You probably know by now that Kevin Durant isn’t playing for Team USA. They could have used him Sunday, when his absence exposed virtually all of the warts of this American squad. On the same day ESPN reported that Nike will match Under Armour’s offer of nearly $300 million to Durant, Team USA showed how much it really missed its true alpha dog in an unconvincing 98-77 win over Turkey, which gave every medal contender a blueprint for beating the Americans. In a
Nobody warned me that the first day of the World Cup coincided with the first day of college football. Instead of watching my Maryland Terrapins thump James Madison by 45 in a total mismatch, I could have watched Team USA demolish Finland by 59 in a total mismatch. Okay, maybe I made the right choice. Tomorrow, though, the US has Turkey, who weren’t gifted a tournament spot because the guy who made Angry Birds said he wanted them to be in
We will spare you too many of the gory details of Team USA’s massacre of Finland. Here’s all you need to know: The Finns were 0-for-17 from the field in the second quarter. If you watched the entire game, congratulations. You have proven yourself worthy of throwing away two perfectly good summertime hours from your Labor Day weekend that could have been spent doing something more enjoyable, like watching paint dry. Day One of the 2014 FIBA World Cup is in the books,
The 2014 Basketball World Cup is finally here. And you need to take it seriously, because everyone else does. Thanks to NBC and the other fall-in-line media outlets, most Americans believe the Olympics is the premier international basketball event. Globally, nothing could be further from the truth. With 24 teams and no automatic bid for the host, the World Cup is twice the size of the Olympics. It doesn’t share the spotlight with track or swimming. And most of the players will
Mere days after trading Jared Dudley to the Milwaukee Bucks, the Los Angeles Clippers have struck again. This time around, the Clippers sent two players packing. Surprisingly, it was the two players whom they’d just acquired for Dudley and a draft pick. According to Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports, the Clippers waived Carlos Delfino and Miroslav Raduljica. Delfino had two years and $6.5 million remaining on his contract. Raduljica had three years for roughly $4.57 million. Both were traded for Dudley, who had two years and
After spending last year in Spain, Lucas Nogueira is preparing for his first NBA season. Lucas Nogueira, the Brazilian center that the undersized Atlanta Hawks shipped to the Toronto Raptors with Lou Williams for John Salmons and a second-round draft pick, is training with Hall of Fame center and two-time NBA Champion Hakeem Olajuwon. Olajuwon, otherwise known as “Hakeem the Dream” — widely known for his indefensible “Dream Shake” in the low post, has helped many NBA athletes
In years past, Americans have considered the Olympics to be the only relevant international basketball competition. Stateside, the other quadrennial tournament formerly known as the FIBA World Championship went largely unnoticed until Team USA embarrassed themselves in 2002, losing three times in Indianapolis and finishing sixth after never having lost with NBA players. The rest of the world sees things differently. Other basketball federations have been viewing the World Championship as the more important international competition. Also, because the very best Americans play
When you’re a professional athlete (or anyone famous) with a countless number of people following you on Twitter, there is always the challenge of dealing with faceless trolls on a daily basis. Take this tweet, for example. @JaredDudley619 @Ra5ik yo Jared, you’re fucking trash bruh. That’s why they traded your bum ass away lmao — Master Wongton (@Ching_Ling666) August 29, 2014 The troll, of course, is referring to the unexpected trade that sent Jared Dudley to the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday. Again, this kind of