I'm tellin ya...Dan Gilbert has something on Silver and/or the NBA. The consistent luck Cleveland has with moving up in the lottery, two non-factors making the USA team...like is the NBA using Quicken Loans to do their taxes and, if so, did Gilbert see all of those OnlyFans transactions Silver has been making on the corporate card??
Lol, I seriously wonder what Darius Garland has done to even get an invite. He has no business being there. this is 1 of the worst USA rosters I’ve seen on par with 2004
This happened so many times during the second half. Lillard and Tatum were practically begging for calls or would rather try and bait a foul to occur than to, y'know, score. Like, this is international ball and you're not LeBron/Kobe/MJ to these people bros, you're not going to get those ticky tack calls.
Maybe we shouldn't be surprised. Aren't most of the top players in the NBA today actually international? And the one's who aren't are nearing retirement age.
So are we that bad? or is this just a case of running into teams that have been playing together for years. fiba basketball is kinda like soccer where everyone comes up together in youth national teams. we all know no one really cares about international basketball outside of the olympics here
I know I'm not surprise by the level of skill/talent other countries have--it's not 1992 anymore. I am surprised by the lack of fundamental basketball they played last night--not boxing out for rebounds, taking ill-advised shots from deep when the lane is wide open, lack of hustle, etc. Maybe that's due to the lack of training camp or familiarity but it definitely looked like a team that was cobbled together at the last minute (and in some ways it was). I'm sure they'll get their act together by the time the Olympics start but there is a lot of work that needs to be done.
he cant do his thing now because hed get technical if he tries yelling at refs...they better call beverley before its too late...
NBA confirmed to be charmin soft. The league has gotten softer ever year. This is the first generation of players that never played back pre-2010 when the NBA was still sort of a testosterone-driven league instead of a Steph Curry worship-fest. When it gets physical and they don't get bailed out they have no answers.
It's not a coincidence that the softness factor is directly correlated with how far shooters are getting their shots off nowadays--the further you are from the 3 point line, the less likely you have to endure any kind of physicality inside the paint.
I'm not really watching these games because I really don't care, but ... aren't most of the main players on Nigeria and Australia NBA players? Maybe it's not just "NBA players". I don't know.
Sure, you're right. But they are role players who play basketball and fight for what they have. I was trying to say the max-contract guys rely on foul calls and gimmicks to put up 35 every game by falling down on 3 pointers and getting phantom fouls on drives. They are used to white glove treatment. They're capable of great real basketball but they don't play it very often. This team is a pretty specific mix of non-physical guys like Durant, Lillard, Beal, Love, etc. There's no Jordan, Kobe, Chris Paul, or Type-A star to make everyone proud or hungry.
Bingo. The Harden and Curry effect. But it's also majorly ref-driven. Silver has consistently made the refs protect stars (arguably going back to Shaq when they decided that late 90s Shaq pushing his way through 3 stationary defenders was a foul on the defenders, or the same thing with Wade in 2006). Harden, Giannis, Embiid, Durant, Curry have taken it to a new level.
This would be Jerry Colangelo and Gregg Popovich. They run the USA FIBA team. I'm sure Silver has influence but he shouldn't have direct involvement. He (the NBA) has players on every team and have NBA Africa, Chinese ties, and scouts around the world.
