2020 Olympics in Tokyo

[GDAWG]

52 minutes ago, MJWalker45 said:

That's why I love JJ Watt throwing shade on crap like this when people would end articles about his wife by mentioning him. 

 

It's annoying sure, but Sunday Night Football is their ratings draw, so they have to mention "so and so is related to so and so NFL player."  Before she withdrew from her events, NBC did mention in passing that Simone Biles has a boyfriend playing for the Houston Texans but did not mention his name.  

 

Also USA Basketball needs more consistency on how they construct their 3 x 3 teams.  So why is it their Women's Team consists of 4 WNBA players (all of whom were in the pool for the regular team) and the Men's team is made of 4 Americans who play Euro Ball?  Was there not any interest from the NBA?  The Women won 3 x 3 because of the fact that they play in the WNBA.  All four of them (Stephanie Dolson, Alisha Gray, Kelsey Plum and Jackie Young) can still return for Paris in 2024 if none make the regular team.   If not, they can just use players from the Team USA pool.  

 

USA Basketball can't have three of their teams made up of NBA and WNBA players and one of their teams made up entirely of Americans who play in Europe.  I would guess that the fact that Team USA Men's 3X3 didn't make it to Tokyo means that the next time they will do what the women do and choose out of the actual Team USA player pool and pick 4 NBA players.

[MJWalker45]

19 hours ago, GDAWG said:

 

It's annoying sure, but Sunday Night Football is their ratings draw, so they have to mention "so and so is related to so and so NFL player."  Before she withdrew from her events, NBC did mention in passing that Simone Biles has a boyfriend playing for the Houston Texans but did not mention his name.  

 

Also USA Basketball needs more consistency on how they construct their 3 x 3 teams.  So why is it their Women's Team consists of 4 WNBA players (all of whom were in the pool for the regular team) and the Men's team is made of 4 Americans who play Euro Ball?  Was there not any interest from the NBA?  The Women won 3 x 3 because of the fact that they play in the WNBA.  All four of them (Stephanie Dolson, Alisha Gray, Kelsey Plum and Jackie Young) can still return for Paris in 2024 if none make the regular team.   If not, they can just use players from the Team USA pool.  

 

USA Basketball can't have three of their teams made up of NBA and WNBA players and one of their teams made up entirely of Americans who play in Europe.  I would guess that the fact that Team USA Men's 3X3 didn't make it to Tokyo means that the next time they will do what the women do and choose out of the actual Team USA player pool and pick 4 NBA players.

Maybe they should just take the winners of the Big 3 league? I'm kidding of course, but there should be a streamlined procedure for selection that lets you get the best players possible instead of having to search through your rolodex for players that are out of work or out of season.

[Digby]

On 8/2/2021 at 8:23 PM, DEAD! said:

 

It looks that way. They were "off" in this tournament. In many ways, it's actually a good thing to know now because now you have a good idea on how to evaluate the squad for the next World Cup much like what happened in 2016. 

the last World Cup run already felt like cheating death a little bit, with that dominant Rapinoe run at that stage of her career etc. Running so many of those players out again was once too much. I’ve also been a Vlatko skeptic since day one. Turns out running through endless squad rotations to show off your squad depth at the expense of any team chemistry is, in fact, bad.

[GDAWG]

2 hours ago, MJWalker45 said:

Maybe they should just take the winners of the Big 3 league? I'm kidding of course, but there should be a streamlined procedure for selection that lets you get the best players possible instead of having to search through your rolodex for players that are out of work or out of season.

 

My suggestion is to take players out of the pool of Team USA regular basketball players.  If that means taking 4 NBA players who didn't make the final Team USA roster, then so be it.  That's what they did with the Women's team, they chose 4 players from the pool of the regular team and those 4 happen to be WNBA players.  

[DG_ThenNowForever]

Game-winning block by Nic Batum and France hangs on for a 90-89 win over Slovenia. Amazing finish to an amazing run by Luka.

[Seadragon76]

Slovenia still has a chance to win the bronze medal, so Luka isn't done yet.

