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  • BALListic
    Rookie
    • Jun 2003
    • 50

    #46
    Re: u.s. team

    Madison Square Garden still without electricity
    Associated Press

    NEW YORK -- The U.S. Olympic men's basketball team's exhibition game against Puerto Rico scheduled for Friday night was postponed until Sunday afternoon because of lingering blackout conditions at Madison Square Garden.

    The game will be played at noon EDT, USA Basketball spokesman Craig Miller said.

    The Garden was still without electricity at around noon Friday, and the subways in New York City were not yet running. More than 16,000 tickets were sold for the game, with many of the buyers coming from the city's large Puerto Rican community.

    On Thursday night, the blackout that hit the Northeast forced the postponement of one major league baseball game -- the San Francisco Giants at the New York Mets -- WNBA games in New York and Cleveland, one minor league baseball game in Toledo, and a Canadian Football League in Toronto.

    The United States basketball team, mostly NBA All-Stars, scrimmaged Puerto Rico on Thursday and was done for the day by the time the blackout hit in the afternoon.

    Some of the players had trouble getting back to midtown Manhattan after playing golf, while others spent time Thursday night milling about their hotel lobby and playing cards with other guests, Miller said.

    The players were able to gain access to their rooms with key cards powered by a backup generator, but there was no air conditioning or lighting. Power was restored at the hotel at about 4:30 a.m.

    The U.S. team still plans to leave Monday for San Juan, where it will begin play in the 10-team Olympic qualifying tournament Aug. 20 against Brazil.

    The top three teams in that tournament will earn berths in the 2004 Athens Games

    Comment

    • BALListic
      Rookie
      • Jun 2003
      • 50

      #47
      Re: u.s. team

      From Today's Links:

      by Lang Whitaker
      (for Monday, August 18, 2003 -- posted at 2:30 p.m.)

      It has been just over two months since the San Antonio Spurs finished off the New Jersey Nets to win the NBA title. But it seems longer. Since then we've had nothing but Kobe, Kobe, Kobe, and, despite one night of fun with LeBron and his amazing un-technicolored dream suit at the Draft, there's been little actual basketball to distract us from the offseason maneuvering and manure.

      Which is why I was so excited to get back to action and see the US Men's National Team play. Even if it was against an overmatched Puerto Rico squad.

      The game was originally scheduled for Friday night, but it would have been hard to play in Madison Square Garden without any power (though the Knicks have been doing it for nearly two seasons now), so it was rescheduled for noon yesterday.

      I got to the Garden one hour before tip-off and headed down courtside. Unlike the NBA media availability rules, international basketball laws forbid reporters from the locker rooms, so I sat on the US bench and watched Allen Iverson, Tracy McGrady and the Tim Duncan Robot shoot around. As he left the court, Iverson stopped and patiently signed autographs for a good ten minutes, something I've never seen him do before.

      Since it was a noon game, the Garden switched up their normal bacon and eggs menu in favor of sausages and small pancakes. I grabbed three pancakes, smeared them with butter and covered them syrup. One bite in, I realized that I'd actually smeared them with cream cheese, which was sort of like spackling the pancakes together. It was probably because I'd got up at 8:00 yesterday morning to watch the US Under-17 soccer team play live in Finland against Sierra Leone, where the next LeBron, 14-year-old Freddy Adu, scored the winning goal in the 89th minute. Gangsta.

      Anyway, SLAM senior editor Ryan Jones decided to go up and sit in our assigned seats in the press tables, but contributing editor Ben Osborne and I sat with the people, finding two empty seats at midcourt in the lower level. The stands were maybe three-quarters full, and though I figured there might be a majority of Puerto Rico fans at the game, it was probably about equal. Anyway, after hearing the Puerto Rican national anthem, I can see why there weren't more Puerto Rico fans. I wonder how hard it would be to change the national anthem to Big Pun's "Still Not a Player"?

