30 PM

Yeah he's got solid muscle tone in those legs. They don't fuck with him.

6/22/2012 10:38:30 PM

Britain lives off points inside the arc. I doubt they get those against us.

They don't shoot threes at all. That's our main weakness defensively.

Defensively they are horrid.

They are hopelessly short and have zero depth.

I like the US vs the spread. This has all the makings of a 30+ point game that might only be a 15 point spread.

6/23/2012 12:40:13 AM

US decides the 12 roster list for national team.

7/7/2012 9:36:00 PM

chinese basketball players are assholes. I know this from playing in Carmichael. i dunno if its the language barrier, or the fact that they play defense like they are retarded.

7/7/2012 9:52:56 PM

We may play sometimes together. I'm better than average.

7/7/2012 9:57:44 PM

Yao was a great player. Zhi Zhi was horrible. Big difference.

What's Spain looking like this year? I only know about ibaka. Are both gasols and rubio playing??

7/8/2012 1:23:31 AM

Zhizhi was a great 3 point shooter, kinda like Marvin Williams

7/8/2012 1:42:36 AM

Marvin is a huge loss for Atlanta and a big pickup for Utah . Zhizhi is nothing

7/8/2012 2:03:02 AM

a 35 year old isn't as valuable as a 26 year old who is still in the league? breaking news from rally

Marvin just wishes he could shoot 41% from behind the arc one season of his mediocre career

7/8/2012 2:16:38 AM

From what I understand, Rubio and Fernandez are both out for the whole thing. That kills their chances.

7/8/2012 4:57:35 PM

Why? Injuries?

7/8/2012 5:23:13 PM

Yeah I read today that rubio is out. Sounds like usa will walk through this tournament. Our roster is stacked anyway, and weve got some serious international perimeter shooting now that Paul has range. Deron, durant, harden, love, Kobe, and melo can all fill it up from international range.

A lot of the guys we "lost" to injury like Howard, rose, and bosh haven't played that great in the past for us. I don't really mind losing wade either. This team is loaded.

7/8/2012 7:34:34 PM

Even more breaking news from rally! Team USA basketball is loaded!

7/8/2012 8:19:39 PM

Guys, this could be big....

7/8/2012 8:31:05 PM

It's a pretty valid point. We've fielded some weak teams and teams that are poorly suited for international play for most of the past decade.

Coach K installing an offense oriented around perimeter shooting with two pgs (ex .playing deron at SG) was what got us back on top.

You realize we struggled quite a bit two years ago, right? No, you probably didn't pay attention.

7/8/2012 8:33:12 PM

Oh, you mean our B-team that had one close game in the FIBA championships?

7/8/2012 9:00:08 PM

Or the last olympics where we barely won gold.

7/8/2012 9:27:50 PM

The Athens team that won the bronze was the only US team not to go 8-0 and win the gold since we started sending pros. Martin going out on a limb.

2008 team "barely" outscored everyone in their group by 32 points, and "barely" won three elimination games by an average of 20 points.

[Edited on July 8, 2012 at 9:41 PM. Reason : Took the lead over Spain with 2 minutes left in the 1st and "barely" never trailed again]

7/8/2012 9:37:42 PM

Dude don't be a retard. We came in 6th with three losses in FIBA 2002. You're acting like we've never lost to Puerto Rico before.


I'm not sure where you thought I said I was predicting we win and trying to act like we weren't heavy favorites. I was evaluating if Spain will be any good this year.

You realize this is 1 game tournament style, right? The #1 team doesn't usually win tournaments in this format unless they are head and shoulders above the rest of the field. It looks like we are, given Spains injury woes.

[Edited on July 9, 2012 at 2:00 AM. Reason : a]

7/9/2012 2:00:05 AM

Quote :

"You realize this is 1 game tournament style, right? "

Round robin, then a knockout round. Same as always.

Quote :

"The #1 team doesn't usually win tournaments in this format "

The #1 team (USA) almost always wins this format.

Quote :

"We came in 6th with three losses in FIBA 2002. "

Because we sent the D Squad. Amazing that a team led by Elton Brand and Raef LaFrentz didn't meet expectations.

Martin, as always, you're taking an extremely narrow view of something.

7/9/2012 8:59:27 AM

I didn't realize 2002 was two years ago.

