Stars and Stripes

Team USA opened up the Tournament of Americas last night by crushing Venezuela 112-69. With Beijing only 11 months away, it is almost time for this newly constructed Dream of a Team to prove itself. This tournament should be a cakewalk with the top 2 teams qualifying for the Olympics. So many of the country's in this tourney are playing without their top players. Argentina is missing 4 starters, Puerto Rico is missing guys, even Canada is playing without Nash and Magloire.

Heard something not sure if it's true, but Mexico is playing without Earl Watson... haha, I don't get it, but it is true.

My point is though, it should not matter who the other team puts out there. I know the world has caught up to some degree but because Greece can run a good pick and roll should not make them good enough to beat us. This version of the team is led by Lebron, Kobe, Melo, Kidd, Howard, Amare, Redd, Mike Miller, Chauncy, Deron, and I'm missing the last two right now but you get the point... we are loaded.

I love the 3 year commitment Colangelo got these guys to commit to. All the other countries have had guys playing together since amateurs and the age of about 16. You develop a real chemistry over that time period and it shows. From watching last night and obviously you can't take too much from it because they might as well have been scrimmaging 8th grade girls, but they were really making a conscious effort to share the ball. Kobe was not gunning, Melo was not gunning, they were finding Mike Miller open for the absurdly short international three. Colangelo even went as far as bringing FIBA referees in to ref the team's scrimmages. It cannot be under appreciated how differently they ref the international game. Hand checking is fully accepted, and the screener in the pick and roll is allowed a lot more freedom to roll and move than in the NBA. From what I saw last night better adjustments have been made.

Personally I am very excited for the Olympics. It feels as though the US has not won a major international basketball competition in ages. I always thought it was because they had the wrong guys at point guard (Starbury... who says dog fighting is the same as deer hunting) but it really was more then that. It was an approach, it was an attitude, and it was a mindset. I think they have adjusted these and are prepared to take on the world. I expect good games but ultimately double digit US victories even when Argentina gets back their stars, and Spain loads up.

For this tournament, you can watch the games on ESPN Classic and ESPN2... the only one really worth watching is Sunday night against Brazile, they have a few NBA guys but will be without Varejon (no NBA contract, so can't risk playing).