The US defeated in basketball World Championships
September 5, 2002 4:38 AM   Subscribe

The US defeated in basketball World Championships by a dominant Argentina team. This breaks the record 58 non-stop winning series since the US allowed NBA players in 1992. I love this, just as I loved all the upsets at the FIFA world cup.
posted by ugly_n_sticky (16 comments total)
 
what a bunch of losers, here in the United kingdom we pride ourselves on the fact that every game that first saw the light of day on these shores is never perfected to our exacting standards by johnny foreigner, losing is simply not an option.
posted by johnnyboy at 5:02 AM on September 5, 2002


this was going to happen sooner or later.

the teams that the usa has been putting together for the fiba championships are not really all-star teams (ala 1992) but a gathering of younger talent. jermaine o'neal is hardly a primier player. jay williams hasn't even suited up in an nba game. raef lafrenz? and throw in the fact that george karl is coaching and it becomes clear that this is not the best the usa has to offer talent wise.

that said, these guys should have still walked over argentina.
posted by oliver_crunk at 5:39 AM on September 5, 2002


Johnnyboy- It took me a second to catch that. Pretty funny.

I really wouldn't compare these games to the world cup though. Nobody in the US (pretty much) even cares about these world championships. The real basketball championships in the US are the NBA championships and the NCAA (college) tournament.
posted by LouieLoco at 6:20 AM on September 5, 2002


Next time, we send the Los Angeles Lakers. No-o-o-o-o ... scru-u-u-u-bs ...
posted by allaboutgeorge at 6:26 AM on September 5, 2002


"Reggie [Miller] brought us together," Pierce said. "He said the world is against us. The world, the stands, the refs are all against us. The only thing we can do is go out and play hard the rest of the games and get the gold medal."

Reggie scrambling for his best Charles Barkley impersonation.
posted by jasonspaceman at 6:52 AM on September 5, 2002


I hope the same thing happens to the U.S. Women's soccer team. Of course, no one cares about women's soccer so I guess it doesn't matter.
posted by FiveFrozenFish at 6:55 AM on September 5, 2002


I'm happy for Argentina, some small thing to cheer about. Though I'm sure those back in Argentina are more concerned about where their next meal is coming from.
posted by SpaceCadet at 7:08 AM on September 5, 2002


This breaks the record 58 non-stop winning series since the US allowed NBA players in 1992.

Not exactly true. In the 1998 World Basketball Championship, when the NBA was on strike, the US team featured former collegiate stars, but lacked NBA starters. They lost to Russia and finished with the silver.

So the US is only 58-1 since 1992 with NBA players. Since 1992, the US is whatever and 2.
posted by uftheory at 8:06 AM on September 5, 2002


Did anyone see the highlights? It was like the USA forgot that when the other team has the ball you have to try and stop them from putting it through the hoop. How many times can you get burned by a back door pass before you tell your center to play the low post?
posted by McBain at 8:10 AM on September 5, 2002


This is good, I guess. Maybe next time our (the US's) best players will be willing to go. Or, as allaboutgeorge suggested, simply our best team.
posted by callmejay at 8:24 AM on September 5, 2002


ah who cares about basketball anyway? The NBA finals are fixed and the rest of the world is already nearly as good as the US players already.

Let them try to beat a US team in BASEBALL!!

We can field players like Sammy Sosa, Alfonso Soriano, Jorge Posada, Ichiro Suzuki, Manny Ramirez,Kazuhiro Sasaki, Mariano Rivera, Jose Vidro, Vladimir Guerrero, Byung-Hyun Kim, Odalis Perez, Benito Santiago and and and

oh, forget it.
posted by sic at 10:15 AM on September 5, 2002


It's not any fun unless we're pissing off the rest of the world. Everybody knows we could be a basketball superpower, and don't get angry when we beat them year after year, so we just stopped caring and fielded an mediocre team.

Look what we did to Hockey, basically stole it from the Canadians, and most of us don't even like the game that much.

Next, we're taking Soccer. Just to piss you off.
posted by Stan Chin at 10:27 AM on September 5, 2002


I hope they got James Brown to show-boat before the fight, ala Rocky IV, just to make their defeat that much more gut-wrenching.
posted by Hildago at 10:46 AM on September 5, 2002


Next time, we send the Los Angeles Lakers.

Maybe next time our (the US's) best players will be willing to go. Or, as allaboutgeorge suggested, simply our best team.

Wait a minute.... you think teams in the NBA actually play basketball anymore? From what I've seen, it's all about entertainment, and to hell with the rules.

Which, imo, makes for pretty poor entertainment.
posted by emmling at 12:03 PM on September 5, 2002


sic:
actually the usa would have a pretty good shot if international baseball competition included mlb players as this article points out.

it would make for some better games than watching the usa lose once every ten years.
posted by oliver_crunk at 12:18 PM on September 5, 2002


News Flash:

US Loses to Yugoslavia, Will Not Medal

It's obvious the players and coaches don't care. The fans didn't care when we were winning all the time. Will we see a new real Dream Team now, or will everybody still not care?

I say we send the Maryland Terrapins over.
posted by Stan Chin at 9:53 PM on September 5, 2002


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