MLB and NBA in the Olympics

The Dream Teams for the MLB and NBA were not that hot. Are they really the best in the world?

Um, maybe you missed the Redeem Team, but I'm pretty sure they just shat on every other team. It was like the ******* Harlem Globe Trotters out there.

MLB did kind of suck though...

Originally Posted by Dragon

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The Dream Teams for the MLB and NBA were not that hot. Are they really the best in the world?
Are you even following either sport? Baseball does not send the best players from America because they're in the middle of the MLB season and the player's are under contract to play for their teams. You get minor league players, and not even the best prospects. The USA basketball team won the gold today. While they have the most talent and athleticism, several factors work against them: 1) FIBA basketball is not called the same as the NBA, there are several not insignificant rules that are different. The ball is even different. Refs have in the past made a lot of questionable calls against USA players as well, and they see styles of play that they aren't common to the NBA. 2) International basketball is far more competitive than it ever has been, with a good deal of the some of the teams being made up of NBA players. 3) A lot of the other country's national teams have been playing together for 5-10 years under the same coach or in the same system, so they have a lot more familiarity with their teammates. All of these are equalizers, and the USA team still only managed to get tested once, which was in the gold medal game. Yes, the basketball team is without question the best in the world. Their average margin of victory was dominant.

Originally Posted by Brian278

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Are you even following either sport? Baseball does not send the best players from America because they're in the middle of the MLB season and the player's are under contract to play for their teams. You get minor league players, and not even the best prospects. The USA basketball team won the gold today. While they have the most talent and athleticism, several factors work against them: 1) FIBA basketball is not called the same as the NBA, their are several not insignificant rules that are different. The ball is even different. Refs have in the past made a lot of questionable calls against USA players as well, and they see styles of play that they aren't common to the NBA. 2) International basketball is far more competitive than it ever has been, with a good deal of the some of the teams being made up of NBA players. 3) A lot of the other country's national teams have been playing together for 5-10 years under the same coach or in the same system, so they have a lot more familiarity with their teammates. All of these are equalizers, and the USA team still only managed to get tested once, which was in the gold medal game. Yes, the basketball team is without question the best in the world. Their average margin of victory was dominant.
+1

Originally Posted by PARTY

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MLB did kind of suck though...

Originally Posted by PARTY

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+1

Seriously though, can you really make a US dream team for baseball even with MLB players at your full disposal? So many good players are from the dominican, venezuela, a few from asia.

Originally Posted by Bumble_Bee

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Seriously though, can you really make a US dream team for baseball even with MLB players at your full disposal? So many good players are from the dominican, venezuela, a few from asia.

There are still more MLB stars from the USA than from any other country. If everyone they wanted to play actually played, they would be the favorites.

Originally Posted by Brian278

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There are still more MLB stars from the USA than from any other country. If everyone they wanted to play actually played, they would be the favorites.
True that they may be the favorite, but by how much? Not sure they would ever be as dominating as the USA B-ball team. Other countries would have something close to dream teams. With the round robin format and single elimination rounds, anything can happen in the game of baseball.

Seriously. The US could provide a really good team based on MLB players. They'd be the deepest team too.

The NBA thing is stupid too. The US has by far the most talent in the world. The NBA game is a good amount different though as brian explained. Athleticism and sheer ability can at times trump teamwork, shooting, passing and fundamentals. The US didn't start dominating until they were in the 3rd year of their team workouts.

Also, i think 1/3 of the nba are internationl nowadays.

I actually would love to see MLB olympic teams. Could you imagine the best cubans, dominicans, venezuleans, etc..... that would be awesome to see.

You know they did something similar a year or two ago right? The world championships or something like that. A lot of US players didn't want to play though.

World Baseball Classic. Fairly interesting to watch because of all the All-Stars out there, but probably too young at this point to have the kind of relevance that the Olympics and the World Cup have, but it may get closer in the future. They still have a problem with MLB teams not wanting their players to go and get hurt, they miss some spring training, and generally start the year with more innings logged. The Olympics has the advantage for basketball of having the games right in the middle of the offseason so there's really no interference there.

Originally Posted by Brian278

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Are you even following either sport?

Baseball does not send the best players from America because they're in the middle of the MLB season and the player's are under contract to play for their teams. You get minor league players, and not even the best prospects.

The USA basketball team won the gold today. While they have the most talent and athleticism, several factors work against them: 1) FIBA basketball is not called the same as the NBA, there are several not insignificant rules that are different. The ball is even different. Refs have in the past made a lot of questionable calls against USA players as well, and they see styles of play that they aren't common to the NBA. 2) International basketball is far more competitive than it ever has been, with a good deal of the some of the teams being made up of NBA players. 3) A lot of the other country's national teams have been playing together for 5-10 years under the same coach or in the same system, so they have a lot more familiarity with their teammates.

All of these are equalizers, and the USA team still only managed to get tested once, which was in the gold medal game. Yes, the basketball team is without question the best in the world. Their average margin of victory was dominant.

Well, I followed the Word Baseball Classics and the American team wasn`t so hot. This time, they weren`t so hot either so I it made me wonder if the MLB really THAT in comparison to the rest of the world today. Some of the other teams didn`t have their best players, either due to contract with the MLB.

The NBA did win the gold, but it didn`t seem like they won THAT easily.

hahaha. What the hell do you want? You don't think the team USA won the gold THAT easily? They had 1 tough game out of 8 (12 if you include warm up games) and they still won by 11 and beat that same team by 37 a week before. You know the MLB consists of more than USA players right? Same with the NBA. They are both WORLD SPORTS not US sports. People who don't actually follow the sports closely have trouble understanding it seems.

Do you really think the dream team would've won every game by 40 points like they did 16 years ago? I'm not gonna do the dream vs redeem team argument but there's no way in hell all those guys at their same age would do the same thing against today's players. They'd still win the gold i believe, but it'd be a dogfight. I think it's absolutely wonderful how competitive the world is getting in baseball and basketball. I can see in 25 years, the NBA almost being like FIFA where the top leagues from around the world are held in similar high status and some kind of mini-tournament is held at the end of the year with the winner from each or some kind of champions league type setup.

I'd spend time talking about my reservations with the state of US basketball starting with high school and AAU teams and continuing on up, but i feel it would be wasted on all but brian and a few nerds who live in the NBA thread. The US still has the most amount of talent by far though despite shortcomings

If Argentina had their two best players healthy (Ginobli & Nocioni) that game would have been completely different. Greece was probably the most impressive victory to me. You have to throw out the first game against Spain because what was Spain playing for? They knew they were going to be in the knockout stage, so why show the US much in terms of an optimal offensive or defensive gameplan. They knew it would be very unlikely to beat the US twice, and the gold medal game showed their actual strength. The US should have wiped the floor with teams like Angola, Germany & Australia; they are awful.

The US has the best basketball team in the world right now, but I think it is way too soon to say they are going to be anywhere close to as dominent as in the 90s...