I hate to say I told you so, but after the first day of Team USA training camp in Las Vegas, I wrote that Kenny “The Manimal” Faried must be the first guy selected for the roster and everyone else should come thereafter. My reasoning was Faried’s motor, toughness and energy level with intangibles such as putbacks and garbage points would be invaluable to this team. In Sunday’s come-from-behind victory against Turkey, Faried led Team USA team with 22 points and
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
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
The latest version of Team USA that is preparing to defend its title at the World Cup of Basketball in Spain is much bigger than previous editions. But is it better? Previous American squads were built around perimeter players such as Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Kevin Durant, none of whom are here this time around. The stud of this squad appears to be Anthony Davis, who was entering his senior year of high school when the last World Cup was
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
On Tuesday afternoon the San Antonio Spurs did what the San Antonio Spurs do best: make history quietly. The Spurs announced via the team website that they have hired WNBA star Becky Hammon as an assistant coach. While there have been two previous females who have had assistant roles in some capacity with NBA teams — Lisa Boyer with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Natalie Nakase with the Los Angeles Clipper summer league team — Hammon is believed to be the first female hired
The first round of Team USA cuts have been made. Adios John Wall, Bradley Beal and Paul Millsap. The roster now stands at 16. They have to cut it to 12 — and they’ve said they will cut it to 12 before leaving later this month for the World Cup in Spain. They still have four point guards. They are back to having just one power forward. They have four centers, one of whom — Andre Drummond — played horribly in
LAS VEGAS – Day 1 of Team USA’s training camp was point guards. Day 2 is frontcourt bigs. Right now, it seems as though the consensus is condor-like Anthony Davis is the only sure thing to make the 12-man roster going to Spain for the World Cup. After that, everything else is up in the air. The other candidates are power forwards Kenneth Faried and Paul Millsap and centers Andre Drummond and DeMarcus Cousins. And the guy I want to talk about is