7/9/2012 9:40:34 AM

It was 200 years ago in basketball terms. we just sent guy now we actually have made a club out of it.

O and basketball is the hardest sport for the best team to always win big.

[Edited on July 9, 2012 at 11:20 AM. Reason : the nature of the game keeps it close]

7/9/2012 11:20:16 AM

shoot, you're logged in as E Man. Just a heads up.

7/9/2012 11:25:11 AM

??

7/9/2012 11:42:25 AM

they shoot?


o i made ya look...

7/9/2012 12:05:16 PM

where's ncstatetke?

7/9/2012 12:12:56 PM

face/rally, for once in your fucking life, can you not be an asshole and pull for the team

and quit pretending you know everything, just for Team USA

we should all be on one page on this

7/9/2012 12:15:27 PM

I don't know much about Tunisia, but I know one thing, they're in a lot of trouble.

GO USA

7/9/2012 12:30:02 PM

I think this is going to be the greatest show ever this year. CP3 and Blake will activate LOB NATION.

7/9/2012 12:38:59 PM

^^^ Their points are reasonable. Why do you hate them?

7/9/2012 1:10:00 PM

Put it this way, since Krzyzewski took over coaching the team in 2006, we have a record in competitive games of 35-1. That record covers the '06 Worlds, the '07 Tournament of the Americas, the '08 Olympics, and the '10 Worlds. Throw in exhibition games and that record becomes 50-1 (includes a game in 2010 where we beat Spain in Madrid by 1 point). The 2006 Worlds was the first time USA Basketball finally treating putting together a national team like it was something more than just an all-star game.

Is it automatic they'll win? No. But gold is the only acceptable result for the team to be considered a success.

Warmup games:

July 12 - vs. Dominican Republic (coached by John Calipari) - Las Vegas
July 16 - vs. Brazil - Washington, D.C.
July 19 - vs. Great Britain - Manchester, England
July 22 - vs. Argentina - Barcelona, Spain
July 24 - vs. Spain - Barcelona, Spain

7/9/2012 1:47:56 PM

Quote :

"July 16 - vs. Brazil - Washington, D.C."

Nene might score 50 points and pull down 50 boards

he is one of the most elite players in the NBA

7/9/2012 3:24:26 PM

7/15 11 am-2 pm USA Team Training George Washington University
7/16 8 pm USA vs. Brazil Verizon Center (Ticket Info)

I want to see. Didn't realize it's so close to me till now.


Women/Men Doubleheader for 88.5. Sounds reasonable.



[Edited on July 9, 2012 at 3:42 PM. Reason : add another note]

7/9/2012 3:37:28 PM

You guys are ridiculous. Look back at the threads from 2004 and 2008 I'm one of the only people on the board who cheers for the us in basketball. Most people hope we lose or are at least indifferent.

No kidding we haven't always sent great teams. That's the entire point of my initial post. This years team is very good and well suited for international play. Our competition isn't 100% so theres a good chance we roll.

Did you guys even watch 2004??? You realize you can't win in international play with the dwayne wade strategy of driving to the basket. FIBA refs do not call bs bailout fouls. Especially for the usa. FIBA forces you to play for jumpers. You can't simply feed the post. Tim Duncan and dwight Howard both played like shit against guys you've never even heard of. The lane is wider. European teams pass the ball. Guys named sauranus jaskevicious (sp?) can light you up for 30.

You aren't going to maximize your chance of winning if you send Derrick Rose and Russell Westbrook out there to have a 3 point shooting contest against Foreign McForeigner, period.

Coach K understands that, and that's why the team has won since he became coach. He adapted the roster to the sport and installed an offense that works.

Look at mike brown. He couldn't figure out how to use Lebron James in several seasons as his coach. Coach K experimented moving him off the ball. Suddenly he went from a great player to the most effective offensive player in the world by far.

Stop being so intellectually lazy when it cones to basketball. The USA team that came in 6th had 12 NBA players many of whom were multi year all stars. The reason that team lost was because George Karl is a terrible coach and he had no idea how to adapt to international rules.

7/9/2012 5:03:33 PM

^^Anyone wants to go?

[Edited on July 9, 2012 at 5:11 PM. Reason : make it clear]

7/9/2012 5:03:35 PM