argentina 87 : 80 united states

[Mephisto]

enough said. post your thoughts.

[academia]

SOMOS LOS MEJORES DEL UNIVERSO!!!!!! VAMOS ARGENTINA CARAJO!!!!!!

ARGENTINA ARGENTINA ARGENTINA


Dream Team????

[Mephisto]

i knew you are gonna say something, just glad that i beat you to post this thread.

[academia]

I spent the last hour trying to realize that i wasn´t dreaming

[Civddict]

now against us !!!

[Mephisto]

i am not again us, but i am shock because of how they lost. it wasn't that close.

[JollyRoger]

As an American, I'm glad somebody beat one of our so called "Dream Teams". I enjoy college basketball a lot more than pro basketball and have never been a fan of the Dream Team concept. During the Olympics, our broadcasters make us suffer through endless minutes of meaningless basketball, but can only bother showing the first two and last two laps of the 10,000 meters (if that much). Besides, the only true "Dream Team" was the 1992 one sent to Barcelona. To go off topic a little bit, "Dream Teamers" do not really belong in the Olympics or other similar competition since an NBA championship to them is more important than a gold medal against undermatched competition. Same goes for tennis players who probably value a Grand Slam win (or at least Wimbledon win) more highly than a gold medal. Restrict the Olympics to players and sports to which an Olympic gold medal is clearly the highest achievement. By the way, I did not see the game and most American sports fans were probably not aware there even was a game at which our national pride was at risk. I was aware that the tournament was going on and was secretly hoping for an American loss. I guess I will be seen a traitor when King George II decides Argentina might make a better target than Iraq.

[jpowers]

I have no idea why we are playing Antonio Davis and Germaine O'Neal. Where are Tim Duncan, Jason Kidd and Shaquille?

[academia]

I guess I will be seen a traitor when King George II decides Argentina might make a better target than Iraq.

Where are Tim Duncan, Jason Kidd and Shaquille?

Good question...

[academia]

Argentina 87, USA 80 / Post Game Quotes

USA Head Coach GEORGE KARL

"I tip my hat to Argentina. We've known for two-three weeks from our scouts and felt they had been playing the best basketball. We lost our composure with their intensity. They played very hard in the first half and our lack of urgency has hurt us in other games and tonight it really hurt us."

"I congratulate them in the sense that I'm happy it happened now and we still can accomplish what we need and that's to win the championship"

"I want to say these players should be complimented. The American players should be complimented because they came. They knew the challenge was difficult and they prepared very hard and they will play very hard the rest of the tournament."

You've been asked for the past couple of weeks about this possibility (losing), now that it's happened is there symbolic importance or other importance other then the fact that you said you can still win the gold medal here?
"(The) Symbolic importance is that it's a great game. It's a game the world in falling in love with. In the time of feeling poorly and awful, there's a part of me that is in celebration of basketball. It is a game a lot of countries now love and we must accept the challenge to compete strong and better. I think my team and our country will be very challenged and it will be interesting to see how we respond."

How much do you think pressure against being the first team to lose a game since the first team in 1992 has been a factor for this team?
"For me the game tonight, Argentina should be congratulated and the excuses for the American team are for you all to write. For me to prepare my team for tomorrow and the challenge of winning the gold medal. There's pressure. There's pressure, there's a desire to have more practice time, more opportunity to prepare the team. I think in coaching there's an obvious certain teams have better execution than we have because of their time together. But again, excused are not needed. Argentina should be congratulated.

If Shaquille O'Neal, Iverson, Koby Bryant, Carter would have been here do you think you still would have lost?
"It's hypothetical. It's fantasy, it's fantasy basketball. I think some day the world will beat our best, yes. But in many ways I believe the team that I have is a great team and the importance of who is the best and when the game was lost is only historical. As much as we will be known for being on that team as Paul says, there's a disappointment there. We still have the opportunity to be world champions and that should excite my team and I think it will excite my team."


