Nick Collison?

[mckerney]

USA Basketball has offered invites to join the team to Elton Brand, Richard Jefferson, and Nick Collison?!?! :confused:

Maybe I'm missing something here, but Nick Collison?

[MylesKnight]

They needed another White Collegiate Power Forward, ala Christian Laettner from the Original Dream Team.

[daedalus]

Or it could be that they could use somebody inside and Collison is a good fundamentally sound player . . . a small quality the European teams have an abundance of and the American team consistently lack.

Nah, can't be something that simple. I'm sure there has to be a conspiracy theory with a race issue in there somewhere. Yeah, that has to be it.

[MylesKnight]

Hey I was joking D.. I like Collison.. I'm just wondering if some of the Raef LaFrentz/KU-itis may carry over to Nick when it comes to Professsional Ball.

I hope he does well and helps bring a World Title back to where it belongs, the good ole' U.S. of A.

[mckerney]

I hope he brings the title home where it belongs, but I find it a little suprising that out of all the players available he was invited.

[GoldenEagle]

Collision not even a top 10 pick IMO

[GoldenEagle]

Dola- lets talk about this. Here is my dream team and be damned if these guys dont want to play. They should play, bottom line.

Centers
Shaq
Tim Duncan
Ben Wallace

Power Forwards
Chris Webber
Jermaine O'Neal
Keith Van Horn

Small Forwards
Kevin Garnett
Shawn Marion
Richard Hamilton

Shooting Guards
Tracy McGrady
Kobe Bryant
Paul Pierce

Point Guards
Allen Iverson
Jason Kidd
Gary Payton

You can go scoring, big, defensive, or unselfish with those players.

[JeeberD]

Steve Francis!!!!!

[GoldenEagle]

I dont know about Francis. I mean sure, he is a slaher and he can break down the offense, but what about D? Plus I just plain dont like him for what he did to the Grizzlies.

[oykib]

Keith Van Horn???

You wouldn't rather have, say, Amare Stoudamire or Karl Malone?

Van Horn's not a real Power Forward anyway. He's a bad Small. I'd rather take Michael Finley than him. If I'm going for a tweener who can hit an outside shot, then Antoine Walker is ten times the player he is.

[GoldenEagle]

I like Van Horn. If were looking at the Olympics Id say maybe Stoudamire because he will be better player by then. I dont like Walker fr his trash talking and he is not AI or shaq, so I wouldnt put up with it.

[oykib]

Van Horn is not one of the best ballplayers in America. He shouldn't be on the team.

[Airhog]

the problem as I see it, is you have star syndrome. Its hard for the 5 best players in the league to play together. They are used to being the best on their team in most cases. So they dont work well together, because most of them think they are all that...

I actually liked it better when we didnt use pro players in competitions like the world championships and the olympics. I think the top 5 or 6 college players can probably win.

Most pro players dont wanna play for something like the world champs, because what is the benefit of them playing in it? none that I can see, of course we already had this discussion about hockey, but I think the real difference is that there are quality hockey players around the world, but in basketball, we have all of the good players.

[oykib]

Well, the reason that the whole dream team concept was incaarnated was because of a number of poor showings internationallly.

The original idea to bolster the team was to allow players within their first three or four pro years to participate. The notion was that the International team was essentially composed of only the best Seniors and Juniors in the country. To extend the years of eligibility to the first few years of the pros would haave maade sure it was more representative of young Americaan basketball talent.

[Tekneek]

It would be nice if the US team had to deal with some sort of relegation issue like the hockey team does now. It would be great to see the US team bumped from the Olympics in basketball.

[oykib]

Originally posted by Tekneek
It would be nice if the US team had to deal with some sort of relegation issue like the hockey team does now. It would be great to see the US team bumped from the Olympics in basketball.

Well, because of their poor showing at the last 'Worlds', they will have to play their way in. But your point is a little silly. These are the best ballplayers in the world. The Olympics without them would be a joke.

[Tekneek]

That's fine if it is a joke. I have no problem with that, since it will be the punchline to the joke they had written all by themselves.