12 NBA Olympian's.......No Celtics!!!!
 

The Celtics dominated the NBA regular season recording a best record of 66-16. They humiliated the Lakers in the finals winning their 17th title by 38 points, the largest margin of victory ever in a championship final yet not one of their all-stars was named to the USA olympic team.

Playing a brand of basketball all season that discouraged anything but all out team defense and unselfish ball movement to create offensive, it is a travesty that nary a lad from the Green will represent the country this year in Beijing.

Pierce, Allen and Garnett will watch the games from home this year while players they wiped the court with represent the league in international play.

I hope I am wrong but the USA olympic team doesn't seem to have the best team players going to China this time around.

Jesus Christo enough with the Homerisms.

It doesn't matter, everyone on that team can dunk and chuck 3's. It doesn't help you beat the teams that play the fundamentals. Defense, passing (and I am not talking about no look and bouncing off the backboard passes) and high percentage shots. The rest of the world has caught up.

garnett did not want to play, Allen has a bad wheel and isnt really good enough anymore and Pierce was never considered nor do i ever remember him saying he wanted to play. Not to mention these guys are all fairly old by NBA standards and if you look at the teams makeup i dont think there is a player older than 30 except for Kidd. Kobe, Lebron, C. Paul, Deron Williams, Bosh, Howard, Boozer, Redd, Kidd, Prince, Anthony, and Dwayne Wade isnt the best team we could send? They actually picked a team made up of point guards (Kidd, Paul, Williams), Shooting guards (Kobe, Redd), Power Forwards (Boozer, Bosh) a real center (Howard), a defensive swingman who can hit the 3(Prince), a guy who can play 4 positions (LeBron), a guy who can play 3 positions (Wade), and a tough 2 way scorer (Anthony). They have put together a team that is a bit thin at Center but has working parts. I think they will be hard to beat.

Please. The team we sent last time was geared around Iverson, Lamar Odom, Stephon marbury and Lebron who was 19 at the time. That team was beaten by itself. This years version would dust that team also.

The best TEAM we could send would
be the Celtics. Do they have any foreign players?

Now what does my favorite show "The Simpsons" have to do with this!! Homer has lost a step the last couple years....

This is great, Kobe has the built in excuse with the finger when he plays like crap, Anthony gets rewarded with a spot on the team the same day he is suspended 2 games next season for the DUI, Duane is injured all year long but he's going on nothing but past reputation, Prince is going because he actually plays decent defense which too many NBA players are allergic to.

We get our tails kicked playing NBA 2 man ball in the olympics ever since the Dream Team's retired. Yeah your right I watched a "team" play the damn game the way it was meant to be played this year and I am sick of the internationals kicking our asses because the NBA selfish highlight hunters we have wouldn't take a charge unless it was their VISA card being handed back to them.

kg and paul should be there....

Are you kidding? (Sorry morty...) LeBron and the 11 dwarfs took them to 7 games, the freakin hawks took them to seven games...

They hold the olympics in China this year, not the Boston Garden.

Yes Carmello et al... will have this group playing fine TEAM basketball by the Olympics.
At least they have played together even though they are not as good as past champs.
The Celtics would beat this all-star team in a non-AND ONE game.
Which is what we seem to try and play at the Olympics.

I hate to tell you this but you have no idea what you are talking about.
What does anthony getting a DUI have to do with basketball? Wade shut it down because his team was a 100 games out of it and they wanted to lose to get a better draft choice. The best defensive player on the team is Kobe. Just watch when he actually tries. We have got our tails kicked for 2 reasons. One was that we didnt respect the foreign players because very few of them had made an impact in the NBA which is not the case now.The other reason was they slapped together teams without regard for positions, and guys like Shaq couldnt be bothered playing or making a commitment. This team has already played together last summer and you have a good team concept.

by the way they would beat the celtics 100 out of 100 if they played a 100 games.

Oh really...PS?


Mr. 35/23??

I would say it was team defense that took it to 7. Bo. was in the slumber chamber for the Atlanta guys who had nothing to lose. It took them only 6 to beat Det. and LA.





I would think Cleveland gave them their toughest series.

Did you happen to catch this TEAM in action last summer?

Now you've done it----we're going to get a 30,000 word essay.

Yes.
They were very good last summer.

This is also a diff. team. If you will give me one change.
Get Anthony off that team. I dont care about his DUI
get him off. Iverson is not playing, good.

Oops Im supposed to go on, I just read morton... Yada Yada Yad
take that.

OOOOOOOOOO

Given the Celtics went best in the league 31-10 on the road this year and won twice in Detroit in the conference finals and again in LA in the finals don't you think a little too much is being made of 6 games in the first two rounds of the playoffs which never led to a lead in a series. They played pretty well on the road this year all and all and have the hardware to prove it. If NESN has it right and both KG and PP wanted in on the olympics they earned it which is more than I can say for Anthony and Wade to name a few.

if they end up in any foul trouble at all, they're in deep trouble at center.