PAUL PIERCE
"I'd like to take my hat off to the Argentina team. They played hard and they played great basketball. We just went up against a team who was a little bit more hungry than us and for some reason we didn't come out with the same aggression we did in the second half at the beginning."

Where do you rank this game in magnitude, in the history of basketball?
"I really don't know. Me, myself, personally, I'm embarrassed to be on the team that took the first loss. We can still go out and win the gold medal but we're still the team. As far as being where it ranks I don't know."

Coach Karl said he felt the team lost its' composure a little bit, do you feel that was out of frustration from the way you were playing or what they were doing?
"The frustration came from what we were doing. We tried to rush things. We got kind of frustrated with the calls by the referees and we let it affect us in the first half. That's the reason we didn't play our game and we got off and they took a big lead. . It hurt us. We dug ourselves a hole that we just couldn't get out of."

Will the desire for redemption drive this team the rest of the way as much as the desire for the gold medal?
I think our main focus is the gold medal regardless of if we get the chance to play Argentina again. We came here with one goal and that ‘s to win the gold medal. There's nothing we can do about this loss, it's still going to be there, but we still have a chance to reach our goal and that's our goal to go out and win the gold medal."


ANTONIO DAVIS

Did you guys ever really think this could happen?
"What has happened? We lost a game. It's not over. We lost a game and I think it's a game that we should have lost. In situations like this your character is tested. You come out the next game and you try to improve, try to do better, try to understand why you lost and you move on. It's a new day tomorrow."

What do you say to your teammates to get them encouraged for the next game?
" There's nothing you should say. If everybody in that locker room doesn't understand why we lost and what we can do to improve, then they shouldn't be here in the first place. I think it's very clear that that team (Argentina) understood what it was going to take to beat us. Their body language, the way they attacked, the way they played together. All that equates to winning and if we don't get that mentality, we're not going to win."

On Argentina's ball movement and execution:
"We knew what they could do. We scouted them, we knew that they were a great executing team, that they weren't going to back down. All that was discussed. If we don't come out and understand that and somehow get it done in the first half, then you can't win like that."

Obviously the loss hurts, but what about the 58 game winning streak?
"Aw, I don't care about that. It doesn't matter to me. What matters now is we go back, we re-group, we get ready for tomorrow and we understand we still have a chance to win. That's the bottom line."


ANDRE MILLER

On the game:
"They played good fundamental basketball; they got a lot of easy baskets. We lost the game from the start with our slow start. They came out and played well. You have to take your hat off to them. They played physical and established themselves from the start of the game. We just got to bounce back and come back and play a full 40 minutes tomorrow."

On Argentina's ball movement:
"They have really good ball movement and everybody is getting involved on their team, the big men, the guards. When you got more than one guard that can handle the ball, it makes it kind of tough to pressure the ball. Overall, they played well and hopefully we'll get a chance to play them again, but right now we're just focusing on tomorrow's game."

Are you embarrassed by the loss:
"I am. They came out and gave us a good butt-whipping. They came out from the start and established themselves from the jump ball. They moved the ball well. They rebounded, they got to the free throw line and they out hustled us. They beat us overall."

BEN WALLACE
On the loss:
"It shouldn't have happened. They outplayed us. That's the bottom line. No matter what they did, they just outplayed us."

On the disappointment of losing:
"It's very disappointing. I'm pretty sure it's something all of us will remember for the rest of our careers. A game like that makes you want to turn your sneakers in."


BARON DAVIS
On the loss:
"Everything is possible and anything can happen. We played bad, didn't pass the ball. They played well and made everything. No excuses. They shot 50 percent and had 23 assists. They played very well."

On Argentina's ball movement:
"I was really surprised. They did an excellent job. I just felt that they outplayed us. They just out hustled us, beat us to loose balls. They just outplayed us."

On the pace of the game:
"We just got a little lethargic out there and we didn't come ready to play. They came ready to play. They controlled
the ball. Their guards didn't really turn it over. They got good shots; they made shots. We had opportunities to score and we just didn't have the energy. We didn't have the poise to come back."

