Usa Gets Mauled By Italy

[BerubeHater]

http://www.tsn.ca/nba/news_story.asp?id=93498

That's too bad.

[Fire]

I can't help but smile.

[The Familia]

FORZA ITALIA!!!!!!!!! :D

[Pagal4321]

:D
Put's such a happy smile on my face.....

[Fuzzy McGillicuddy]

Sadly, the loss will probably wake the Americans up just in time for Athens.

[sbailey924]

They squeaked past Germany today. I just don't care about any basketball past the college level. I would honestly watch synchronized diving just as soon as basketball during the Olympics.

[BerubeHater]

I would laugh for ever if they didn't even win a medal in basketball.

[Displaced Flames fan]

Predictable response. It's a strange feeling to have people hate you because of where you were born and nothing more. Wow.

I am actually rooting for this team (don't pay attention to Olympic basketball usually) because it is filled with guys who want to play for their country and not a bunch of egos like the Dream Teams were.

Larry Brown is a great coach and he's capable of getting it turned around, but.....

there is no question that the best players in America lack the ability to nail the outside shot on a consistant basis. With the showboating that has taken over the game, it is a fundamental that is in short supply. Now we see NBA teams actually having to employ shooting specialists (ala Steve Kerr) to make up for the lack of shooting ability up and down the rosters. There are very, very few complete American players these days.

Europeans, on the other hand, play the game the way it was meant to be played and it serves them very well against the US and in their proliferation into the NBA. It will only get worse for the US unless culture that has been created (which I despise by the way) takes a backseat to what basketball used to be about.

[octothorp]

It'll be great to see how the US will adapt. Will they step up and become a better 3-point team? Will they find a way to get it done without the three? The style of play should end up being more like the college game, which I greatly prefer to individual-effort showcase of the NBA. If you assume that this US team is not clearly head-and-shoulders above the rest, there's about a half-dozen teams that could win this, which brings it on-par with world hockey or football (soccer) tournaments.

Go Lithuania!!!

[moon]

I am cheering against them not because they are American but because of the fact that they have always walked over teams since sending the Dream Teams and now they get beat by a crappy Italian team and barely beat a really bad German team.