A Dream Team?
The U.S. Olympic basketball team roster was announced Monday, and it’s nothing short of star studded. However, with disappointing showings becoming regular occurrences for the last couple of U.S. basketball teams, it will be interesting to see if anything is any different this year. The roster is made up of: Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Jason Kidd, Tayshaun Prince, Carlos Boozer, Chris Bosh, Dwight Howard, Chris Paul, Michael Redd and Deron Williams.
The team is full of a bunch of All-Stars but it’s not clear if this is a formula that works. It seems like a team needs role players that are content with playing off the ball to be successful and everyone except Tayshaun Prince is used to being “the man” on their team. It is never the talent being questioned with the U.S. basketball team, it really all comes down to individual egos and agendas. This year is no different. In fact the team has to take three full sized planes just to accommodate all the player’s egos. We wouldn’t be surprised if we saw the U.S. get “upset” in Beijing and neither should you.
The Original Football
If you haven’t been paying attention to Euro 2008, you have been missing out. There have been amazing goals and the final four is looking much different than many would have imagined it. A couple of favorites in Germany and Spain have advanced to the final four; however the teams they will be playing, Russia and Turkey, weren’t pinned to go this deep. A lot of people would have loved to see Italy and Portugal still in the tournament but they couldn’t pull it off.
If Turkey and Russia win their games they will be considered huge upsets, but I think out of those two teams on Russia has a shot at pulling off the “impossible” and beating Spain. Sure, Spain is a good team but they’re notorious for choking and Russia has been tearing it up lately. They beat the hell out of the Netherlands, who had been the best team in the tournament up to that point; Russia outplayed them by being quicker and more aggressive which comes naturally to the youngest team in the tournament.
