More evil white racists bash the US 2004 team for being uninispired and bling-bling oriented...
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/writers/chris_ballard/08/24/gymnastics/index.html"Does losing matter to Dream Team?
Having already devoted the better part of two blogs to the U.S. men's basketball team, I will not add anymore to the landfills of newsprint (or in this case, gigabytes of web text) already accorded to the squad's struggles (way to lay down the hammer on Angola yesterday guys!). I would, however, like to relate a scene (a parable of sorts) I witnessed some years ago -- let's say, in 1997 -- at a rec center in an unnamed Southern city (let's call it "Jackson, Mississippi"). It was late summer and the regular crew of streetballers had gathered for afternoon pickup games. Most had parked their cars where most people do, that being in the parking lot, between the helpful white lines. One gleaming SUV, however, had been driven right up onto the curb in front of the door to the gym. To get in, you had to walk around the car. Its owner was inside, playing ball. An NBA point guard who shall remain nameless -- for the sake of this story, we'll refer to him as "Lindsey." He was in the prime of his career, having averaged 14.2 points for an Eastern Conference team that season.
Anyway, Lindsey was in the process of getting schooled by a local nobody. The guy picked his pocket a few times, abused him on the other end and wasn't shy about telling him just what he thought of his game (hint: it wasn't complimentary). At the time, I was young and impressionable and, frankly, very surprised. How could an NBA player get embarrassed so thoroughly by some random dude?
These days, hardened as I am by four years covering the league, I understand completely. Not only did the never-made-it naturally want it a lot more than our NBA hero but both players understood that, regardless of the outcome, it didn't change what really mattered in their world: One of them had a big shiny SUV and a multimillion dollar contract and the other didn't.
Which is same attitude the U.S. team, or at least some of them (I can't imagine this is how Tim Duncan feels), brought to the Olympics: Those dudes from (insert international team name here) might want it more but they still haven't made it in the league or gotten paid like we have. So even if we lose, we still win.
This, needless to say, sums up a lot of what is wrong with pro basketball in the U.S. right now."
Intrestingly he too singles out Tim Duncan as an exception...
