Team USA Gear Up for Beijing Print E-mail
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Written by Rodney K   
Tuesday, 01 July 2008
USA Men's Basketball Team Gear up for Beijing


The United States Men’s Basketball team took their first step towards achieving their goal on Saturday afternoon. The 12-player squad had their first formal practice in preparation for the upcoming Summer Olympics in Beijing China. This year’s Olympic squad has one goal in their mind- gold medal or bust. After a disappointing 2004 Olympics in Athens Greece, where the USA team took home a bronze medal, the country is counting on this group. Saturday’s practice was a two hour get together held at the Cox Pavilion on the campus of the University of Nevada Las Vegas.

The squad has four returning members from the 2004 team. LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade, and Carlos Boozer all played in Greece. LeBron James was quoted as saying “ It’s a brand new start.”- All the returning players decided to wear different numbers this time around to get a fresh approach on the Olympics. LeBron will now wear #6, while Anthony grabbed #15, Wade will be #9, and Boozer #4. The rest of the roster will look like this: Chris Bosh, Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, Chris Paul, Tayshaun Prince, Michael Redd, Jason Kidd and DeRon Williams. The Olympic head coach will be current Duke University head man Mike Krzyzewski, his assistants will be Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni, and Trail Blazers head coach Nate McMillan.

The USA squad is in pretty decent shape physically with the exception of Dwight Howard and Kobe Bryant. Howard sat out practice on Saturday with a slight stress fracture in his sternum. Kobe Bryant is nursing a torn ligament in his right pinkie finger, but plans to play at full speed. 

Sunday, the United States team will fly to New York City to meet the media, before heading back to Las Vegas July 21st to complete Olympic training camp. USA will battle Canada in a pre-Olympic practice game on July 25 at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas. They will then play four practice games in China, before starting their Olympic battle August 10th. Their first two practice games will take place in Macao China where they will face Turkey and Lithuania. Their final two practice games will take place in Shangai; there they will compete against Russia and Australia.

The United States will be part of Pool B in the Olympics. Pool B will feature the United States, Spain, China, Angola, along with two more qualifiers announced later.  Pool A has Argentina, Australia, Iran, Lithuania, Russia, and one more qualifier. Preliminary Rounds will begin August 10th and conclude August 18th. 8 teams will then play in the Quarter Finals, which will be played on August 20th. Semi Finals (four teams) will then be played August 22nd, followed by the finals (four teams) on August 24th.

Some people have considered this team to be just as good as the “Dream Teams” of the past, but lately international basketball has seemed to catch up with the Americans.  The Dream Team of 1992 consisting of Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Karl Malone, John Stockton, Charles Barkley, Scottie Pippen, Patrick Ewing, David Robinson, Clyde Drexler, Chris Mullin, and Christian Laettner. The United States won by an average of 43.8 points per game during that dream season. Chuck Daly, former NBA coach was the head man of that team. In 2004 Argentina defeated Italy to capture the gold, while the Americans were able to knock off Lithuania to take home the bronze.  

This should be a fun summer for Americans. Tune in and cheer on our Basketball stars, as we try to take back the game that we invented!



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