First of all I'm glad this happened because many people finally noticed the Championship. I've loved International Championships since I first saw Brazil and OSCAR SCHMIDT in the 1980 Olympics. Im a rare case of someone that enjoys these Championships much more than the NBA. Here are some thoughts: - Its embarrassing that the crowds were so small. The games were played in INDY for crying out loud. The US is known as a BIG EVENT country. The World Cup sold out here! Someone dropped the ball bigtime. 3000 people is pathetic. - It is for the lack of TV, lack of media attention, lack of fan attention, lack of NBA star attention, lack of respect for the other countries, arrogance of all of the above that I rooted AGAINST the US. This elimination was good for US Basketball believe it or not. - I Must say I HIGHLY RESPECT all the US players that showed up and the coaches. At least they understood that representing the country was a good thing. Shaq, Kobi and company are the ones that should be critizied at this time. I dont care how badly they wanted to spend the summer on the beach. Country first! - Go figure. In 1987 in INDY there were 17000 people to see Brazil take on (and beat) the USA made up of college players in the Pan American games finals. Now with NBA Pros barely 6000 show up for THE world championship. - Will the US be up for the game against Puerto Rico? I HIGHLY doubt it. That could mean 3 losses in a row. Puerto Rico is a good team and was 5-1 going into the New Zeiland game which they lost in OT.
Shaq has an injured big toe he wasn't gonna play anyways I suppose he could have played through the pain if he wanted to but why risk it especially when resting for the NBA season is most important.
(near repost, I apologize) Now imagine Ronaldo sitting out the WC because he wasn't a 100 percent and he wanted to get ready for the season....
Vlad Divac was interviewed by Craig Seager after the game and basically said it sucked for the Team USA because of the pressure they were under, lack of prepearation time, and the fact the international game is different from the NBA. I got the sense for him personally this game was not as big a deal as if the Kings had beaten the Lakers. Look it's all about the money. The World Basketball Championships is not where it's at for the NBA. The whole focus is the NBA season. You do the World Basketball Championships and the Olympics for national pride. NBA is for professional pride and career. The NBA is more meaningful to the players than these events as well it should be. To other countries this is their NBA finals. So that explains the relevance of this competition.