It used to mean something when the USA met Russia on the basketball floor. The world's two superpowers were also basketball's two superpowers, and every game seemed to invite an international incident. But when the Soviet Union disbanded, so did Russia's basketball dominance. Now that we are semi-allies, could anyone really get excited about Monday's game? NYET! NYET! NYET! It's easier to dislike Andrei Kirilenko for wearing a Utah Jazz uniform than for wearing a Russian uniform. America needs a new international basketball rival, and it seems nobody is ready to fill the role. Yugoslavia, Germany, Argentina, Spain -- none of them gets the blood boiling like the Rooskies used to. If only Iraq had a team.
The only reason they were "rivals" on the court was because we were sending all of our diaper dandies out there. If we had always sent NBA players, there wouldn't even have been a rivalry, competitively speaking.
Could the Al Quaeda field a team? I wonder what region would they belong to for qualifying rounds. Underground?
