I also found Olympic basketball more enjoyable to watch than NBA (in terms of flow and 'natural-ness').
That's a great point. One of the things that drove me away from the NBA is the constant pausing and commercials. The last quarter of the game usually lasts about an hour, and feels like two.
And the thing is, it's even worse when you got to an NBA game live. Game is tied, tense, in the last few minutes then a timeout is called but instead of letting everyone stew in their collective anxiety, loud ass music blares from all speakers and cheerleaders come out and the JumboTron starts advertising crap and it really takes you out of the game. It's way more enjoyable just to watch it on TV. The other element to add to why I never was 100% confident the USA would win: the refereeing. I swear there must be some incognito Michael Jordans on Spain cause I saw plenty of 3-step, 4-step drives to the basket from the Spaniards and other questionable non-calls. I realize there's some drastic rule differences in international ball but the point is, put the damn game away as quickly as possible and don't leave anything to chance.
Two other things: 1) That was an awesome moment at the end of the game when the players went over and shook Doug Collins's hand and gave him some hugs. Doug Collins was on the Olympic team in Munich that lost to USSR in probably the most infamous basketball game of all time. 2) Man I really missed hearing the old NBA on NBC theme music!!! That was my personal highlight from last night's game; hearing that song as they went and came back from commercial. BTW, that theme song was written by none other than John Tesh.
