dyam the Drik three pointer was great but The Answer beat the buzzer from just yards from half-court for the win! Hard to believe it was just an exhibition game...great...watch out for friday night's: USA vs. Serbia and Montenegro @ 7ET on ESPN.

mG.

hey MG, did you watch the usa vs italy game. it was great. italians outplayed americans. italians were very good at 3 points shooting. it was 95-78.

dude.. they should be blowing everyone out.. but wheres the pride of playin for US...

Shaq, Kobe, Duncan, AI, Mcgrady, carter, garnett... they should all be playin.. its supposed to be a dream team.. not a disaster team

they worried about smokin a fatties and failin the drug test before olympics.. dont u think?

yeaa

duncan is playing. so is allen iverson . jefferson is there too. other are lebron james, dwyane wade, anthony.

i don't think those who did not want to take part in the national team had anything other than personal reasons for their decisions. i do not care about others, but my main man...KG...he is getting married and he has his life beside basketball...he plays ball as hard as anybody for 9-10 months a year...i would need personal time too after the grueling NBA schedule. besides he did represent USofA and won the GOLD in sydney2000. don't knock people for their personal choices.

mG.

south, missed the USvsItaly game man...dyam i had work.

Duncan and AI3 are the only two players from the original roster. All others chickened out due to security reasons. hats off to the couragoues players who are participating in the olympics.

didn't watch both games. it seems international teams are getting much better than say 5-10 years ago and they figured out how to play with the big boyz from US. Non US players play more fundamental baseketball than US players. I don't know when these NBAers will understand that only slashing stuffs doesn't work in International Basketball. US does not have one pure shooter in the roster.

I believe three pointers is 3 feet closer than the NBA but that's no excuse. Italy hit 15 treys against them. I wonder if there were any communication between overpaid US superstars.

I hope they will perform better than 2 years ago in World championship.

If they need a buzzer beater to beat a team that has not even qualified for Athens, what would they need to beat the likes of serbia, yugoslavia, australia? we'll see. But its HIGH TIME they remove the tag of WORLD CHAMPIONS when they win a nba championship. Or do they know a WORLD with more than 200 other countries exist besides USA?

Yugoslavia also don't have their star players like Vlade and Peja. The game I would like to watch is China vs Argentina. anybody knows wehter YAO and WANG playing for China or not?

Oys bro, who calls world champion to NBA champion that's new to me. and I still want to see how you make turn around DFISH shot in 0.4 sec :)

AX bro, don't you hear the broadcast saying: "Detroit Pistons, 2004 world champions."

Is there a court behind your backyard ax bro:P. or u should get one of those makshift rings.....0.4 secs is a lot of time..jus try blinking your eyes as fast as you can for ten seconds and deduce the result. u'd be amazed. :P

Agree with AX, players like Shaq, Garnett, T-mac should be chastised for not playing, no matter what reason they come up with.
And yeah, Oys, I think we should call Manang-Marshyangdi or Police Club, the world champions too, for the heck of it.

US team is going to face problems because:

1. International teams have a lot to prove. They might even be making plays focusing US team.

2. lot of international players (Dirk, Yao, that Argentine) are getting valuable experience from NBA.

3. US team is not assembled properly. There was an article on ESPN about how poor the lineup is, teamwise. In contrary, teams from Italy, Yugoslavia, Germany seem like they are prefectly made. Remember, team power: Detroit won the NBA not, star loaded Lakers.

Having said that, hope US defends the title.

US really misses da palyers who can provide dem with veteran leadership and good shooting. I ain't hatin on da new guys but dis is one of da few times when a team needs veterans. I don't really c a true startin lineup cuz dey don't got no center. Dey got good players like Iverson, Marbury and Wade for da same position. I know dat team US is gonna get da championship but dey r gonna go through a lot 4 sho. So dats all i gotta say.... i'll be lookin 4ward 4 da rest of da games. Holla.

Ginuwine

I hope the Americans lose again. That would hopefully diminish their arrogant swagger. A great way to end 2004 would be for the NBA brats to get trounced and for Bush to lose the elections!
Another thing that is amazing is how the commentators attitudes change when US teams win or lose.
Considering baseball is considered a national pasttime, and further considering how the US gets hammered each and every time by Latin American countries, I ask why it gets no coverage at all while the MLB programs on ESPN just make me want to pull my hair out?....