Yao/Z. Ilgauskas Duncan/Gasol Dirk/AK47 Peja/Ginobili Nash/Parker Imagine the shooting and passing on this team. I am not sure whether a Shaq/KG/Kobe/Tmac/Kidd team can take the international team out of 7.
well he was born in the virgin islands, i'm sure you know that... but he could have played for them in international competition. however, i wouldn't put duncan as an international purely because well the virgin islands are part of the us.
too much talent on the US team. however... on the international team everyone except big z plays unselfish ball, so the chemistry might be better. also, much better shooting on the international team. seven game series i don't know. but one game it's anybody's guess.
of course they can...hell...the US team couldn't even beat Argentina. now, obviously US is the best team out there (players-wise)...but you throw a team with good chemistry at them and they have a good chance of getting beat.
Steve Nash plays for the US team too. Since the point is to point out the difference in players priorities based on their background, the Santa Clara alum Nash goes with the US team.
That team at the world championships was a joke. No Duncan, no Shaq, no Kobe, no McGrady, no Webber, no Iverson I'd take Shaq, Duncan, Kobe, McGrady and Bibby any day over any international all star team...
I'd take the U.S. team. However, what about All-White-World vs. All-White-USA? All-White world clearly wins: AW-W: Nash Ginobli Peja Dirk big Z bench: Jaric, AK47, Pau, Memo Okur, Vlade Divac or Rasho AW-US Jason Williams Scherbiak KVH Brad Miller Ostertag Bench: Bones Barry and... ??? You have to fill the team with gems like Kirk Hinrich, Casey Jacobsen, Jake Voksul, Kris Kaman and Mike dunleavy (that's at least my choice, but you can sub any of those with the likes of Luke Ridnour, Scott Pollard, Jeff Foster, Kyle Korver with pretty much the same net result...) Easy win for the AW-World team. Whatever happened to white American players? This is the birthplace of Larry Legend and John Stockton after all!
wow... bibby instead of kidd? that's much weaker. yao will neutralize shaq. duncan brutalizes nowiszki AK47 contains kobe mcgrady is not clearly superior to peja in a team full of stars i think nash is better than bibby, but lets just say they duel to a standstill. who knows?
Duncan is considered foreign or international player.. (meaning born outside of the US) Virgin Islands and played for the US team because Virgin Islands doesnt have a national BB team... Nash is also considered an international player. http://www.nba.com/players/international_player_directory.html using the list of players the NBA considers international.. PG - SNash SG - AK47 SF - Peja PF - TDuncan C - Yao Sounds like a pretty solid team to me. J
The whole point of the World vs United States posts is generally to point out that US players are generally less team oriented and less fundamentally sound than their foreign counterparts, because of the vast difference in instruction that foreign players get compared with the United States. In that case, no one who went to a US college can truly be called a "foreign player", inasmuch as they have played, and been instructed, in the United States during their formative basketball years.
Not only that, but George Karl managed the team like a moron. An all-world team would give the all-America team a good game, but take away Duncan and it's not extremely close.
How about an All-Black-USA team vs. the All-Black-World all stars? Shaq, Duncan, KG, T-Mac, Kobe vs... Carl Herrera.
I am not sure where you got the concept that the US VI has no national BB team but it is incorrect. Do you not recall that the US team had to qualify for Athens last summer by playing at the Tournament of the Americas in Puerto Rico? The US NT played the US VI NT and Duncan chose not to play against his countrymen in the game. USA - Virgin Islands 113-55 USA: Iverson 17, Carter 14, Martin 14, Collison 13, O'Neal 12, McGrady 10, Allen 10, Bibby 9, Brand 7, Jefferson 7, Kidd 0+10ast Virgin Islands: Heywood 13, Richards 9+9reb, Trimmingham 9, Sheppard 8, Oliver 5, Victor 4, White 3, Peterkin 2, Charles 2 IMO, Duncan is in a gray-area regarding international vs domestic. US VI indigenous inhabitants are US citizens but do not vote in US presidential elections, they elect one non-voting representative to the US House of Representatives, and have their judiciary established within the US District Court of the Virgin Islands (under Third Circuit jurisdiction). It is also my understanding that on all official govenmental documents and treaties using the word "United States", the area of the Virgin Islands is inclusive in that document.
I think the All-US team would almost certainly win. The International squad would suffer from the same problems we had in the WC's -- no familiarity with each other. When neither squad is able to play "as a team", raw talent most likely will come out on top...
When Tim Ducan came into the NBA, the Virgin Islands did not have a national basketball team. The international rules states that once you play for a country, you can not change. I remembered Timmy saying that if given a choice, he would have played for the Virgin Islands, and that was the main reason he sat out in the USA vs Virgin Island game in respect for his fellow country man. -G'day-
