Amath M'Baye starting for france vs USA

[BoulderSooner]

Amath getting some nice run along side the 4 NBA french starters on ESPN2 now

 

[BCSooners]

Amath getting some nice run along side the 4 NBA french starters on ESPN2 now

And won. That's pretty embarrassing for the team, even without the stars you gotta do better than that.

 

[mict085]

And won. That's pretty embarrassing for the team, even without the stars you gotta do better than that.

That’s what happens when you don’t send your best players. Hell, we didn’t even send our second best players. Donovan Mitchell is about the only star player. The whole team is mostly reserves. With that roster, this should’ve been the expected result. This was a failure from the start.

 

[BCSooners]

That’s what happens when you don’t send your best players. Hell, we didn’t even send our second best players. Donovan Mitchell is about the only star player. The whole team is mostly reserves. With that roster, this should’ve been the expected result. This was a failure from the start.

This group should beat France.

 

[CoachTalk]

France no slooch, but if we dont miss 10 ft in the 4th we win.

Is what it is...

 

[thebigabd]

Yea that team sucks... Marcus Smart? Harrison Barnes? Give me a freaking break.

If American players don't want to play for the stars and stripes, just don't enter the event... That will send a stronger message that all these guys care about is their contracts.

 

[61sooner]

Players are making multi-millions out of the game and can't take the time to
represent their country.
Why would anyone support these selfish SOBs?

 

[thebigabd]

Players are making multi-millions out of the game and can't take the time to
represent their country.
Why would anyone support these selfish SOBs?

The best message you can send here is to not field a team at all. Publish a list of the names of the players who don't want to play for USA, and say that because they don't want to play for Team USA we won't field a team at all.

Don't attack anyone. Don't criticize the decision. Just issue a press release that says America's best players don't want to play, list who was invited, that they turned it down, and say America withdraws from the event.

This puts all the pressure back on those players.

 

[BCSooners]

Yea that team sucks... Marcus Smart? Harrison Barnes? Give me a freaking break.

If American players don't want to play for the stars and stripes, just don't enter the event... That will send a stronger message that all these guys care about is their contracts.

Marcus Smart was one of the better players on the team.

If the U.S. doesn't send a team that would be pretty weak, send the one's who want to play. I would make the players make a certain amount of FIBA tournaments before they can play on the Olympic team though.

 

[BCSooners]

The best message you can send here is to not field a team at all. Publish a list of the names of the players who don't want to play for USA, and say that because they don't want to play for Team USA we won't field a team at all.

Don't attack anyone. Don't criticize the decision. Just issue a press release that says America's best players don't want to play, list who was invited, that they turned it down, and say America withdraws from the event.

This puts all the pressure back on those players.

They did.

 

[WichitaSooner]

Over the past 15 years or so, most of the elite NBA players have actually made a very strong commitment to playing for the national team. LeBron, KD, 'Melo, Paul … the list goes on and on. When you play eight months and 100+ games a year (which you do if your team makes a deep playoff run), it's not reasonable to also be expected to practice and play for another several weeks each summer that there is an international competition. My disappointment isn't with the elite guys, but the next tier of players -- lots of those guys bailed this year, even though it would have been their first (and maybe only) chance to represent their country. Of course, most of them cite injuries -- some are legit, some probably aren't. I'm sure the coaches and people associated with USA Basketball are frustrated with lots of those players, but it is hard to publicly question the legitimacy/extent of an injury. And as much as people like to bash pro athletes as selfish and only concerned with money, there are also plenty of examples (KD being the most prominent, recent one) of players risking their health even when it had the potential of costing them all kinds of money.

And please don't think this is coming from someone who doesn't care about international competition. I love the Olympics and would watch America compete against another country in just about any event with a scoreboard.

 

[BCSooners]

Over the past 15 years or so, most of the elite NBA players have actually made a very strong commitment to playing for the national team. LeBron, KD, 'Melo, Paul … the list goes on and on. When you play eight months and 100+ games a year (which you do if your team makes a deep playoff run), it's not reasonable to also be expected to practice and play for another several weeks each summer that there is an international competition. My disappointment isn't with the elite guys, but the next tier of players -- lots of those guys bailed this year, even though it would have been their first (and maybe only) chance to represent their country. Of course, most of them cite injuries -- some are legit, some probably aren't. I'm sure the coaches and people associated with USA Basketball are frustrated with lots of those players, but it is hard to publicly question the legitimacy/extent of an injury. And as much as people like to bash pro athletes as selfish and only concerned with money, there are also plenty of examples (KD being the most prominent, recent one) of players risking their health even when it had the potential of costing them all kinds of money.

And please don't think this is coming from someone who doesn't care about international competition. I love the Olympics and would watch America compete against another country in just about any event with a scoreboard.

Agreed. Guys like Drummond, Liliard, McCollum, D Russell, Harrell, Booker, Richardson, Gordon, Beal, & Holiday would make the team so much better.

 

[thebigabd]

Agreed. Guys like Drummond, Liliard, McCollum, D Russell, Harrell, Booker, Richardson, Gordon, Beal, & Holiday would make the team so much better.

Yea thats a good point... If your starting 5 is:

Damion Lillard
Donovan Mitchell
Aaron Gordon
Blake Griffin
Andre Drummond

You probably blow these guys out still....

 

[red recluse]

pretty cool. good for him. one of the few successes of players that left early who shouldn't have.

 

[CoachTalk]

Trae young would make this team a lot better.

Zach lavine would make them better. They need scoring.

 

[BCSooners]

Trae young would make this team a lot better.

Zach lavine would make them better. They need scoring.

I didn't add rookies, also don't think Lavine would buy in or is as good as his stats suggest.

 

[BCSooners]

pretty cool. good for him. one of the few successes of players that left early who shouldn't have.

I believe he had a family he needed to start supporting if I'm not mistaken. Foreign players don't mind not making the NBA as much, some of them would rather play overseas.

 

[WichitaSooner]

Trae young would make this team a lot better.

Zach lavine would make them better. They need scoring.

Trae is one of the guys who went to camp but then left, citing an injury. I don't know if he would have made the final roster, but it's too bad we didn't get to find out.

 

[Eielson]

It was a pretty sorry team by our standards, but it still should have been enough to beat that France team. Quite a few guys on this team won't even be starting for their NBA team.