Aug.20 at 8:12 am

keify34 says:
“know the worst thing you can ever subject another person to is talking about your fantasy team” - most accurate sentence ever formed.

Aug.20 at 9:53 am

BETCATS says:
why do you have to go see whats wrong with team usa? they have like 10 guards and 4 bigmen and a coach k….sounds like another bronze to me…oh and kobe wants to be traded to italy so he can take even more shots.

Aug.20 at 10:06 am

Ben Osborne says:
We actually had someone at Team USA practice this weekend…stay tuned for a report.

Aug.20 at 10:17 am

Russ Bengtson says:
I kind of hope Team USA doesn’t qualify for the Olympics. If that makes me unAmerican, so be it.

Aug.20 at 10:18 am

BETCATS says:
Russ, that makes you Canadian.

Aug.20 at 10:21 am

Russ Bengtson says:
Because at least that way maybe USA Basketball would face up to the fact that we need to make some fundamental changes in our approach to the game. It’s not just about adding shooters, or rebounders, or (God forbid) MORE alleged superstars. In fact, it’s not about which NBA players we bring at all. And the sooner the powers-that-be at USA Basketball figure that out, the sooner we’ll able to get back to winning gold. Hopefully.

Aug.20 at 10:24 am

Myles Brown says:
What do you think we need then?

Aug.20 at 10:25 am

BETCATS says:
i see, but your still Canadian

Aug.20 at 10:30 am

Russ Bengtson says:
Myles: Focus on fundamentals from the beginning. Less reliance on pure athleticism and a better understanding that what makes a good basketball player is the ability to play basketball. Even guys that can jump over the moon need to work on a mid-range game and learn some basic footwork. And everyone could benefit from the understanding that the ball belongs in the hands of whoever has the best chance to score, not who the best scorer is. You know, basic stuff. Rebuilding from the ground up.

Aug.20 at 10:31 am

H to the izzo says:
A change needs to be made in the attitude of the players and with the high school circuit as is and the fact that 15year olds can become stars shows that it will take a while to change

Aug.20 at 10:32 am

Russ Bengtson says:
Not to say that there aren’t some players out there (LeBron) who understand this, but it needs to be a deeper-ingrained part of American basketball as a whole. It needs to be the rule, not the exception.

Aug.20 at 10:35 am

Douce says:
well with daelembart on the canadian team now you guys are screwd now

Aug.20 at 10:35 am

Myles Brown says:
Agreed. But those are obviously fundamentals that NBA players should already possess, which is more than mildly depressing. Do you think we should go back to having non NBAers so they can train together year round like many other national teams? Throwing a bunch of superstars together for five summer weeks always seemed kinda reckless to me.

Aug.20 at 10:37 am

Russ Bengtson says:
Of course instead we’ll probably go on and win gold this year and everyone can think everything’s OK and keep doing things exactly the same way we’ve been doing them. I look at someone like Kobe Bryant (well, OK, I look SPECIFICALLY at Kobe Bryant) as being a perfect example of what’s wrong AND what’s right with basketball in this country.

Aug.20 at 10:41 am

Russ Bengtson says:
A team that trains together year-round would be a good start for now. But I really think the entire basketball system in this country needs a re-boot. Which obviously wouldn’t affect the national team for a generation, but would be worth it in the long run. In the meantime? Honestly? I’m not altogether sure. Sending the NBA champs seems to make the most sense, except for the fact that a) it would be unfair to them, and b) half the key players would probably be ineligible (and playing for other countries).

Aug.20 at 10:43 am

Myles Brown says:
From what I hear, which may be contrary to what actually is, Kobe’s been playing nice so far. I give him enough credit to recognize his reputation among some players and make the adjustment to being around new and better teammates. He’ll step up when needed, but I dont think his hyper competitive need to dominate will emerge this summer. I mean it’s not like he ever feels the need to dominate when he has the help he needs. It would be like trying to take all the shots in an All St…oh, right.

