The anticipation is building for Team USA Basketball 2008 and the summer Olympics in Beijing, China. It's all up to this carefully picked group of NBA players with it's star power like Lebron James and Kobe Bryant and carefully chosen role players like Tayshaun Prince and Carlos Boozer.
Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski or "Coach K" is the proven leader of this talented group of basketball players. It will be up to him to bring this group of individuals into a team to be the best international basketball players in the world. Coach K has the track record and the respect of the basketball world and seems to be the perfect fit for leading Team USA Basketball to the gold medal.
It looks like the experience of Jason Kidd will be counted on as a leader. He's the old man of the team and probably a step slower than the younger point guards on the squad in Chris Paul and Derron Williams. Paul is coming off and MVP runner up season with the New Orleans Hornets. He's super quick and he'll be hard for Coach K to keep him off the court. Kidd will be looked to as the leader and apparently has never lost a game as a member of Team USA Basketball.
Questions remain about the lack of enough big men on Team USA Basketball 2008. Dwight Howard, Carlos Boozer and Chris Bosh are the only real big men on the team. It's feared that if one of these players got hurt that Team USA Basketball could be in trouble. That is why after some second guessing, Tyson Chandler, Chris Paul's teammate fro m the New Orleans Hornets was asked to accompany the team to the Summer Olympics. If someone gets hurt Chandler would be able to step right in and play and also be already familiar with what is going on. This would be a lot better than him flying over from the United States at the last minute. Dwight Howard is coming off and injury but he's supposed to be okay. Time will tell if these big men will be able to man up against the best the world has to offer.
Scoring should be left up to Carmello Anthony, Lebron James, and maybe Kobe Bryant. Bryant will also be needed as the defensive stopper. This is admirable that Kobe is willing to do this because he's of course a great scorer. This guy scored 80 points in an NBA game once!
The pain from the failures of Team USA Basketball of the past decade are still ringing strong for many basketball fans across the country. No longer are we the clear dominate force in the sport. The dominance of the 1992 Dream Team will probably never be equaled but winning the gold is a real chance with this group ready to go for the summer Olympic games in China. Here's hoping that Coach K and his men can reclaim America's place as the best in basketball.
No comments:
Post a Comment