USA Basketball Team Chosen

[baller4life]

MVP Kobe Bryant has a shot at another big prize after falling short of the NBA championship, and he’ll have plenty of help along the way.

LeBron James is there. Dwyane Wade, too.

They will lead a U.S. Olympic basketball team that was announced Monday and hopes to capture the gold medal in Beijing in August after a third-place showing in Athens four years ago.

The team already has “re-established itself” on an international level, USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo said during a news conference.

The next step is to bring home the gold, and the U.S. will send a deep, versatile team to China. Carmelo Anthony and Jason Kidd were also among the 12 players chosen from a pool of 33. They were joined by the Detroit Pistons’ Tayshaun Prince, along with Carlos Boozer, Chris Bosh, Dwight Howard, Chris Paul, Michael Redd and Deron Williams.

“It was a very difficult selection process,” Colangelo said. “When you have as many outstanding players as we have in this country—to select a group of 12 is obviously going to leave out a number of outstanding people.”

The Pistons issued a statement from Prince in which he said he was “honored to be selected.”

“I take great pride in being given the opportunity to represent my country, and I strongly believe that with the team that has been assembled, the United States will be represented well,” Prince said.

The team was selected without a tryout. It will have a minicamp this week in Las Vegas and meet there July 20-25 to train and play an exhibition against Canada before heading overseas. The Americans open Olympic play against China on Aug. 10.

Although the Americans captured the gold at the Sydney Games in 2000, they no longer dominate international play as they once did. The talent gap has narrowed and many top players have chosen to not play for the national team in recent years.

Now, the U.S. team appears loaded. Then again, the Americans went 5-3 in Athens and lost for the first time since NBA players started competing in 1992 even though they had James, Anthony, Wade and Tim Duncan. That group got routed by Puerto Rico before losing to Lithuania and Argentina, but this one is confident it will take the gold.

“It’s really the world’s game. We think we’re the best at playing that game,” said coach Mike Krzyzewski, warning that “unless we show the respect to the rest of the world that it is the world’s game” there will be no gold medal.

Wade and Anthony said they didn’t know what to expect in Athens.

“I’ve always seen greatness in the Olympics, but that was never one of my dreams,” Wade said. “I never really expected to be on the Olympic team, especially in my first year. I didn’t have a clue what I was getting into. … Now, we respect the game so much. We respect the team basketball that they play internationally so much.”

Anthony saw the 2004 Games as a chance to have “some of the best workouts in the summertime with the best players in the world” and went there thinking “the USA is supposed to win everything.”

“Going through that experience really helped me to learn the international game,” Anthony said.

He’s part of a team that includes one of the best shooters (Redd) and defenders (Prince). There are role players and scorers, including the two biggest.

Bryant will play in his first Olympics after winning his first MVP while leading the Los Angeles Lakers to the finals. James averaged 30.0 points, just enough to beat Bryant for the scoring title.

Those two, along with Anthony, Kidd and Dwight Howard, started for a team that went unbeaten in the Olympic qualifying tournament last year. Eight of the 12 players headed to Beijing played on that team and six played in the 2006 world championships.

“We’re a team already,” Krzyzewski said. “The thing that this program has done is … provide continuity and relationships. … We’ll hit the ground running.”

Phoenix forward Amare Stoudemire withdrew from Olympic consideration, apparently concerned about pushing his body too hard after knee surgery in 2005 and 2006. So did Detroit’s Chauncey Billups, who would have had a tough time making the team given the backcourt depth.

Wade’s season ended in March because of a sore left knee that had been bothering him since surgery in 2007. He started working out in his hometown Chicago in May, and James and Paul joined him to help sharpen his game. Colangelo visited recently and left convinced the 6-foot-4 guard was healthy.

“This was to see how far along he had come in his rehab,” Colangelo said. “That was the whole thing. Plus, I had a little conversation I wanted to have with him. We took care of that. I watched him work. I saw him do a few things in terms of explosiveness that showed me that he was pretty much back.”

Trainer Tim Grover has been working out with Wade. Colanagelo said Grover assured him the Miami Heat star will completely ready when the team gathers in Las Vegas next month.

“I feel great,” Wade said.

And he’d feel even better with a gold medal dangling from his neck.

[Emadyville]

WOw imagine kobe, lebron, howard, paul, and williams, that would be a sick starting 5

[¤°~ Jose ~¤°©]

The USA Basketball Team gon' take Gold this year in the olympics

[DrRapid]

they are gonna get killed again

Probably, every1 is sayin oh what a team but u had a very good team the past years 2 and u didn't win. Even though the USA has the NBA other countries in EU are equally as good.

[Lil Pimp Tell 'Em]

they are gonna get killed again

Probably, every1 is sayin oh what a team but u had a very good team the past years 2 and u didn't win. Even though the USA has the NBA other countries in EU are equally as good.