Aug.20 at 10:45 am

H to the izzo says:
If you want to change the whole basketball system in the US to be more fundemental,you’d better hope that Stern isn’t the Commish for much longer.As much as I like to see fundemental basketball,it doesn’t bring in the casual fans

Aug.20 at 10:48 am

Myles Brown says:
Colangelo and Stern (I think) mentioned those same sentiments in a article I read a while ago. Even our greatest players go to the World level and still play like NBAers. Driving into the lane recklessly looking for whistles and passing up open J’s to do so. Carrying, traveling, etc. A player like Wade or Bron who excels in our system gets exposed on a World level. A good start would be with our officiating, to instill those fundamentals into the players. Dudes get so used to traveling the forget theyre doing it. It would also help if college coaches actually, um, coached. But like you said, its the system as a wholethat needs work. Its a star system where everyone is more concerned with job security and upward mobility than establishing a solid foundation for their actual games. Which is one of the reasons I do like Kobe. He works hard and it continues to show.

Aug.20 at 10:50 am

H to the izzo says:
Myles:Couldn’t agree more on that college coaches should actually coach instead of stalking 17 year olds all round the country

Aug.20 at 10:54 am

Myles Brown says:
And I agree that fundamental basketball takes a backseat to actually entertaining the fans. Cant count how many times Ive seen a player travel on a breakaway dunk. Never gets called.

Aug.20 at 10:55 am

Russ Bengtson says:
Well, when said 17-year olds have been told that they’re stars since they’ve been, like, 12, that doesn’t help. You know what Team USA needs, especially for the U-19 team? A boot camp. With real drill instructors. Those guys need to be broken down and rebuilt from the ground up. Make ‘em go spend two weeks in some Godforsaken locale with Bobby Knight, John Chaney and P.J. Carlesimo. It wouldn’t be a cure, but maybe it would help some of these guys figure out that they have a LOT of work to do before they actually ARE “elite” players.

Aug.20 at 10:58 am

Myles Brown says:
Knight AND Chaney? Why not just send em to Abu Gharib? Those kids would come out as excellent basketball players, but emotionally scarred for the rest of their lives. But yeah, as long as theres so much money in basketball a lot of the problems with its infastructure seem inevitable. AAU pollutes kids more than drinking out of the East river.

Aug.20 at 10:59 am

H to the izzo says:
Russ,did you catch any of the U19 World Championship this year?It showed the definite examples of whats wrong with US basketball.Terrible coaching by Jerry Wainwright,showed some obvious bigger school favoritism when some of the lesser known guys were performing better,they cannot play zone,they missed at least two alley oop attempts per game.Over dribbling,bad passing etc

Aug.20 at 10:59 am

Myles Brown says:
I see that we agree sir.

Aug.20 at 11:00 am

Russ Bengtson says:
But given the current NBA salary structure and the way the shoe companies work and whatnot, it’ll probably never happen. Sure, there’ll always be players who develop into All-World talents—like Duncan and Garnett and Kobe and LeBron and Wade—guys who are driven from within as much as they are by promises of fame and huge paychecks, guys who would strive to be the best players on the planet even if they were playing for free. Oddly enough, I’d think those guys would be the MOST likely to support an overhaul of the system, because they’d succeed regardless.

Aug.20 at 11:02 am

Myles Brown says:
This comment box is weird. Apparently I agreed with Russ before he even said it.

Aug.20 at 11:09 am

Russ Bengtson says:
As you should, haha. But yeah, I think we’re all pretty much on the same page—or at the very least in the same book.

Aug.20 at 11:47 am

Slick Nick Da Ruler says:
Why do we need to send a team that conforms to an international style of play? We have superior players, why can’t we redefine how international basketball is played? That is the crux of our disappointing performances, because USA basketball never fully exploits their true strengths. Until we literally change the game, USA ball will fall short.

Aug.20 at 12:01 pm

Russ Bengtson says:
Our true strengths? You mean making clever sneaker commercials and hosting awards shows?

Aug.20 at 12:29 pm

Tariq says:
Russ, I agree with what you’re saying, but don’t you also think that the way past teams have been chosen has contributed to lackluster showings at recent tournaments? I look at the current Team USA and I see that guys like Prince or Battier may not have been selected in the past, even though their presence, one would think, brings some balance to the team. On another note, I haven’t been entirely up-to-date withe the workouts, but I read the other day on ESPN about how Mike Miller would probably take Michael Redd’s place in the squad. Does anyone else find this inexplicable? If not, please show me the light.

