BARCELONA — If the gold medal match was being played Sunday, Team USA would not beat Spain. It wouldn’t even be close. But the gold medal game is not this Sunday. It is next Sunday. And a lot can change in a week. So the burden is on coach Mike Krzyzewski: Figure out who is going to give you the best chance to beat the host nation, start shortening up the rotation, and hope that in one week you can achieve what it
Team USA had nothing to play for, and it showed. The Americans already had clinched Group C at the FIBA World Cup by winning their first four games. While other countries jockeyed to get into the knockout stage – or avoid certain opponents – Team USA was on cruise control in Friday’s game vs. war-torn Ukraine. The United States was playing for the fifth time in six nights and had a start time four hours earlier than Thursday. The combination of apathy
In a day where all 24 teams played in the FIBA World Cup leading up to Thursday’s frenetic first round finish, it was The Manimal who again stood out in another Team USA victory. After a closely contested first quarter, Kenneth Faried helped the Americans (4-0), once again propelled by their big men, take the second and third quarters by a combined 26 points and defeat the Dominican Republic (2-2) 106-71 to advance to 4-0 and clinch the best record in
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
Some NBA owners have a tendency to hold grudges when the star players on their team decide that it’s time to abandon ship, so it was no surprise when Minnesota Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor provided a pretty good example of having some bad feelings towards Kevin Love when asked to speak about his former franchise player. To summarize, Taylor more or less said the following about Love: he’s the third best player on the Cleveland Cavaliers, he is injury prone, doesn’t
CHICAGO – Usually, there are very few “Wow” moments in exhibitions, be they NBA games or FIBA games. This one bucked that trend. Anthony Davis diving into the stands, knocking over two of the hottest female fans in the building? Yeah, that was a “Wow” moment. Davis finishing a couple of fast breaks with rim-rattling slams while running at full speed? Yeah, that too brought out the ‘W’ word. There were enough “Wow” moments from that young man to leave you saying
The newest craze to hit social media everywhere — Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube — is the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. What is the Ice Bucket Challenge? Well, assuming you haven’t heard of it yet, it is a choice, whereby someone either donates $100 to the ALS Association or they accept the challenge and dump a bucket of ice water on their head. Many people are opting to do both, making a donation and taking the proverbial plunge. The purpose of the challenge is
Houston Rockets All-Star James Harden continues his summer tour of conversing with the “greats” in his latest Footlocker commercial. While currently preparing to compete for the United States in the upcoming FIBA World Cup, Harden gets a chance to chop it up with someone that knows a thing or two about playing in a World Cup match. The spot features United States soccer legend Landon Donovan, who made headlines this summer when he was cut from the United States Men’s National