Again, how could a nation of 300 mill bsketball crazy people almost get beaten by a nation of 40 mill hombres?

Question

who loves soccer and bullfights?

aren't the US even have some sort of multi-racial sports genes that are presumably superior to play basketball? (tall and muscular agile afro-americans, great americans who were descendants back from english europe ##pls don't correct my history lesson, focus on basketball question,thanks##)

these guys are pure Spaniards.

also we get the best basketball programs in school, NCAA and D leagues.

these hombres and matadors only picked up the sport 10-20 years ago?

and they are wearing sneakers endorsed by US players.

the US selected their best of the best players from the best league in the World- NBA

Spain selected their players from guys who got a chance to be playing in the NBA and the rest from their home.

don't mention China with their billion peope here

Answer 1

Realize that international players are working alot harder than our players. Countries like China even bring in foreign coaches, watch alot of tape, and learn from the nba greats, e.g. jordan.

Countries in europe do the same, like spain, lithuania, so on and so forth. The only way they got good is by working very hard.  

Answer 2

What's wrong with the best players in America competing in the olympics?  Aren't those other countries sending their best players also?  Basketball is an American made sport in which we are the best in.  There's no denying that.

Answer 3

Well, u know wat? Spain was a very good team. Not easy to beat, and I think they wud have deserved that gold medal, but the US was just better. They won, get over it.

Gold = 10 millions

Silver = 5 millions

Bronze = 1 million.

Answer 4

the population of a nation doesnt mean they have the best basketball players or china and india would be 1 and 2 in basketball(they have the two highest populations in the world).. also spain had the most nba players of any non-u.s. team- gasol, mark gasol(will play with the grizzlies this year), navarro, calderon, rudy fernandez,garbajosa, and rubio will be playing in a year or two so its not like they were just a bunch of scrubs..

Answer 5

one word.......almost............almost beating them, thats not enough.

Answer 6

several reasons.

the rules. the NBA rules are different from the FIBA rules. even tho the guys on our national team have been practicing it for the better part of 3 summers, and some not even that long, the rest of the year, they play by a different set of rules. the spanish know how to play the international game better becuz during their regular season, in their domestic league, they play with the FIBA rules.

the officiating. i know i know, it's the refs' fault - most of the time. look i think we all saw that the refs were extremely inconsistent in their calls. wat was a foul in the first half, wasn't in the second half. if u saw that game, they called everything incredibly tight in the first quarter leading to early foul trouble for several players on both sides. that is most certainly game changing. maybe it was biased or directed only at one side but it definitely affected the entire course of the game and affected the US more becuz with the constant foul calls in the first half, we had to play a slower tempo which meant we weren't able to run off fast breaks, points of turnovers etc.

team balance. we were too guard heavy. we didnt have enuf depth in the front court. people keep saying the dream team would have trounced the spaniards and they are right becuz the dream team had some of the best bigs of all time. the formula for winning has always been: defense + big presence inside = win. the redeem team has players that will surely one day rival the names on the dream team but we not the bigs and against spain, they just barely made the grade. hopefully boozer will be better and more of a factor to where he can earn himself some minutes next time around but howard and bosh had their hands full. with howard being a liability from the free throw line, bosh had to do most of the dirty work and he by himself can not be expected to shoulder all the load.

conflicting styles of play. the nba rules favor guards and dribbling, u can get pounded on the inside and its not foul yet u so much as touch some1 on the perimeter and it's going to be called on most nights by most officiating teams. the international style favors shooters and versatile bigmen. look at dirk nowitski, pau gasol, yao ming, andrei kirilenko, all bigs that can shoot and shoot well from 18-20 feet. our bigs favor an inside game. the international style also favors one big shoring up the middle and luckily bosh was able to do both of those things for us.

the psychological factor. spain had nothing to lose. they knew how good they were but were completely demoralized in the first game when the US was able to execute its strategy and run away with it early. not the case this time. they wanted to keep it close and they were able to, thus their confidence further increased.

u underestimate their talent. their talent pool is very strong, maybe not as strong as ours but definitely very good. there's a reason mroe adn mroe players that are being selected in the draft come from overseas. their domestic leagues are getting more competitive as interest grows in the sport. pau is one of the best international style players out there, surely his performance in the 06 worlds proves that. rudy fernandez impressed the man who will be his coach in portland, nate mcmillan. h**l, i was pretty impressed with his tremendously difficult shots with hands in his face, from way downtown. calderon didnt play but he is also a fabulous player, last season he had the highest assist to turnover ratio by a MILE. juan carlos navarro is a bit of a streaky shooter but while a member of the memphis grizzlies, he produced several games where he was able to score as many as 28 points. ricky rubio and marc gasol have yet to play in an nba game but when they're ready to come over, u will find a respect for them as well.

Answer 7

technology man. people from other countries can just go on the computer and learn basketball there and just practice. also there are alot of tall muscular people out there in other countries who could practice everyday and be a good basketball player.  

Answer 8

It's pretty pathetic we only won by 11 and it would been closer if it wasn't for that 4 shot shot technical at then end.  Actually spain was close until wade his that 3 with like 2-3 minutes left in the game.  I have no excuse for it just the dream team 92 would of torched the spainiards.  This team also forgot how to play defense.  Which is what made them so dominate to begin with.

AND THE COmpetition is better now excuse is sorry and played out.  USA talent will never be like 92.

Answer 9

Not a basketball fan at all, however if all the players from around the world that play in the NBA were on the US team they might as well have cancelled the tournament & just mailed the medals to the USA.

There are other countries that have been big on basketball for a very long time..

There was a time when US soccer was considered a joke, not anymore

Things change.  

Answer 10

Yeah. Bringing up China would ruin your whole point wouldn't it. We won. Get over it. The Spaniards have 4 guys on their Roster that play in the NBA. You don't even know what you are talking about.