It's pretty funny seeing all the international players being written off as flukes. Sure Toronto beat Chicago during the massive run, but that Chicago team had 2 all stars, not 12. If there's a team out there that can hang with 12 all stars in not one, but two games, then one would have to think that they would have at LEAST one player good enough to make a reasonable impact at the NBA level? I'm not saying any of them are all-star material, but a one-dimensional shooter always has a place in the NBA, as does a banger like number 14, no idea what his name is, but he had enough post moves to score inside several times and was the Lithuanians leading player throughout the tournament. As for the corrupt referees; the worst call of the game favoured the US quite heavily, McDyess throwing his man to the ground and snaring a crucial offensive rebound and putback. Most of the other calls were pretty fair in that they went both ways! Just because the referees weren't coached to give Alonzo his travel and give Payton several cheap shots as he plays his "defense" doesn't mean that they refereed badly. If ANYTHING they gave the US more questionable calls. But go ahead and whinge, that's what the rest of the world respects SO MUCH about the usa. ------------------
but these arent exactly the BEST players, look at who stayed home... kobe, shaq, duncan. look who came hardaway, baker, goog. and there were so many bad calls. even the crowd, who always cheers for the team us is playing, acknowledged that there were some horrible calls. but the thing im most embarrassed about is that the US is one of the worst free throw shooting squads there... thats just horrible. I dont see any of the lithuanians making a team, maybe that one big man who rebounds well, but other than that i dont think any of them are ready for the nba style of play. Did canado do well in the olympics? i know they have a couple good big men
You know the '96 Toronto did have a couple pretty good players including Stoudamire and our own Walt Williams. If Lithuania had a couple guys like that, then an NBA team should jump on them. ------------------
I was in that crowd, and we (the crowd) were incensed that McDyess didn't get called for that "over the back" - and having watched the game again, I don't think the US got any more bad calls than the Lithuanians got. The refereeing wasn't good, but it certainly wasn't biased. Jasikevicius is probably the best player in terms of fitting into the NBA. He could certainly play the same role that Stojakovic plays for Sacremento. Why not ask them if he has any game? Oh that's right, Stoja played in the olympics for Yugoslavia, along with Predrag Danilovic and Dragan Tarlac and Primoz Brezec (both just drafted) - and Yugoslavia lost to Lithuania didn't they? So chalk that up as just another fluke for the Lithuanians. ------------------
thx guys, a chronicle writer had him down as a second-teamer, or maybe I got my consonants mixed up...hehe. Ace, yes it doesn't me anything either way. What means something to me is these guys could have been a first-round pick for big bucks to play in the league they think is great, but weren't. That is all I need to know about their NBA potential. I find it humorous when Europeans that I meet personally don't allow me to ever say anything about soccer or rugby or whatever and need to tell me I know nothing about the game. I respect Lithuania and really believe that country loves basketball. But, we can take these dream team scores a little too far. It means nothing about the quality of any participants to be NBA-level team players. And it certainly means nothing about the NBA level going down, or that this country that invented basketball no longer plays the game well.
I'm sure if ANYONE thought these guys had enough talent, they will be in the NBA somewhere come pre-season time. There are plenty of teams starving for players, esp. big men. ------------------ I am so exasperated that I could expectorate.
How big is Jasivecik? Could you see him fitting with us at all? Rudy T must respect him a little now. ------------------
the foreign player every NBA team is lusting after is the 7'5" dude from China. He got into foul trouble against the US because he wasn't used to the speed but he sure could play. Even shot a couple over Garnett. He had some handles for a big guy too. Needless to say he changed a lot of players shots. The announcers were saying he would be the #1 pick in next years draft if China clears him to play. I think he is only 19 years old too. ------------------
I got an idea....we should release our entire roster and sign the whole Lithuanian team as Rockets ------------------ I'm not the type to eat it up but the type to hit it raw dog and seed it up.
