The Olympic Thread!

Senor Grommet · Post by **Senor Grommet** » 15 Aug 2004 16:21

I guarantee victory for Phelps.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 15 Aug 2004 17:07

Holy shit!!!

The US Men`s basketball team lost! That`s the 3rd time ever that the US team has lost an olympic game, and the first time a US Olympic team with NBA players has ever lost! And they got trounced by 19 points!

Hmm....maybe NOW America will let Puerto Rico become the 51st state, just so they can avoid more embarassment.

Ryan: Yeah, they lost to Italy, but that wasn`t an official Olympic game. Frankly, a loss in an Olympic game was gonna happen eventually, but still, historic day nonetheless.

Whatsfootbag? · Post by **Whatsfootbag?** » 15 Aug 2004 17:16

they lost to italy by 18 i think....see everyone else plays "team ball" and stuff..we have "show off ball" to show off our cool crossovers...not

Maraxus · Post by **Maraxus** » 15 Aug 2004 19:10

This USA Basketball team sucks ass. The players are fantastic, but the problem lies in that they have had no time to practise and want to play street ball when fundamentals is all you really need. If the Detroit Pistons were the Olympic team no one would touch them, but you can't have such a team because the Olympics is a free event and these players don't get paid for the games. So only a few want to play for their country. I guess the respect of an Olympic medal is nothing compared to another fat paycheck, greedy ignorant assholes. Even then, they could have lost due to other countries improvement in the sport, yes, but the communication that you could can actually "see" in a team like the Pistons is 1/million.

Seeing as how these basketball players for the US are going to end up with no medal at all, maybe they should become halfway intelligent and do what every other country does and manditorily induct the best team of the NBA as a requirement to winning. No disputes, no paycheck, good team, gold medal.

carl winslow · Post by **carl winslow** » 15 Aug 2004 19:47

what would you rather have 10 million bucks or an olympic gold medal?

Maraxus · Post by **Maraxus** » 15 Aug 2004 20:21

STFU AND AGREE WITF ME

LameR · Post by **LameR** » 15 Aug 2004 20:52

carl winslow wrote:what would you rather have 10 million bucks or an olympic gold medal?

You're missing the point. They already got paid. They're already people with excessive amounts of money. We've gotten to the point where American Basketball players are playing for the money rather than for the love of the sport. That's just wrong. That's where passion comes from. You can't fake that. Sure, everyone may enjoy winning, but you know who really loves the game. It's the athletes that work harder than anyone else in the game to be the best at the sport they love.

In the days of the Dream Team (this is in no way a Dream Team), it was an enormous honor to be chosen for the team. Not invited, chosen. It would be insane to deny it. These days there's as many people saying no to getting a chance to represent the U.S. as players actually accepting "the honor" that the other players turned down.

It's come to the point where a player that's never played a professional game in his life is on our olympic team (Emeka Okafor). Now I'm not saying he's a bad player, but it's pretty sad that we have a rookie representing us. There's 3 second year players: Dwayne Wade, LeBron James, Carmello Anthony. I've always considered Dwayne Wade above both of them in skill and however you could put having the right attitude/mentality and this shows it:

"This is a different kind of special, more important than the NBA," he said. "We represent the red, white and blue."

That's exactly what it's about.

EDIT: More thoughts...

This team is failing because everyone wants to showoff. Pretty much every player on this team is used to being the number 1 scorer on their respective teams. They're used to being the threat and it's just weird for them to not be. Other countries' teams are used to playing team ball, that's their foundation. They also shoot a lot better (obviously). They work on fundamentals while people like LeBron are working on their dunks. Now LeBron has a decent all around game, but put him in a shooting contest with Peja Stojakovic and see who wins. Other teams are used to playing team ball while the U.S. is debating on who gets to score. If they don't figure out how to work together there's no way they're going to medal, maybe not even win a game. They're maturing together, but fast enough? We'll see.

Shredster · Post by **Shredster** » 15 Aug 2004 22:25

Maraxus wrote:STFU AND AGREE WITF ME

Who won the volleyball game with australia and us?

kaos · Post by **kaos** » 16 Aug 2004 00:15

South Africa won the men's 4x100m freestyle relay, with a world record time!!!! (Surprisingly with the Netherlands winning the silver, USA bronze. Where were the Aussies? 6th?)

