"This tournament was a waste of everyone's time and resources."

[SlyPokerDog]

Outside of Derrick Rose using FIBA as a Double-A rehab assignment and some sportswriters beefing up on Marriott points for post-summer vacations, this tournament was a waste of everyone's time and resources. They used to call it the World Championships. Now it's the World Cup of Basketball. This is certain: It has outlived its usefulness for the NBA, and owners and executives will be wise to petition FIBA to reshape the future of international basketball.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba-ne...s-showcasing-only-duke-s-coach-044717393.html

 

[THE HCP]

Just read that as well. Nice writeup!
I would enjoy what he said.......make the team up of under 22 types. The best up and coming and a couple college stars.

 

[KingSpeed]

I didn't watch any of it.

 

[RoyToy]

Money quote

As one GM told Yahoo Sports, "[Outside of the U.S. team], there's more talent and more interest from basketball fans in the NBA summer league than this event."

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Money quote

As one GM told Yahoo Sports, "[Outside of the U.S. team], there's more talent and more interest from basketball fans in the NBA summer league than this event."

As if the Danny Ferry incident wasn't enough proof that there are GMs who are total morons.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

I didn't watch any of it.

Oh well then. Total waste of time.

 

[illmatic99]

Agree with the 22 under thing. Laughing at the GM's comment about summer league garnering more interest. I expected better comp from the other teams this year, unfortunately, that wasn't the case. Freakin Spaniards man-- way to choke!

 

[Rastapopoulos]

I liked this:

As much as ever, USA Basketball has been co-opted into a Krzyzewski leverage play for the Duke Blue Devils. If that doesn't rile Kentucky's John Calipari, wait until the Duke coach is credited for DeMarcus Cousins' maturity with the Sacramento Kings this season.

Assholes pissing off assholes. We all win!

 

[riverman]

The positive taken from this tournament is that Damian Lillard got a long camp with coach Thibs focusing on his defensive skillset. Nico paced himself, mentored young French players coming up and turned up the tempo once the medal rounds came. Nic will come into preseason in great shape. Victor also got to work out extensively with a large talent pool in Spain. Derrick Rose got exposed as an iffy, streaky pt guard with a ton of rust after 2 years of 10 NBA games. The bad thing about FIBA competition is the timing. I think it'd be better if it was held earlier in the summer and only competed with the WNBA for hoops fans. It's turned into a scouting trip for Euro talent as much as anything. Zoran Dragic will get offers from the NBA now. The superstars in the NBA only really value the Olympic comptetion.

 

[Wizard Mentor]

Team USA represents most all of everything that is wrong with basketball - from playing rat ball without plays, to choosing 1-way players who lack fundamentals, to super nepotism.... This was a track team, not a basketball team.

 

[jlprk]

Keep everything the same. If I made any change, it would be to put older, smoother players on the team, so we could beat the world by even more points.

If Spain had beaten France, the U.S. would have then beaten Spain by less than 10 points, as we always do. With the usual exciting finish, the American media wouldn't act like spoiled brats.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Keep everything the same. If I made any change, it would be to put older, smoother players on the team, so we could beat the world by even more points.

Spain had a LOT of "older, smoother" players.

Here's my suggestion: send the same players, but NO COACH. Let them run it like streetball. See how that works.

 

[jlprk]

Duh. But the U.S. didn't. I was talking about the change I'd like to see in the U.S. team, not Spain. My prescription is the opposite of writer Woj (whose name is spelled kind of like Coach K): I'd like to see our best players in a Dream Team everytime instead of players with major holes like Drummond ("Some coach needs to teach him how to post").

 

[jlprk]

After subtracting the jealous anti-K sarcasm (95% of Woj's article), this is the only substance.

After the 2016 Olympics in Rio, the World Cup of Basketball and Olympic Games are destined to become an under-22 developmental tournament...The end's coming for USA Basketball's grip on the game...

Krzyzewski never violated an NCAA rule when he climbed aboard a flight, flew cross-country and addressed the 2013 under-19 USA Basketball national team...Krzyzewski is USA Basketball's senior national coach and the visit gave him an opportunity to personally welcome those young men into the program's feeder system...It gave the Duke coach unfiltered access to two of the best high school players in the nation...Chicago's Jahlil Okafor and Houston's Justise Winslow...this week, two freshmen stars will be awaiting him on Duke's campus: Okafor and Winslow...Without the access of USA Basketball, there's a strong belief within the basketball community that Krzyzewski would've never landed Jabari Parker.

 

[jlprk]

Here's the hidden motive. I don't have the time to find the article from about a year ago (among years of articles about Cuban vs. intl bb).

Mark Cuban has gotten some owners onto his side. Where money can be made, he wants in. He wants the NBA to run the part of International Basketball which runs a profit. The intention (which I hope loses) is for the NBA and FIBA to steal this show from national organizations like USA Basketball.

Woj often writes bitter, over-the-top attacks against an individual (I've disliked him since his diatribe against Paul Allen in 2003) in order to pipeline the thoughts of his powerful friends.

 

[BlazerWookee]

Mods, please change the title of this thread to "Wookiee was right all along!"

 

[magnifier661]

I blame Obama