Tag: USA Basketball

Has Kobe Bryant Gone Soft? Says Team USA Will “Win Some, Lose Some and Thats Just How It Goes.”

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ESPN – Kobe Bryant thinks Team USA might have to get used to a new reality of losing in major events…”It’s not a matter of the rest of the world catching up to the U.S., it’s that the rest of the world has been caught up for quite some time,” Bryant said at the Wukesong Sports Center. “And it’s to the point now where us in the U.S. are going to win some, we’re going lose some. And that’s just how it goes.“

When I first read that my initial reaction was straight out of Kobe’s old commercial with Kanye:

You win some, you lose some? This is the Black Mamba for christ’s sake. The guy who still has a blood feud with Shaq nearly 20 years later because he’s so psychotically competitive he couldn’t get along with his own teammate, despite being in the midst of a three-peat.

THAT guy is the one telling everyone in the United States that “eh shit happens, the rest of the world is also pretty good so you might win, you might lose.” Has Kobe gone soft? Or is Kobe just trying to pump the collective tires of every other country he may do business with in the future? Maybe sell a few more Mambas in China if he makes it sound like he believes China can win Gold at Tokyo? Or maybe he’s just trying to Inception LeBron and Anthony Davis to get off their ass and *want* to win Gold. That would be some diabolical subterfuge that only the Black Mamba could pull off.

I spent years coming around on you Kobe so don’t you go soft on me now. I respect the assassin attitude so I refuse to accept this at face value. When we roll out the new Dream Team at the Olympics I will be the first one to give Kobe credit for planting the seed of doubt in everyone’s brain.

Jerry Colangelo and USA Basketball Tell the Rest of the World to Get Their Shit Together

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Courtesy of Bleacher Report

Courtesy of Bleacher Report

Yahoo – “I’m all for raising the bar for global basketball,” Colangelo said. “The more interest in basketball on all levels, I’m for. I’m a lifer of the game. Basketball is the No.2 sport in the world. We just need to see these other countries get their acts together and become more competitive. I’m not going to be making any excuses.

Love it. The cockiest thing I’ve heard from a pro sports executive in a long time. Listen, did the USA Basketball team have a few tight games that reminded people of the disastrous Athens team? Sure. But did they take care of business and then absolutely dismantle Serbia in the GOLD MEDAL game? 100% So Colangelo has every right to tell the rest of the world to get their shit together.

“One of the officials said to me, ‘You oughta play with four.’ I said, ‘No, maybe the other teams oughta get their act together and compete.’ We’ve been helping in basketball around the world for 50 years. We’ve taught the world the game. We’ve taught their coaches.”

Basically telling everyone, hey we taught you the game 50 years ago, time to figure it out or we will continue to bash your brains in. Your choice.

It’s definitely awesome to wreck other countries on the court for years, hell the USA team hasn’t lost a game since 2006, but at some point it’s like playing Madden on Easy Mode. Sure it’s great to win, but it’s the challenge that makes it the most satisfying. Remember trading blows with the Gasols and Spain in 2012? That was a helluva game that made the Gold seem like we really earned it. This year it kind of seemed like the rest of the world just sucked and we showed up to the medal ceremony by default. But hey a win is a win is a win.