      The Us took the court looking rested and ready -- JASONKIDD! was tanned and I think he was still wearing his golf spikes. The US starting line-up was JASONKIDD! and Allen Iverson in the backcourt, T-Mac at the three, Jermaine O'Neal at the four and the Tim Duncan Robot at center. Puerto Rico countered with Carlos Arroyo and Eddie Casiano in their backcourt, with a frontline of Jose Ortiz, Elias Ayuso and Daniel Santiago. Of that quintet, Arroyo has probably had the most distinguished NBA career, spending the last three years as a third-string point guard in Denver, then Toronto and then Utah, where he could inherit the starting gig this season. Last year, in Utah, Arroyo played in 44 games and averaged 8.1 minutes per game. Last season in Jersey, JASONKIDD! played in 80 regular season games, averaged 37.4 minutes per game and received consideration as the Most Valuable Player in the League. Santiago and Ortiz have also spent time in the League. Santiago spent two years on the Suns' bench before playing in Italy, and recently signed to play next year with the newly decimated Bucks. Ortiz played two seasons in the late '80s with the Jazz before returning to Puerto Rico, where he became an island celebrity, played on the same club team (Cangrejeros) with Arroyo, opened a bar and earned the nickname "Picoline."

      Also, Ortiz looks horrifyingly like Lorenzo Lamas. I kept waiting for him to yank out the red laser pointer and point out the flaws on Joumana Kidd, who was courtside with T.J. and my main man Ahmad Rashad, apparently enjoying an off day from caddying for Michael Jordan.

      The game tipped off and AI immediately began moving the ball around, whipping it to McGrady or Kidd and avoiding getting himself into many of those Philly situations where he's got the ball with ten seconds left on the shot clock and has to force up, as Marv Albert would say, a...wild shot. The Puerto Ricans, wearing jerseys from And 1 that looked like the old Sixers uniforms that Charles Barkley once described as looking like his daughter had drawn them with a crayon, took the ball to the hole, especially their big men. Ortiz and Santiago looked like All-Star centers (in the Eastern Conference, at least), diving to the basket and going right around Jermaine O'Neal again and again.

      Kidd soon came out, replaced by his mini me, Mike Bibby, who was joined by Vince Carter. VC15 wore no braces except on his teeth, but he didn't appear to have the confidence in his legs that he used to spring around with, often resorting to his fadeaway jumper.

      Entertainment between quarters was provided by a group of freshly-scrubbed white people called the "Fan Patrol." Ben asked me to mention here how he was upset there was no attempt to appeal to the considerable Puerto Rican fan base.

      Speaking of considerable Puerto Ricans, with 9:40 to go in the second, Fat Joe and his posse (featuring his main man/manager Macho) rolled in, taking regular seats in the stands a section over from us.

      Puerto Rico, down 31-23 after one quarter, staged a mini-run against the US reserves (Bibby, Vince, Elton Brand, Ray Allen and Richard Jefferson). Ray Allen, wearing the Jordan 18.5s, was the only real threat for the US, hitting jumper after jumper. Again, there was no real scoring threat inside for the US, despite a considerable size advantage. The score at the half was US 54, Puerto Rico 48.

      At halftime we checked out the merchandise stands, where there was no Puerto Rico stuff for sale, except for a lame t-shirt that also had the US logo on it. In the media work room we bumped into Le Monde corespondent Pascal Giberne, who was saying that there was no way the game should be so close. The US, he noted, was filled with NBA All-Stars, while the Puerto Ricans had no business being in the game. I argued that just because the US has all the best players in the world, they had only practiced together three times and hadn't become a cohesive team yet. The best players, I said, don't always make the best team. As evidence, I trotted out the French national soccer team from the 2002 World Cup, the defending champs who went 0-3 in the first round and got sent home.

      "They did not have the best players," Pascal argued.

      Zidane (who was injured, I know), Thierry Henry, Trezeguet, Desailly, Barthez. Not the best players, but definitely some of the best players, for sure.

      "They were tired," Pascal said.

      Tired? So was his argument. But I think I got my point across. (It's all love, Pascal. Holla at your garçon.)

