i know no one but me probably cares, but ...

that's never stopped me from posting this stuff before.

let me reiterate how i seethed when hearing free-flowing criticism for the USA men's basketball team in Athens. yes, our NBA players are as a rule spoiled, overrated and overpaid. we're talking in the transitive-verb sense. WE spoil them. WE overrate them. WE overpay them. not that they usually object. but what kind of players represented us in the olympic games? probably the same ones who were spoiled, overrated and overpaid ... but at least appreciative enough of the olympic experience to show up, unlike, ahem ... NBA players who were on 2004 USA Olympic Basketball team but withdrew: Jason Kidd (recovering from knee surgery), Ray Allen (getting married), Tracy McGrady (Olympic "security concerns"), Karl Malone (healing from injury, emotional strain from mom passing away), Jermaine O'Neal (banged up from playoffs), Mike Bibby (we aren't sure of reason). Kobe Bryant was going to be on the team but withdrew due to scheduling problems (his case). (info courtesy of InsideHoops.com)

i realize basketball is a job for these players. jobs should be dealt with responsibly. but at the same time, i think a job can/should only demand so much of a person. if i'm working at a job that won't let me take time off for/discourages me from participating in the olympics, maybe i'm better off without that job anyway. this may have been the case for some, but mostly it came down to their own decision.

i was extremely proud of the way most of the players handled themselves in interviews while fighting a losing (if you call 3rd place in the world losing) battle they were all but doomed to (read: the NBA provides pitiful preparation for the team mentality of the olympics) ... particularly when thrust in front of microphones seconds after being beaten on a world stage. they were booed off the court, though it was redundant; one could hear the boos and hisses reverberating from america's living rooms an ocean away.

allen iverson impressed me a lot. after the semifinal loss to argentina, he was the only player on the US team to speak to the media. "We have to understand we're not fighting for the gold anymore," he said, "but we're still representing our country. It's important for us to come out and make people proud of us at home."

it was painfully obvious the US couldn't quite pull it together as a team, no matter how badly they wanted to. how can you take 20 some odd years of overexposure to the one-man-show that is the NBA out of 12 players in three weeks?

while the media did an admirable job at avoiding unnecessary criticism of one olympic swimmer who didn't quite meet SPEEDO's (not his own) expectations, they did a poor job of putting the basketball team's flight/plight in perspective.

Lamar Odom put the olympic experience in perspective for them. "All the great winners, when they lost, they lost with dignity and pride," Odom said. "There's kids in Afghanistan who will lose their lives. If we lose, we will get to go home."