Olympics Basketball Preview

With the Olympics under a month away alot of attention has been brought to Basketball competition and with the increase in skill level from many international teams, this is no longer a one horse race (United States).

At the FIBA Tournament in 06 and to a lesser extent Athens 04 USA Basketball was exposed, with the increase in star players not from the US, It has made each country more competitive and this has made the sport of basketball much better in the long run.

I’m sure I wasn’t the only one surprised when in FIBA 06 the final was Spain vs Greece. I liked this, it showed what other countries could do and made Gasol a bigger star than he already was when he was named MVP.

Could this time be the same?

When you look at team USA I like the look of them alot. When looking back at these past tournaments you have to take into account that they DID NOT have Kobe Bryant. This could be a big factor is what happens in Beijing. While Team USA gets better I’m sure alot of other countries improved also. Example being Germany who gains Dirk Nowitzki but also Chris Kaman in the center position as he recently gained German citizenship.

I’d be interested in seeing what others have to say about Beijing 08 in terms of Mens Basketball. I think this could be one of the more closely contested Medal races in quite some time.

Jason Kidd, Carmelo Anthony, Carlos Boozer, Chris Bosh, Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, Lebron James, Chris Paul, Tayshaun Prince, Michael Redd, Dwyane Wade, Deron Williams

Hard to bet against this lineup but who knows what can happen next month.

8/8/08 it begins.

–James–