      The third quarter was more of the same, with the US settling for midrange shots and Puerto Rico going to the rim. If Puerto Rico could have hit their outside shots, they probably could've built a lead. Instead, the only perimeter doing anything for them was Arroyo, who regularly broke down Kidd off the dribble and drove to the basket. Late in the third, as Kidd dribbled at midcourt, Arroyo ripped the ball from him, clean, and the crowd went wild. The only other time the crowd was as excited was late in the game, when Nick Collison, team USA's token whipping boy, came in and fumbled a pass, then passed it directly out of bounds, drawing boos. A few minutes later he got a rebound and stuck it in, then

      The US pulled ahead in the fourth and started playing like a team, mainly on defense, and they outscored Puerto Rico in the fourth 26-8. Though the US couldn't score inside, they outrebounded Puerto Rico 54-23, mainly because Puerto Rico shot 37 percent from the field for the game. Arroyo finished with 18 points and 4 assists, playing 36 of the 40 minutes. The US was led by the Tim Duncan Robot, who put up 21 points and 15 boards, doing it as stealth as his personality.

      After the game, Ben and I headed down into the media holding area, which smelled vaguely of elephants, since it's where the elephants are kept when the circus is in town. For some reason, none of the national magazines that cover basketball (except for SLAM, of course) were there. None of them. No Sports Illustrated, no ESPN the Magazine, not even the NBA's own Hoop, I don't think. Which meant that there were only about 30 media people and a room full of All-stars It was the kind of access you rarely get, that I don't think I've ever received before. Unfortunately, I wasn't working on a story, so I had nothing particular to ask these guys about.

      T-Mac was the first to arrive, wearing a white T-shirt and black pants. He sat down at a table and was joined by one writer. Vince followed him in, wearing a baby blue and gold Rucker All-stars jersey. He sat down at a table alone, so I sat with him. In front of us walked Allen Iverson, wearing a Glenn Robinson Hawks jersey with a matching Hawks cap, accesorizing his outfit with a small child draped over his shoulder. I turned and asked Vince how the knee was.

      "Good."

      Great! Was he worried that the game was so close for so long, that the US couldn't pull away until the very end?

      "Nah. They've been practicing for four months, and we've barely practiced a week. Once we play together a little more we'll be even tougher. A lot of us don't know the little things about playing with each other. Like, where does Allen want the ball to get his shot off, or when is Jason going to throw an alley oop and when is he going to throw a bounce pass. There's a lot of that sort of stuff we've got to get used to about playing with each other. It's about getting acclimated to the style of play, too. In the international rules, you can play a straight-up zone, just stand there in the lane all day, things you just don't see in the League."

      Did he think Puerto Rico was about as good as the teams they'll face in Puerto Rico for the actual tournament?

      "Well, they're a great team, and you can tell they've worked hard and put in time on their offense and defense. But the team's we'll play down there are going to be a lot better. And I'm not trying to take anything away from Puerto Rico, but we definitely need to get better."

      What did he do on Thursday night?

      "During the blackout? I was at the hotel [the Ritz Carlton on Central Park South], and I hung out in the lobby. I ended up sitting outside on the curb with AI and Tracy. We just sat out there and played cards until it was about 11:30 or so."

      Did you go out after that?

      "No, I got tired and went up to my room. But it was so dark that I couldn't see anything in my room. I couldn't even see the desk or anything, so I opened up my cell phone and used the light on my phone to see my way in."

      I wandered over to Iverson and asked him about the blackout. He said he got hot and found an ice cream man on the street.

      "It was hot, and when I got my ice cream, I had a big cup that I couldn't wait to get to," he said. "But the first scoop tasted terrible. It spoiled my day."

      I asked him about hanging out with Vince and Tracy during the blackout.

      "In a way, it was good, because you're with a bunch of people and you, you know, you have to make the best of a bad situation. I know that guys could have gone upstairs to their room, tried to sleep in that heat and tried to deal with [the blackout] on their own, alone. But guys dealt with it together and complained to each other. And in the middle of all that, we had a lot of laughter, played a lot of card games. It's definitely something I'm going to remember for the rest of my life. And it was kind of scary at first, too, because no one was sure if it was maybe a terrorist situation or whatever. But once we knew what it was, we just made the best of it."

      And the really big question: Who won the most money at cards?

      "No one. We didn't play for money. I was mad about that, too, because I wanted to take all their money."

