U.S.A. vs. Spain Recap
Posted 8/25 at 8:40 AM
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Just to make sure I’m as big of a basketball junkie as I think I am, I stayed up late Saturday night (Sunday morning) and watched the gold medal game between the U.S. and Spain.
I was remarkably impressed by the game itself. It went back and forth and momentum ebbed and flowed between both teams for the majority of the game. The U.S. would get a double-digit lead and look like they were about to blow the thing wide open and Spain would quickly respond and cut the deficit in half. The U.S. would then get push the lead up again, and Spain would respond. This occurred throughout the entire game.
I was nervous. I didn’t realize how badly I wanted the gold medal for the U.S. until I realized that my heart was racing at 3:15 in the morning even though I was dead tired hours beforehand. Marc Gasol was throwing elbows and converting baseline spin-move reverse layups. Rudy Fernandez and Juan Carlos Navarro came through for Spain time after time. I kept watching Navarro hit floaters in the paint and I wanted to scream at the defenders for letting him. When Fernandez kept hitting three-pointers, I was seriously concerned.
And all of a sudden, with the gold medal on the line and Spain threatening to defeat a U.S. team that had beaten them by 37 only a week before, Kobe Bryant takes over. He hits an impossible shot in the lane. He drills a three-pointer while being fouled by Fernandez. He sinks the free throw for the rare four-point play while Fernandez goes to the bench with his fifth foul. Game over.
Only a few days ago I said that Kobe was overrated. I’m an idiot. Say what you want about his selfish play (which I did), and say what you want about his shot selection at times (which I have), but the guy is clutch. More so than anyone else on the planet, the guy is going to take the shots that matter with the game on the line. And more often than not, he’s going to come through. That’s the type of player you want. I understand Kobe a lot more after watching the gold medal game. The reason he shoots a lot, and chooses poor shots from time to time, is because he believes he can make them. He’s not shooting just to get points; he’s shooting to win the game. He thinks he can score on anyone, anywhere, at anytime. This leads people to think he’s selfish. It’s not that as much as he’s uber-confident. It’s this same confidence that makes him the most clutch player in the game. He can’t turn this confidence on and off. So yeah, to call him overrated is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever said, which is saying a lot.
Watching the excitement of all of the U.S. players and coaches after the game coupled with the medal ceremony shortly thereafter game me chill bumps. All of the struggles and talk about American’s inability to player international basketball was erased. I’m hoping that a lot of younger American basketball players took as much pride in the Redeem Team as I did. If that’s the case, we shouldn’t have to worry about keeping U.S.A. at the top of the international game for a long time to come.
Posted 8/25 at 8:40 AM
Congratulations usa,USA’ve better players but spain’s a better team.
Is a big advantage play with the help of the referes but usa team was the best in Pekin.The best player was jimenez for spain(great defender).Best of usa wade and crish paul.Jason kidd so bad.
Spanishmemphisfan.
I don’t know how anyone can say the US got the help of the refs. It looked pretty fair to me. It’s hard to say that Spain is the best team when they lose both times they played the US.
Spain was great! If the referees had respected the FIBA rules Spain would have been the winner by 20 points at least. Congratulations for the gold medal
For those who don’t know FIBA rules, just take a look at this video:http://www.megavideo.com/?v=PJ0H30RH
You’ll see how those complains about travelling violations not called on USA players is not a subjective matter, but a very objective one, and those referees know very well that rule…at least during the rest of the year.
B.t.w., Navarro was great at the end of the final game joking at the referees faces by overacting a clear travelling violation action, which the referees didn’t dare to call! Surely he made them blush!
The refs set the tone of the game early on. If they were making strict traveling calls, the players on both sides would have adjusted. It’s the same with fouls. Whenver the refs let the game get physical, players adjust. It’d be nice if to hear, “Spain played well and just came up a little short, congrats to the U.S.” Oh well.
Referres set the tone of the game early?? There is no tone in travelling calls… Their are rules, and that rules where FIBA RULES.