[MJWalker45]

https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/31964513/united-states-beats-south-korea-reach-baseball-gold-medal-game-eddy-alvarez-clinches-winter-summer-medal-double

USA Baseball will play Japan for the gold medal. They played through the losers bracket after losing to Japan. South Korea will play the Dominican Republic for bronze. 

[nickp91]

 Eddy Alvarez continues to be a great story He will become the sixth athlete to win a medal in both the Winter and Summer Olympics

[GDAWG]

3 hours ago, MJWalker45 said:

https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/31964513/united-states-beats-south-korea-reach-baseball-gold-medal-game-eddy-alvarez-clinches-winter-summer-medal-double

USA Baseball will play Japan for the gold medal. They played through the losers bracket after losing to Japan. South Korea will play the Dominican Republic for bronze. 

 

And yet, if they win the gold medal, not many people are going to care since their not Major Leaguers.

[walkerws]

11 minutes ago, GDAWG said:

 

And yet, if they win the gold medal, not many people are going to care since their not Major Leaguers.

 

I think they actually may care more. International baseball doesn't get a ton of press so either the Gold or Silver will be a good news story. 

[GDAWG]

47 minutes ago, walkerws said:

 

I think they actually may care more. International baseball doesn't get a ton of press so either the Gold or Silver will be a good news story. 

 

It may mean  more to the players than any World Series, I would think.  

 

Edwin Jackson is on the team, he who is one team away from having pitched for half of the teams in the MLB.    I want him to win a gold medal.

 

MLB can go do their "World Baseball Classic" stupidity next March.  

[MJWalker45]

1 hour ago, GDAWG said:

 

And yet, if they win the gold medal, not many people are going to care since their not Major Leaguers.

I will, because they are wearing the uniform that represents my country.  That's good enough for me, even if they don't win gold. 

[The_Admiral]

I don't care about the United States losing in sports to France or Canada or whatever, but if we're gonna get our asses kicked by China, it's like, man, kill ourselves. How many more indignities can those people foist upon us?

[SFGiants58]

I’m just happy we’re at a point where Avatar: The Last Airbender is part of the cultural zeitgeist for good.

 

 

I’d rather have a guy with the arrow than another classic Spongebob meme (seasons 1-3 Spongebob is like seasons 1-8 Simpsons for late millennials and Gen-Z).

[RyanMcD29]

On 8/3/2021 at 12:46 AM, Kramerica Industries said:

But it also goes a bit further than that. At the risk of making a huge hot take here...the older I get, the more I find something extremely superficial about rooting for "your" national team or athletes, in any international competition. So those people were born on the same soil I was...so what? They didn't choose to be born in the US. I didn't choose to be born in the US. They aren't any better than people born elsewhere just because they were born in the US (and I sure as hell am not any better than others not born in the US). 

 

Kinda late reply and kinda off topic, but I always find myself not rooting for the US Women's Basketball team because it always ends up being a UConn alumni all-star team and as a Syracuse grad, I absolutely hate UConn and I absolutely hate Geno. The 2012(?) team where they outright just bragged about being all UConn players and NBC hyping up the "UConn Sorority" made me just straight up root against them.

 

And low and behold, they got rid of Geno, but the USA Basketball braintrust still makes it a UConn Alumni Team so...

[DG_ThenNowForever]

Does anyone else enjoy watching the US men throw up a bunch of bricked threes in every Olympics game?

[Digby]

On 8/5/2021 at 9:23 PM, the admiral said:

I don't care about the United States losing in sports to France or Canada or whatever, but if we're gonna get our asses kicked by China, it's like, man, kill ourselves. How many more indignities can those people foist upon us?

lol my embarrassingly cliche racist uncle posted this nearly verbatim this morning. 
 

those people

[Digby]

2 hours ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

Does anyone else enjoy watching the US men throw up a bunch of bricked threes in every Olympics game?

not at all — not saying I was actively rooting against the USA but it kind of sucks that the international rules are a sort of hedge against most of my least favorite things about modern NBA play, but the ultimate modern NBA team has enough talent to overcome that as an obstacle. at least Harden is nowhere in sight?

[Cujo]

An unfortunate surname.

 

[Digby]

Every time I see a medal count table I get a kick out of the supposed ban on Russia. They just had to wear new uniforms and call the team “ROC”! Hilarious. Why even bother, then?