oops, we lost again
The US men's drought in international basketball continues -- beaten on Friday by Greece. This was no fluke -- the Greeks, 2005 European champions, are good and played well.
Washington Post columnist Michael Wilbon I think assesses the situation pretty well. The US isn't losing because they aren't sending good players (hey, this team included stars like LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony). US teams lose because we STILL don't respect the opponent, STILL don't believe that a bunch of foreigners can win at OUR game.
And as Wilbon said, there is a bit of a "white men can't jump" attitude that contributes to our teams' complacency. But the other strong basketball countries in the world -- say Greece, Yugoslavia, and Argentine, just to pick a few that have knocked us out of tournaments over the past few years, not to mention other strong teams like Lithuania and Germany -- don't believe that absurd urban legend.
Washington Post columnist Michael Wilbon I think assesses the situation pretty well. The US isn't losing because they aren't sending good players (hey, this team included stars like LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony). US teams lose because we STILL don't respect the opponent, STILL don't believe that a bunch of foreigners can win at OUR game.
And as Wilbon said, there is a bit of a "white men can't jump" attitude that contributes to our teams' complacency. But the other strong basketball countries in the world -- say Greece, Yugoslavia, and Argentine, just to pick a few that have knocked us out of tournaments over the past few years, not to mention other strong teams like Lithuania and Germany -- don't believe that absurd urban legend.
posted by Don Q Blogger at 1:33 AM
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