Aug.20 at 12:33 pm

Ben Osborne says:
This might be what Slick Nick was saying, but why is it even a big deal if “we” aren’t the dominant country in international basketball? America certainly hosts the most dominant league in international basketball, blessed with players from all over the globe who come here to prove their greatness (and earn the most money). If you want to rebuild from the ground up, I hope the reasons for doing so go beyond a hunger to win a medal every four years.

Aug.20 at 12:38 pm

Driveby says:
Rubenstein can probably relate to the Seth character.

Aug.20 at 12:40 pm

JZ says:
Sam- obviously these guys did not watch Superbad. I did and it was the best $10 bucks I’ve spent in a long time. Definitely see this movie! Don’t be a fun-hater. *Boop*

Aug.20 at 12:56 pm

Russ Bengtson says:
Ben: I’m suggesting rebuilding for the good of the game as a whole.

Aug.20 at 12:58 pm

Cub Buenning says:
Hey, fellas, at least we could dominate the world in american football….
That is until they “catch up.”

Aug.20 at 1:01 pm

Tariq says:
There seems to be some technical problem with the site today.

Aug.20 at 1:26 pm

Slick Nick Da Ruler says:
Thanks Ben, I’m saying the game, and USA basketball’s infrastructure does not need to be rebuilt, just redefined. At the highest level, the game is fluid. Why can’t our squad be dynamic enough to play any style, and add new dimensions to the present? Basically, Wu-Tang is the fundamental principle for USA basketball. We just need new chambers.

Aug.20 at 1:36 pm

H to the izzo says:
You define five separate games of one on one as fluidity?

Aug.20 at 1:43 pm

Sam Rubenstein says:
Well, the site has been moving slowly on my end today. I just moderated 800 and something comments and it looked ready to crash at any second. By the way we’re switching servers either tonight or tomorrow at some point, so if things get weird, that is why.
Superbad was really funny.

Aug.20 at 1:49 pm

Jake Appleman says:
Superbad was amazing. My brother got a call back for the Evan Cera character.

Aug.20 at 2:19 pm

Tariq says:
Shane Battier is Capadonna.

Aug.20 at 2:54 pm

Young Chris #3 says:
Throwing around ideas for my Superbad review, I thought about using that line (”Superbad is supergood”) for about half a second, before deciding against it due to its likely being used by lesser writers, and because it’s quite corny to begin with (the gloves come off, Sam… though that wasn’t aimed at you. You’re cool wit me.) But yeah, I knew going in that the Seth and Evan characters would be solid due to Jonah Hill’s work on Accepted and Knocked Up and Michael Cera’s work on Arrested Development (I swear Fox has some of the funniest sitcoms ever that don’t make it - if you’re not familiar, cop the DVDs for that AND Kitchen Confidential, they’re that good), but McLovin and the cops were nothing short of amazing and their adventure alone were worth the price of admission.

Aug.20 at 3:55 pm

Tarzan Cooper aka Jesus Shuttlesworth says:
couldnt we just send the warriors to the olympics? replace biedrins with young dwight and we would be unstoppable!!!

Aug.20 at 4:12 pm

H to the izzo says:
Did Arrested Development get cancelled?

Aug.20 at 4:23 pm

Tarzan Cooper aka Jesus Shuttlesworth says:
i wish you’d blow yourself up izzo

Aug.20 at 5:06 pm

Young Chris #3 says:
Midway through the third season, izzo.

Aug.20 at 5:23 pm

Devontae Palmer in dis hoe, watch me crank and watch me roll.SUPERMAN!!!!! UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!! says:
I have to see Superbad. I want to see what all this Mclovin crap is about. play wit it.

Aug.20 at 5:32 pm

Tariq says:
Arrested Development is a work of art. Kitchen Confidential, conversely, is a pile, nay, a good-sized heap of dogsh*t.

Aug.21 at 4:17 am

H to the izzo says:
I have now given up on life.Is it a rule that they must cancel the good shows or something?

Aug.21 at 2:16 pm

Tarzan Cooper aka Jesus Shuttlesworth says:
they cancelled trigger happy tv. that is unforgiveable