We didn't have that good of a team last time, not to mention an under devoloped LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Dywane Wade and no Kobe.

In the qualifiers we blew everyone one out by 20+.

No way we don't take gold.

WOw imagine kobe, lebron, howard, paul, and williams, that would be a sick starting 5

The starting line up is
PG - Kidd
SG - Bryant
SF - James
PF - Anthony
C - Howard

[DrRapid]

they are gonna get killed again

Probably, every1 is sayin oh what a team but u had a very good team the past years 2 and u didn't win. Even though the USA has the NBA other countries in EU are equally as good.

We didn't have that good of a team last time, not to mention an under devoloped LeBron James.

In the qualifiers we blew everyone one out by 20+.

No way we don't take gold.

Well it seemed to me that quite a few people were boasting about having Iverson. Anthony, LeBron, Wade and a few others I don't remember. Don't tell me LeBron was under developed when he was one of the ones people were boasting about the most.

[Lil Pimp Tell 'Em]

What ever you say, doubt us then.

[j_shady]

im surprised that no KG, Paul Pierce or Ray Allen on the team...who else misses The Dream Team : Jordan, Magic, Bird, Barkley, Robinson, Drexler, Pippen, Stockton, Malone, Mullin, Ewing, and Laettner...now that was a squad except for Laettner, i wouldve chosen Shaq over him

[Travesty]

if you ask me i would have found a better power forward than 'Melo.... he just dosen't have a team mind set.. i mean look at his team in denver, between iverson and 'melo i doubt that anyone else on the team really got a chance to touch the ball.... 'Melo is a ball hog, and not a team player if we want to stand a chance keep lebron in there... Who we should've gotten was KG..


Let's look at it statistically.. (Underlined numbers stats are 'Melo's)

KG: 'Melo
ppg- 18.8 25.7
rpg- 9.2 7.4
apg- 3.4 3.4
spg- 1.4 1.3
bpg- 1.2 0.5
FG%- 0.539 0.492
FT%- 0.801 0.786
3P%- 0.000 0.354
MPG- 32.8 36.4


Sooo... 'Melo is obviously a better scorer, however KG is an incredible asset defensively...Not only that but we all know what happens when KG gets mad... he is capable of carrying a team (Minnesota Anyone?) and can bang out as many points as he needs to.. sure he dosen't ahve the range that 'melo does but he shoots more consistently, and rebounds like crazy... If you ask me even though you're losing 3 point range you'd have a more consistent and overall better (in my opinoin atleast) player...

We've got a good team.. the simple fact that Kobe and James are gonna be playin together ALONG with Kidd will give the opposition a reason to respect us... Kidd won't be putting up the numbers, but i guess thats where his play making skills come in handy by setting up James, Bryant and 'Melo for the easy shots.

[Ka0t1c]

if all that's hard to read up there to see the 22 players chosen, this may help as well as remind you which team they played for last for the 2007-2008 season

Carmelo Anthony, Denver
Gilbert Arenas, Washington
Shane Battier, Houston
Chauncey Billups, Detroit
Chris Bosh, Toronto
Bruce Bowen, San Antonio
Elton Brand, L.A. Clippers
Kobe Bryant, L.A. Lakers
Lamar Odom, L.A. Lakers
Dwight Howard, Orlando
Josh Howard, Dallas
LeBron James, Cleveland
Antawn Jamison, Washington
Joe Johnson, Atlanta
Shawn Marion, Miami
Amare Stoudemire, Phoenix
Brad Miller, Sacramento
Chris Paul, N.O.
Paul Pierce, Boston
Michael Redd, Milwaukee
Luke Ridnour, Seattle
Dwyane Wade, Miami


personally, i wanted to see Kevin Garnett on this roster

if i made any mistakes on this, plz let me know, ty

oh yeah, to me it's weird to see Shawn Marion off the Suns now...

[Lil Pimp Tell 'Em]

Shane Battier, Memphis
Michael Redd, Seattle

Michael Redds a Buck.. been one his entire basketball career. Shane Battier was a Rocket last year.

[Ka0t1c]

oops, my bad... i fixed it now

[4D]

im surprised that no KG, Paul Pierce or Ray Allen on the team...who else misses The Dream Team : Jordan, Magic, Bird, Barkley, Robinson, Drexler, Pippen, Stockton, Malone, Mullin, Ewing, and Laettner...now that was a squad except for Laettner, i wouldve chosen Shaq over him

Yeah that was fucking amazing, beating some teams by fifty points, they totally demolished the competition. "The greatest team ever constructed in the history of team sports" they called it, and it wasn't an exaggeration.

[j_shady]

Yeah that was fucking amazing, beating some teams by fifty points, they totally demolished the competition. "The greatest team ever constructed in the history of team sports" they called it, and it wasn't an exaggeration.

word. they lived up to their name, they all knew how to work as one..it was like they pushed their personal egos aside and did it as one