The United States finished up the pool round with a demolition of Germany. The US had already clinched the top seed in their group, so this game did not technically “matter,” but you wouldn’t notice by the way they absolutely destroyed Germany, using all of their weapons (outside shooting, defense, athleticism, even the inside presence of Dwight Howard!).
Since it wasn’t even all that close, let’s look at some other interesting basketball stories of the day:
* Team USA’s next opponent, Australia, destroyed Group A top seed, Lithuania 106-75, and Australia played the US pretty tough in exhibitions (playing without Andrew Bogut!), so Wednesday’s game should prove to be interesting.
* Jannero Pargo is the latest NBA player to surprisingly (I guess it is no longer much of a surprise, right?) go to play in Europe (or Russia) rather than the NBA. He’s going to make $4 million for playing one year for the Moscow Dynamo (who earlier this year signed Bostjan Nachbar). This exodus of role players is unfortunate for the NBA.
* Michael Finley is going to re-sign with San Antonio. I was a bit surprised by that. I guess San Antonio struck out on its top three or four options, so Finley was the best remaining option.
* Andre Iguodala cashed in with a six-year/$80 million deal. He should send Elton Brand a thank you card.
Adrian Wojnarowski has an interesting article about how the NBA has warned all its teams not to even attempt to sign Iranian center (over 7 feet tall!) Hamed Ehadadi. I can tell from personal experience, as I had to do some research about the Iranian prohibitions for a client recently, and boy, they are strict! So yeah, unless this fellow decides to run away from Iran, the NBA’s hands are severely tied.
“We have been advised that a federal statue prohibits a person or organization in the United States from engaging in business dealings with Iranian nationals.”
doesn’t that mean that the Toronto Raptors can sign him?
anyone watching USA now, the Spain/Croatia quarterfinal is about to start. I’m about to be on TV to the right of the anchor…
hopefully your TV sets didn’t shatter, if anyone saw that.
Gosh, that was an awful half of basketball. Very tough to watch.
I think the Raptors would be considered part of the NBA, which is a US company.
The regs are striking in how broad they apply.
Australia giving the US all they can handle so far, 33-28 US now.
also, Snapper Jones told me today that he thought the Knicks would be surprisingly good this season. he’s a D’Antoni fan and he said that a “cloud has been lifted”. he also isn’t a Ricky Rubio believer, but I think that’s more because he thinks the Pete Maravich comparisons are absurd than anything else.
that’s my report…
US on a 17-0 run, up 69-43 and Bogut is hurt, this one’s over.
two to go, Argentina or Greece, then Spain or Lithuania.
For more nail bitting play by play, vist jon at http://www.angrycondimentbottle.com
News, notes, inside information, shameless plugs, and everything else that makes jon so indespensible to the world of basketball.
two things:
1. There is only 1 ‘t’ in biting.
2. Jon, dont get upset. It was just a joke. And not a very good one at that.
“It was just a joke. And not a very good one at that.”
it rarely is. and it’s a battery, not a condiment bottle.
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