| Weekly Review August 11, 08 |
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| Written by Joe Buckley | |
| Monday, 11 August 2008 | |
 TEAM USA The USA basketball team rounded out their exhibition play with a perfect 5-0 trip executing perfectly and wowing all viewers of these dominating performances. At least until the last game. On Tuesday USA faced Australia, who were not supposed to present much of a threat. However this turned out to not be the case, as USA began to miss easy shots (especially free throws) and looked mortal for the first time so far this summer. The critics were quick to leap off the bandwagon due to this performance, immediately claiming that the team wouldn’t claim the gold medal they desire. However, this column disagrees. Yes the USA’s shots weren’t falling, and the ball didn’t move as easily as the first four games. And yet, they still won. This is exactly the game that we needed, to see that even when the team falters, they still find a win. If this had been four years ago, or perhaps even two, the heads would have fallen and the nerves become shaky. But this team kept its head upright and its nerves steady. They found a way to win. More importantly possibly, they let their defence win the game. Kobe had a major influence on the game due to his defence in clutch time, and cemented himself as the leader of the group. Of course, the USA wasn’t perfect. They didn’t move the ball as easily as before, which is most likely the key to their previous victories. They shot 60% from the charity stripe, and there is simply never ever an excuse for missing a free throw, no matter the team, opposition, venue or situation. But still, the team is dominating. The competition will become stronger and there will be nail-biting moments along the way, Australia and Russia, though obviously the best of the 5 teams the USA has seen so far, are still not close to the Greece’s, Argentina’s and Spain’s of the Olympics. The Olympics will begin on the 9th August, and I personally cannot wait. Suddenly, people start listening to Europe. The European leagues have suddenly become of interest to NBA lovers, a whole barrel of European-born players have bolted back across the ocean as well as other notables such as Earl Boykins, Carlos Arroyo and Josh Childress, this obviously is having an effect on the NBA, which I hopefully managed to pinpoint in the article I wrote about the whole thing last week. But when Josh Childress is the highest-profile player to be moving, well then it can’t be too serious, can’t actually be happening right? What about LeBron James? That’s right, David Stern actually saw a bright light and several dead relatives for a few minutes when he heard this : A source close to LeBron told ESPN that if the price was right (As in about 50 million a season) he would consider going overseas. Obviously this isn’t even an issue until 2010 when LeBron is released from Ohio, but still, considering how James will be Mr. NBA at his point, there probably isn’t a worse scenario. Oh wait. Dwayne Wade, Jason Kidd and even Kobe himself have hinted that they could be persuaded. Of course the NBA was quick to announce that its not worried and that the NBA is the golden standard of basketball (which i don’t think anyone is arguing with), but it is a rather chilling thought and would have major implications. You’ve been told what to do from October through till May. Ok, you got me. This is a slow week for news, and aside from the Team USA thing there isn’t an awful lot actually going on. Therefore the NBA regular season schedule being released is third on my list of what’s going on so far these past 7 days. There are various ‘Big Games’ scattered throughout, though personally I believe the bigger games tend to reveal themselves as the season goes on, as we see who the bigger teams become etc. Most of the speculation is based upon what could happen etc, what team could be successful, who could be having a great season. Although Opening night does seem to be particularly interesting, as debut’s are always cool. The Celtics-Cavaliers should be interesting based on the last time they met, but I’m more interested on Portland-Lakers. Not only do we get the treat of the Lakers finally having Bynum and Gasol up front, but even better, Greg Oden makes his long-awaited pro debut. The next few days following this are also clogged with interesting debuts, I always love to see guys in new jerseys. Elton Brand, Baron Davis, Ron Artest and James Posey all make their debuts before November hits. Anyway, apologies for the slow week, this is all I’ve got for the moment. (Don’t worry, I promise there will be more eventually), enjoy!         Set as favorite Bookmark Comments
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