They were asked to make a 3 year commitment and they wouldnt do it. Now they want in? Garnett would be a help but there is no real need for Pierce. Whose place would he take? If you really think the Celtics are better than this team I am worried about your patients because you may have green fever or something like that.

center is not an important position in international rules. Most of the intl centers play outside anyway becaue of the lane setup. Howard and Bosh will do fine.

We crushed everyone. But those are very weak teams.
Argentina, Greece, Spain. We have to beat these guys.
Argentina will most likely not have Ginobili.

Can you give me one other thing and I will be OK with
our team. Make Kobe promise he will play defense like he
did during those games. Can you give me that...

Okay Chuck I have no idea what I am talking about.....

Playing in the Olympics is an honor. To represent your country is a priviledge not a right and if your going to say that we hurt the team by denying Anthony a spot I am going to tell you that's BS.

If you are being punished for crimes that bring shame to the NBA, your team and the game than maybe a spot on the Olympic team is not the right message to send here today. If you don't have your personal life together you don't get the honor associated with being awarded a spot on the team.

It's kinda like the outrage over TP winning an Eclipse as a trainer a couple years ago while being disciplined by racing for medication violations that year, regardless of what they were or whether they were just or deserved suspensions. You cheat, get caught, you don't get the honor from your peers.

Yes Chuck as a member of the moron society who actually has been around basketball for 4 decades, playing and coaching, I'll just step aside to your obvious genius and bow before your feet for the sin of having an opinion and participating in a discussion that differs from your own ideas. Because your a big boy Chuck doesn't mean your a basketball genius who's ideas are beyond reproach

:tro: :tro: :tro: :tro:

Please spare me the patriotism. This is about winning. The olympics are not exactly the pure clean competition that you are making it out to be. Anthony did not commit a violation that had anything to do with basketball so the Pletcher comparisons are a stretch. If you are so biased against Anthony that you cant see his role on the team than so be it.

If you know so much about basketball then you would know that this team has been 3 years in the making and the guys you moaned about not being selected had no interest in being part of it till now, a month before the games begin. Allen couldnt make the team simply because he has a bad ankle and isnt the best option at his position anyway. If you had even read one thing about the team's makeup you would have seen that the reasons your guys arent there are they didnt care enough to be a part of it. That aint opinion, its fact.

Your Avitar couldn't be more perfect.........

I thought you would like it

Honestly, replacing Bosh with Garnett or Anthony with Pierce...is that really gonna make a massive difference?? The Cavs are not allowing Ilgauskas to participate on the Lithuanian squad anyway making this entire discussion moot...the gold is assured!!

Jesus...these Boston fans get titles in every single sport every single season, and they are still complaining.

For the record, I'm glad there are no Celtics on the Olympic team. There are too many miles on their legs as it is. On top of that, I don't really give a flying crap about the Olympics.

I know it sounds unpatriotic... but I dont really give a damn who wins the basketball gold in the olympics. I actually dont mind seeing our selfish street ball players get beat by a bunch of short guys who play great team basketball...

I'm glad to see some NBA teams going back to team basketball... you can tell those teams are much better than teams like Denver where you have guys like Iverson and Anthony who just want the #'s for themselves.

:{>: :tro: :tro: :{>:

Can ya throw another cliche in there?

Most of the other countries guys are pros too. We lost one olympics where 10 of the 12 guys chosen for the team declined to participate including Garnett. Our point guards were Allen Iverson and Stephon Marbury, on the same team!!! I know very few of you guys really follow the NBA but that combination would be considered beyond poor chemistrywise, maybe lethal would be a better word. Lamar odom got a ton of minutes. Duncan was in foul trouble from the first minute of the first game. It should not have been a shock that they lost. Starbury has pretty much sunk every team he was ever on.

Im so happy that the celtics are back to showing the NBA how to play "team" basketball. Of course having three hall of fame players may have had something to do with it? The Celtics of the 80's played great "team" basketball. of course having 4 Hall of famers may have had something to do with that. It seems so much easier to play "team" basketball when you have great players.

i think we should play our scrubs..nba guys with the least amount of min in a season..make a team of them..who cares what team they are from.. better than the super star squad with no heart. a team..:wf

We sent a bad team last time. Heart had nothing to do with it. I will make a wager with anyone who wants some. For the gold or game by game. :$:

I haven't read the rest of the thread but I see 'wager' so what is it? I think the US won't lose a game....

Well I guess it's better than the PG1985 jinx...

So your saying that you like them also?

There isn't a single person in the NBA that can guard Dwight Howard, imagine what he is going to do to lesser competition.

He isnt a 'team' player, he just does those Streetball, selfish dunks and block shots. Kendrick Perkins would have been a much better selection and Powe could have backed him up. They are champions you know...

If I had the opportunity to pick ONE player in the NBA to build my team around, it would be Dwight Howard. You couldn't build a better speciman in regards to a basketball player. I would surround him with a Nocini type forward(crazy looking euro that drains and causes fights), a point guard that can pass and hit the 15ft jumper, and two shooting guards that he could dump to when he gets double teamed.