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US Olympic Basketball team start practice without Bryant
New York, Aug 12: The U.S. Men`s Olympic Basketball team began their first day of practice without superstar Kobe Bryant.
New York, Aug 12: The U.S. Men's Olympic Basketball team began their first day of practice without superstar Kobe Bryant.
For the U.S. men's basketball team, the road to Olympic gold in Athens began on Sunday (August 10) inside a college gymnasium on the West Side of midtown Manhattan.
For the next nine days, the Americans will be cramming at the John Jay College gymnasium for the Olympic qualifying tournament in Puerto Rico later this month.
They will be practising without Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant because of a knee injury, but Bryant's appearance in a Colorado courtroom last Wednesday (August 6) to be formally advised of rape charges stemming from accusations by a 19-year-old woman has cast a shadow over the whole squad.
"I think we feel for everybody involved," said US basketball coach Larry Brown. "It's a terrible thing for everybody. My job is to get this team ready and our job is to set a good example with the players we have here. The thing we are going to try and do is play the right way, play as a team, and make people understand we play the best basketball in this country."
Brown was not on hand last summer when the Americans lost to Argentina, Yugoslavia and Spain at the World Championships, finishing sixth.
Jason Kidd, member of the NBA finalist New Jersey Nets, believes the team can survive without Bryant during this month's qualifying.
"We have a lot of talent here so it's not just one guy here who makes a team win a gold medal," he said. "We are going to win as a team so the big thing is Kobe, Shaq, Kevin Garnett. Those guys aren't participating because of other things, but I will go battle with this team any day of the week."
Despite the team being focused on today's first practice, NBA badboy Allan Iverson says all players in the National Basketball Association have to be careful as role models.
"You try to be as careful as you can in life, It's things happening," he said. "There are bad people in life, and there are good people. You just have to be able to weed them out. It is just hard. People would come out and you and think they would be the most sincere person you would ever be and they turn out to be the devil. It is hard for us guys, because we are targets. People are coming at us. I am not crying or making excuses for anybody or myself, but life is hard."
Qualifying should not be difficult this time, with three spots for Athens available to teams from North and South America. Argentina and the United States are considered virtual certainties, with Canada, Puerto Rico, Brazil and Venezuela the best contenders for the third berth.
Despite this, the competition will be much stronger than it was four years ago in Puerto Rico, when the U.S. team was never seriously challenged, winning all of its ten matches.
The American team consists of guards Ray Allen, Allen Iverson, Jason Kidd, Mike Bibby, Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady, and forwards Elton Brand, Karl Malone, Richard Jefferson and Nick Collison. Tim Duncan and Jermaine O'Neal, power forwards on their NBA teams, will play center for the United States. Malone, a member of the original Dream Team, has not played for a U.S. team since the 1996 Olympics - a period when the Americans were still dominant.
Raw talent alone will not get the job done anymore. "It's becoming more an more difficult," said NBA Final M.V.P Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs. "People continue to get talented players out of their systems.
These European national teams grow up together. These kids grow up over the years together. They play a lot more together than we do on a yearly basis. So we put together a team and we have a quick time to gel, and it is all about understanding our team-mates and understanding what kind of scheme we are going to run and go out here and try and do our best."
Brown, who was an assistant coach for the U.S. team when they won Olympic gold in Sydney three years ago, told reporters that Kobe Bryant's replacement has a great opportunity to shine in the limelight.
"We miss Kobe," he said. "He is apart of this team, but he wasn't going to play because of his injury. The way I look at it, hopefully we are going to have him in Greece if we qualify but it's a blessing for Vince Carter. Vince was an unbelievable player in the Olympics in 2000. This is a great opportunity to show people what a special player he is."
Toronto Raptor star Vince Carter believes the Americans can still dominate despite the development of the game elsewhere.
"One thing we wanted was to have the game globally," he said. "And they are catching on, starting to understand and enjoy it, so they are supposed to get better. We just have to step up our game and just bring the best everytime and just go out there and keep winning."
The team will practice at John Jay until August 18, playing an exhibition game against Puerto Rico next Friday (August 15) at Madison Square Garden.
The U.S. team opens the Olympic qualifying tournament on August 20 against Brazil.
Bureau Report
Brown was not on hand last summer when the Americans lost to Argentina, Yugoslavia and Spain at the World Championships, finishing sixth.
Jason Kidd, member of the NBA finalist New Jersey Nets, believes the team can survive without Bryant during this month's qualifying.
"We have a lot of talent here so it's not just one guy here who makes a team win a gold medal," he said. "We are going to win as a team so the big thing is Kobe, Shaq, Kevin Garnett. Those guys aren't participating because of other things, but I will go battle with this team any day of the week."
Despite the team being focused on today's first practice, NBA badboy Allan Iverson says all players in the National Basketball Association have to be careful as role models.
"You try to be as careful as you can in life, It's things happening," he said. "There are bad people in life, and there are good people. You just have to be able to weed them out. It is just hard. People would come out and you and think they would be the most sincere person you would ever be and they turn out to be the devil. It is hard for us guys, because we are targets. People are coming at us. I am not crying or making excuses for anybody or myself, but life is hard."
Qualifying should not be difficult this time, with three spots for Athens available to teams from North and South America. Argentina and the United States are considered virtual certainties, with Canada, Puerto Rico, Brazil and Venezuela the best contenders for the third berth.
Despite this, the competition will be much stronger than it was four years ago in Puerto Rico, when the U.S. team was never seriously challenged, winning all of its ten matches.
The American team consists of guards Ray Allen, Allen Iverson, Jason Kidd, Mike Bibby, Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady, and forwards Elton Brand, Karl Malone, Richard Jefferson and Nick Collison. Tim Duncan and Jermaine O'Neal, power forwards on their NBA teams, will play center for the United States. Malone, a member of the original Dream Team, has not played for a U.S. team since the 1996 Olympics - a period when the Americans were still dominant.
Raw talent alone will not get the job done anymore. "It's becoming more an more difficult," said NBA Final M.V.P Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs. "People continue to get talented players out of their systems.
These European national teams grow up together. These kids grow up over the years together. They play a lot more together than we do on a yearly basis. So we put together a team and we have a quick time to gel, and it is all about understanding our team-mates and understanding what kind of scheme we are going to run and go out here and try and do our best."
Brown, who was an assistant coach for the U.S. team when they won Olympic gold in Sydney three years ago, told reporters that Kobe Bryant's replacement has a great opportunity to shine in the limelight.
"We miss Kobe," he said. "He is apart of this team, but he wasn't going to play because of his injury. The way I look at it, hopefully we are going to have him in Greece if we qualify but it's a blessing for Vince Carter. Vince was an unbelievable player in the Olympics in 2000. This is a great opportunity to show people what a special player he is."
Toronto Raptor star Vince Carter believes the Americans can still dominate despite the development of the game elsewhere.
"One thing we wanted was to have the game globally," he said. "And they are catching on, starting to understand and enjoy it, so they are supposed to get better. We just have to step up our game and just bring the best everytime and just go out there and keep winning."
The team will practice at John Jay until August 18, playing an exhibition game against Puerto Rico next Friday (August 15) at Madison Square Garden.
The U.S. team opens the Olympic qualifying tournament on August 20 against Brazil.
Bureau Report