On Argentina's fast start:
"They got to us early. That was the key for them. They got some confidence going and they frustrated us and made us turn the ball over. They made us commit some stupid fouls and technical fouls and next thing you know, we're down 16 at halftime trying to turn it around against a good basketball team."

On the possibility that a USA loss has always been there since NBA players began playing for USA Basketball and how it feels:
""It is embarrassing. It's embarrassing. To each individual, to the team and to the whole U.S. But the good thing about it is we're not out of it. We still have an opportunity to win the gold medal. That's what we came for and that's what we should still do. The only way we can recover from this loss is to win the gold medal."

Did you ever imagine you could lose and does it feel like you expected it would?
"No, because I never thought that they we would lose. That's the confidence that I had in my teammates and myself and our staff. Now that we've lost it's a big deal


SHAWN MARION

On the loss:
"We didn't go out there and establish ourselves early and didn't what we wanted to do. We didn't play any defense tonight and that's what it boils down to. We didn't do what coach wanted us to do. We didn't play defense and that's why we lost."

On coming back tomorrow:
"I think we can regroup and take care of ourselves. We have to play defense and that's what our main focus is. That's what is key to our playing. We need to play well on defense and we didn't do that tonight."

On being the first NBA team to lose for the USA:
"It cuts deeper and we have to take it hard. We have to go out there and play the game like it's the playoffs and we have to play defense. We didn't play a lick of defense tonight. At the end, everybody is trying to step up. It was too late
then. We got to play from the tipoff through the end of the game."


REGGIE MILLER

On outcome of game:
"We didn't come out and play like we are capable of playing. It's always tough any time you lose, but especially internationally when you've been so dominant over the years. But there's still time for us to accomplish our goal and that's to win the gold medal."

Was the loss a surprise, given the globalization of the game?
"It's not a surprise in the sense that I knew it would be a matter of time because international competition was and is getting better, but I still think we have the elite team here that is capable of winning the gold medal."


MICHAEL FINLEY

On whether he felt at halftime if the USA could come back or were they too far behind
"I thought we could come back. We've shown that we can come back in the second half from big deficits . Tonight the hole was just a little too big for us. We just didn't have enough time to come out from the hole we had dug for ourselves."

On what Argentina did to put the US in the big hole:
"They played good basketball. They're definitely a team that's been together for a while and it showed in their offensive execution in the first half. They made some big shots and when we weren't hitting ours, they were hitting theirs."

Is this a big shock?
"Well it's a shock for me because I came in here not only planning to win a gold medal but to go undefeated in doing that. But you have to tip your hat to Argentina , they played good enough basketball to beat us and hopefully we can continue to win and meet them in the gold medal game."

Is this embarrassing?
"It's not embarrassing. Anything is possible in the game of basketball. That's why I love to play it."

How do you prepare for your next game?
"You hate to have it happen this way, but sometimes a loss brings out the toughness of your team and I think this is definitely going to do that. This is going to bring us even closer together and in the first half tomorrow it won't be anything like it was today. I can guarantee you that."


ELTON BRAND

Could you see this coming at all?
"No, I definitely couldn't see a loss coming, but we could see some close games coming. We knew that it would be tough. It's shocking. It's disappointing. We knew we would have some close games, but we didn't think we'd lose a game."

This team takes a lot of pride in representing its country. Is this just another loss or does it cut deeper than that?
""It cuts very deep. Even if we win the gold medal, we're still going to be a little wounded, because we feel we should have won this game."

Will this loss bring you closer together?
"I think it should bring us closer together. We should want to go out there and come out with some fire and win our remaining games. We had some slow starts and we knew it could bite us if we came with such a slow start against such a good team."


Sorry guys, but i have to post it

[Chris85]

It's about time our arrogant NBA stars got beaten by an international team.

I must say one more thing, those Argentinians sure know how to play basketball. :jump: