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
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
The NBA revealed the official schedule of the 2014-2015 season on Wednesday, and that means we finally have some specific dates to look forward to and fun things to discuss about the upcoming year. Our Chris Sheridan starts us off with the Top 10 games to watch out for. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports had his own version of ten games to watch for as well. There really are so many intriguing dates to circle on the calendar with everything that has happened
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
Golden State Warriors guard Klay Thompson has been the subject of trade rumors in the summer before he becomes a restricted free agent. The Warriors brass has refused to include the lesser acclaimed Splash Brother in a trade with Minnesota for Kevin Love, opting to keep one of the league’s most dynamic backcourts intact for at least one more calendar year. Just a year ago, the Los Angeles Clippers had another star player in the making in the backourt, Eric Bledsoe.
Derrick Rose is one of five point guards in training camp for Team USA, and he is the only one who has these three things in play right now: _ He is trying to initiate a career comeback after playing only 10 games the past two seasons after injuries to both of his knees. _ He is the only one of the five Team USA point guards who has won an MVP award. Also, he started for Mike Krzyzewski four years ago
LAS VEGAS — All I heard on the way out here was that Team USA executive director Jerry Colangelo and coach Mike Krzyzewski have a big problem with the recent withdrawal of big man Kevin Love, and what are they going to do at power forward? Well, after watching the first practice, I think they have a second problem — but this is the good kind. They have five point guards who can all flat-out play, and my guess is they can
Kevin Durant, Mike Krzyzewski, Jerry Colangelo and Kevin Love at a USA Basketball announcement in 2013. (Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images) The World Cup just ended, right? I’m sure of it. I watched it. Germany beat Argentina one-to-nil in extra time, thus ending two months of highly anticipated, very engrossing fútbol (spelled as such so as to not confuse it with American football). Well, it is and it isn’t over. FIFA has had its fun,