Olympic Basketball Thread

[duffer]

Spain's Olympic basketball teams have risked upsetting their Chinese hosts by posing for a pre-Games advert making slit-eyed gestures. The advert for a courier company, which is an official sponsor of the Spanish Basketball Federation, occupied a full page in the sports daily Marca, the country's best-selling newspaper.

The advert features two large photographs, one of the men's basketball team, above, and one of the women's team. Both squads pose in full Olympic kit on a basketball court decorated with a picture of a Chinese dragon. Every single player appears pulling back the skin on either side of their eyes. The advert carries the symbol of the sport's governing body.

No one involved in the advert appears to have considered it inappropriate nor contemplated the manner in which it could be interpreted in China and elsewhere. No offence was intended by the advert, but whether the Chinese see it that way is a different matter and it is likely to provoke more criticism at a delicate time for Spanish sport. The failure to recognise the potential consequences is striking in the light of the problems Spain has had with issues of race and the Spanish Olympic committee's continued desire to host the Games in Madrid in 2016 or 2020.

In the past the Spanish have been left in no doubt as to the sensitivity of racial issues internationally, especially since Spain's football manager, Luis Aragonés, made his infamous remark about Thierry Henry, monkey chants greeted England's football players in a friendly game in Madrid and the formula one driver Lewis Hamilton was subjected to abuse in Barcelona.



Oh dear. Must've fired the Chinese up because they gave them one hell of a game and went into the 4th with a 13 point lead. But Spain decided to show up in the last quarter when Pau Gasol stepped up and they won it 85-75 in overtime.

Once Spain started to play they looked really good and had a 17 yo kid by the name of Ricky Rubio who was lightning quick. Looks a fantastic prospect.

We take on the Argies after midnight tonight, not looking forward to this they've got a great side and with the amount of perimeter space we gave Croatia a guy like Carlos Delfino will kill us. Bogut's going to have his hands full as Argentina can rotate NBA stars like Luis Scola, Fabricio Oberto and Andres Nocioni on him and really rough him up. Oh yeah, then there's Manu Ginobli to deal with too. Hope our guys step up cos this could get really ugly if we play like we did against Croatia.

 

[duffer]

23-9 down with 1 minute to go 1st quarter. Bogut was meant to be the missing piece that this team could turn to but he's been abused in the paint by Scola and Oberto and letting us chuck up jumpers down the other end. Only Patty Mills looks like he can do anything for us out there.

Ah well, hope we can somehow chip away at this lead and make a run late in the game.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Woeful stuff really. We're 3/16 from the field ffs.

 

[duffer]

Shooting as badly as we are and only being down by 10 at half is promising. We have to run hot at some point during the game so hopefully we can stick close until then and try and make them sweat a bit.

Scola and Oberto still hammering Bogut at every opportunity they get and they've really made him go into his shell. Time for him to step up this half.

 

[duffer]

Bogut playing a lot better right now but Ginobli's decided to step up too. 50-36 down now.

EDIT: 63-46 at 3 quarter time. Every time we look like making a run they give the ball to Ginobli and he takes over. *Sigh* Patrick Mills continues to impress greatly though. Probably our only player who should be proud of his work so far.

 

[duffer]

Ouch 85-68, a bit of a belting but Argies look like contenders. Patrick Mills can hold his head up high with his 22 points but the rest of our squad were severely disappointing. Bogut who was meant to be our leader got abused by Scola all night long and no-one on our side had a snowball's chance of guarding Ginobli.

Need to beat Iran, Russia and Lithuania now to quality so not promising for us.

 

[Anil]

spain, greece and argentina would be the u.s' biggest rivals, maybe lithuania and russia as well, they swatted aside greece, now let's see how they fare against the other top teams...the "redeem team" looks really determined to win gold this time although lebron "guaranteeing" gold might just spur the others on to cause an upset...

 

[Johnners]

B00mers to crush Lithuania & R00sia, then have a dream run beating the Yanks in the final, imo.

Nah, was a much improved performance from them though. Patrick Mills is going to be a star, and it was good to see Bogut find some form.

Have been impressed by the USA team. Was half expecting them to play rather selfishly, but from what I've seen they're combining quite well.

Oh, and whilst it is womens basketball (which i generally find a little boring) one can see why Jackson is rated the best, singlehandedly putting Latvia away atm.

 

[Johnners]

Awesome first half from the Boomers against Russia. Bogut, Anderson & Bruton were fantastic.

 

[Johnners]

Yesssss

Fantastic win, I thought they were in trouble when R00sia got the lead down to 7 at the start of the 3rd quarter, but it was a great effort to fight back and restore their 15 point lead. Bogut, Bruton & Newley were soooo good in that 2nd half under pressure on both defence and attack. Thought the whole teams effort to stop Kirilenko was great as well.

Oh, and how ****ing good was Boguts dunk!!!! BOOOOOOOGGGGGGGGUUUTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[duffer]

Matty Neilson and Dave Andersen locked down Kirlilenko today which enabled Bogut to get some room to breathe in the paint and CJ was a beast on the fast break. Comfortably the best performance from us for a long long time.

Hopefully we can beat Lithuania and avoid the Americans in the quarters. C'mon Boomers get us a medal!

 

[Johnners]

BOGUT!!

Loved it.

 

[Burgey]

That was good stuff.

Watching the Lithuania match now - I think it's delayed on 7 (shock me).

Lithuania are one of the hot pots. I think they're already through in a good spot - are they resting their good players, coz we seem to be towelling them as we speak?

 

[duffer]

Bugger I missed this. I really hate work. Going by the box scores Kleiza and the Big J played a lot less than they should've but still a handy team put out by Lithuania. Good win and we might avoid the Americans now if results go our way.

 

[Johnners]

We were going to play the USA regardless, unfortunately...

 

[Burgey]

This is where Goorjean needs to get creative and bring in Barry Hall and Jono Brown for the next game.....

 

[duffer]

Half time Australia down 55-43 against the Americans. Scoreline doesn't reflect how well we've performed. Mills has played really well and in general our half court execution has been as good as we could have hoped for. Problem is we've been out rebounded 31-14 in the half and the Americans are making the extra opportunities count. Bogut getting himself into foul trouble hurt us and guys like Anstey and Anderson haven't been able to handle Manchild and Melo.

Ah well, shame I need to go to sleep for work because I see an outside chance of making a run at the end today.

 

[nightprowler10]

Watched USA v Argentina semi final today. Disappointing performance by the US team past the first period despite the win. Looking forward to the final.

 

[pasag]

71-65 in the third, Spain doing brilliantly here.

 

[duffer]

That was a brilliant game. Rudy Fernandez is so gun, him and Brandon Roy at Portland will be the best backcourt in the whole NBA.

In the end though D-Wade and Kobe hit all the money shots at the end and USA got their redemption. Much love to the Spaniards though.