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Subject: Re: Maccabi Tel-Aviv won the European basketball championship 118:74

Author: Djordje Vidanovic

Date: 11:12:59 05/03/04

Go up one level in this thread


On May 03, 2004 at 13:00:39, Russell Reagan wrote:

>On May 03, 2004 at 10:18:06, Djordje Vidanovic wrote:
>
>>So much so that the current World Champion in basketball is Serbia & Montenegro
>>after beating the USA "dream team" last year in the midst of the USA.  Serbia &
>>Montenegro won the game against the USA team by a 6 point margin and knocked USA
>>out of the competition in the quarterfinal and went on to win the finals against
>>Argentina.  BTW, Reggie Miller whom you mentioned was one of the big names on
>>the US team in his home town of Indianapolis... :-)
>
>Reggie Miller is old (for an NBA player, almost 40). It says a lot that he is
>"one of the big names on the US team", even though he isn't close to one of the
>best U.S. players anymore. When he plays, he doesn't even play half the game
>anymore.
>
>The team that you speak of is not even close to a U.S. "dream team". When they
>first let NBA players play in international events, our best players
>participated, but now none of the top players seem to care (they're too busy
>counting their money). If our best players participated, we would still be
>undefeated, winning most games by huge margins. That U.S. team that lost games
>was a joke compared to the best team we could have sent. Unfortunately, it
>doesn't look like we are going to send our best players anytime soon.
>
>It is exciting to see good players coming from other countries, but even though
>you have a Predrag Stojakovic and Dirk Nowitzki and top NBA players like them,
>they are only one man for their country's team. It takes more than one man to be
>the best team in the world (unless that one man is Michael Jordan, and even then
>only maybe). Those guys are no Michael Jordan.
>
>>I am only 6' 2" and never played basketball either, but I did play American
>>football for my high school... Didn't find it slow paced though.
>
>During each play it is not slow, but after every play you stop for 30 seconds
>and walk around. I think that's why people say it is slow paced.


You are just about right, and I know that.  However, my comment hinged on the
statement that it was a pleasant surprise that basketball was starting in
Europe... Which is not true, regardless of the weakish NBA team that the US had
in the World Champs, for reasons I just told.  BTW, Sacramento Kings have two
starters of the starting five who were on the Serbia & Montenegro team:  Pedja
Stojakovic and Vlade Divac.  There were also 4 more players on the Serbia &
Montenegro team that were playing in the NBA but who are not very well-known.
Regardless of that they are not child's play to play against.  Not for a moment
did I claim that any team could actually beat the best of the NBA team, if they
ever show up.

I still like American football, and I loved the 30 seconds you brought up a lot.
 I could catch my breath every once in a while -- not easy to tackle guys
weighing over 230 pounds :-).



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