Of Basketball and other things

Well, after watching the Men's Quarter-finals and today the Semi-finals, I can say I am impressed.

Men's Basketball has evolved significantly since I started watching in 86/88 and today there are strong teams all round: Spain, Lithuania and Argentina at the fore-front, but solid teams such as Greece and Australia, and future hopes such as China. I am also sure that Croatia will re-emerge, as well as Serbia and Russia.

Did I forget a team? Oh yes, the USA... In my opinion - a biased one I might add - they are still at a different level and when they brought a tremendous team to this event, people thought it was a done deal. Others reminded us of past failures, namely in 2004 and 2006 when they had also brought "great teams". None was truly right. We haven't seen the "destruction" that we saw in Barcelona '92 with the first (and for me still the only true one) dream team, but they have been dominant nonetheless.

However, the interesting aspect of their dominance has, in my opinion, not been their individual superiority (which they definitely have) but their focus during the games. They have been very focused throughout the tournament and respectful of their adversaries. Today I saw one of the Americans almost get into a fight with one of the Argentineans and the amazing thing was to see the rest of the US team on the field (all 4 of them) taking him out of the mess straight away and telling him to calm down and keep his head. I had seen a similar scene against Australia. Today, Mike K kept is "A stars" much longer than usual, truly respecting their opponent. The Americans never looked too much at doing "show" for the audience, but always took Argentina seriously. They even came out with an uncharacteristic shooting games which added to an amazingly tight defense gave them a significant early lead.

What about Argentina? Great team who lost Ginobili very early in the encounter with the US, but to be honest, I don't think the US would have lost today as I don't think they will lose on Sunday. They are too strong and especially too focused.

Some doubts on what really happened to Argentina's number 5. He left on his own feet, but I did not see him back on the bench. V and I think he might have pulled a "Liu Xiang", but who knows. My hat off to Scola and to Delfino, who pushed the "Pumas" to within 8 points of the US at a certain point and to a closer and more exciting match than the final 20 point deficit really shows.

Finally, a special mention to the man, Mr. Bryant, and in particular, in spite of having scored only 12 points, having been such a fundamental piece in the US team tonight. He defended Ginobili in what promised to be a very tough night for Argentina's number 5, defended strongly against Delfino and pushed Nocioni around like "he didn't mean too much". His connection with James, the rest of the team and the fact that he has opted, not only tonight but throughout the tournament, for a more supporting role with strong defense, helping the team in offense when needed (what a show he put on against Australia) and even as a true leader, should potentially still allow him to be the tournament's MVP. On Wednesday, he stayed on with the coaching staff to watch Argentina versus Greece and one can only but wonder how important his leadership has been for the US team to glue so dramatically well.

Spain has a shot at the US, but although I don't feel it will be another 30+ point difference game, I do feel the US will win. The key to Spain's success will be in significantly slowing down the Americans and making them take their shots. The problem for Spain is that their own game style is very American with either "run and shoot" or "push to the inside man and dunk/make easy shot". We shall see what happens.