Not too bad for the little country at the tip of Africa. And I thought our only gold medal hopes lied with Hestrie Cloete and Jaques Freitag in the heigh jump events.

I think the other competitors in the individual 100m freestyle should be a bit worried now...

Plus we beat the All Blacks in the Tri-Nations (rugby) over the weekend!!!

HackyRichard · Post by **HackyRichard** » 16 Aug 2004 07:03

Yeah the South African's kicked ass in the mens 4 x 100 relay, way to stick it to the aussies (hopefully this can carry though to the tri nations next week) and the americans (no 8 golds for Mr Phelps, so sad)

It was funny watching their heat earlier on, right as they finished (and handed the americans their own asses for the first time) I was like "damn that was only 2 tenths off the world record" the commentators started blabbering on about some other crap (as they tend to do), then like 5 minutes later they suddenly notice the small margin off the world record (I'm not sure how the missed it, it's not like the time display is inconspicuous)

Just waiting for the Thorpe, Phelps, Hackett, Van den Hoogenband (spelling is off) showdown in the 200 final (that's in about 90 mins time), I'm picking it will be Thorpe, Hoogie, Phelps, Hackett in that order although some one else could have a blinder and edge out Hackett, anyone else care to give their predictions on this final?

LameR · Post by **LameR** » 16 Aug 2004 07:53

I'd agree with what you've said, but that's just from watching these olympics. I haven't followed the sport at all really before this.

HG · Post by HG » 16 Aug 2004 08:45

phelps is all hype

how retarded are americans, thinking that he will win EVERY SINGLE swimming event

what the hell are they smoking? of course he cant win 8 gold medals, and he probably wont medal in every event. it pisses me off cuz if america has an athlete that is halfway decent, they hype him up so everyone thinks he/she is awesome, and then they dont live up to the false hype, and the general public gets pissed at them.

just my two cents

FlexThis · Post by **FlexThis** » 16 Aug 2004 11:07

Guest · Post by **Guest** » 16 Aug 2004 13:23

Phelps isn't all hype. He is a very good swimmer, just not good enough to beat out all contenders in 8 events.

Anyone notice how the USA Men's Basketball team has all big scorers and crap, but no solid team players? They need them.

MegaFighter_X · Post by **MegaFighter_X** » 16 Aug 2004 13:41

carl winslow wrote:what would you rather have 10 million bucks or an olympic gold medal?

What would you rather have, 10 mil or the respect of the world?

jon · Post by **jon** » 16 Aug 2004 14:04

a gold medal in canada is worth about a million dollars in endorsements so in the states its probably like 5 so i would rather have the medal and the 5 million then just 10 million

Senor Grommet · Post by **Senor Grommet** » 16 Aug 2004 15:19

Holy Moly!
Did anyone see the synchro springboard diving?!!!

First the chinese (favored to win) divers (1 of em) have a failed dive and receive a score of 0, then the former russian diving champ Dmitri Sautin hits his feet on the board during his team's dive and they drop from medal contention, and lastly, the US team of brothers who were at that point favored to win the gold fuck their dive up majorly as well!!!

Those sneaky greeks won their first ever diving medal, and it was GOLD!

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 16 Aug 2004 17:41

hmm. No comments on the 200m freestyle? It was very exciting I thought although I forget who won... Surely it must have been Phelps since he is sooooooooooooo good. Does anyone else know who won? Can you please tell me?

Whatsfootbag? · Post by **Whatsfootbag?** » 16 Aug 2004 17:53

its funny how with basket ball not that many were willing to go for it,but then you look at other countries.China for a big example,if their athletes dont come home with some sort of medal(preferably gold),they get no recognition for competeing and are basically a big failure..shows how greedy we really are beucase other's out there do it for the sport and competition,not the cash if there was a cash prize

Shredster · Post by **Shredster** » 16 Aug 2004 21:09

DAMN! I missed synchro spring board diving? I love that stuff!