      One last thing worth noting: Of all the times I've seen Allen Iverson talk to reporters over the last five years, I've never seen Allen like he was yesterday. He sat there for maybe twenty or thirty minutes, answered everything all the reporters asked him, even seemed to be having fun with it. Then he was on "SportsCenter" last night talking about how he wants to be a "real man," even mentioning cutting off his hair and having his tatoos "lasered off" (which might take the Star Wars Missile Defense System to accomplish). Could we be seeing a new Allen Iverson? I don't know, but it's something worth considering.

      (And I loved how AI used the phrase "squeaky clean" eight times. Yes, I was counting.)

      So that was that. Interestingly, the games in Puerto Rico will not be on TV. I don't know who's fault this is, but I'll blame ESPN. Speaking of, I was talking to an NBA official before the game when he mentioned how much better ESPN's coverage will be next season if they can add Doug Collins as an announcer. I informed him that Doug Collins had signed with TNT (according to the NY Daily News, Collins thought the ESPN product was inferior to the TNT product). The NBA staffer was shocked, asked me if I'd made it up.

      Congrats on the long-term deal with ESPN, all you NBA suits!

      Comment

      • BALListic
        Rookie
        • Jun 2003
        • 50

        #48
        Re: u.s. team

        From Today's Links:

        by Lang Whitaker
        (for Monday, August 18, 2003 -- posted at 2:30 p.m.)

        It has been just over two months since the San Antonio Spurs finished off the New Jersey Nets to win the NBA title. But it seems longer. Since then we've had nothing but Kobe, Kobe, Kobe, and, despite one night of fun with LeBron and his amazing un-technicolored dream suit at the Draft, there's been little actual basketball to distract us from the offseason maneuvering and manure.

        Which is why I was so excited to get back to action and see the US Men's National Team play. Even if it was against an overmatched Puerto Rico squad.

        The game was originally scheduled for Friday night, but it would have been hard to play in Madison Square Garden without any power (though the Knicks have been doing it for nearly two seasons now), so it was rescheduled for noon yesterday.

        I got to the Garden one hour before tip-off and headed down courtside. Unlike the NBA media availability rules, international basketball laws forbid reporters from the locker rooms, so I sat on the US bench and watched Allen Iverson, Tracy McGrady and the Tim Duncan Robot shoot around. As he left the court, Iverson stopped and patiently signed autographs for a good ten minutes, something I've never seen him do before.

        Since it was a noon game, the Garden switched up their normal bacon and eggs menu in favor of sausages and small pancakes. I grabbed three pancakes, smeared them with butter and covered them syrup. One bite in, I realized that I'd actually smeared them with cream cheese, which was sort of like spackling the pancakes together. It was probably because I'd got up at 8:00 yesterday morning to watch the US Under-17 soccer team play live in Finland against Sierra Leone, where the next LeBron, 14-year-old Freddy Adu, scored the winning goal in the 89th minute. Gangsta.

        Anyway, SLAM senior editor Ryan Jones decided to go up and sit in our assigned seats in the press tables, but contributing editor Ben Osborne and I sat with the people, finding two empty seats at midcourt in the lower level. The stands were maybe three-quarters full, and though I figured there might be a majority of Puerto Rico fans at the game, it was probably about equal. Anyway, after hearing the Puerto Rican national anthem, I can see why there weren't more Puerto Rico fans. I wonder how hard it would be to change the national anthem to Big Pun's "Still Not a Player"?

        The Us took the court looking rested and ready -- JASONKIDD! was tanned and I think he was still wearing his golf spikes. The US starting line-up was JASONKIDD! and Allen Iverson in the backcourt, T-Mac at the three, Jermaine O'Neal at the four and the Tim Duncan Robot at center. Puerto Rico countered with Carlos Arroyo and Eddie Casiano in their backcourt, with a frontline of Jose Ortiz, Elias Ayuso and Daniel Santiago. Of that quintet, Arroyo has probably had the most distinguished NBA career, spending the last three years as a third-string point guard in Denver, then Toronto and then Utah, where he could inherit the starting gig this season. Last year, in Utah, Arroyo played in 44 games and averaged 8.1 minutes per game. Last season in Jersey, JASONKIDD! played in 80 regular season games, averaged 37.4 minutes per game and received consideration as the Most Valuable Player in the League. Santiago and Ortiz have also spent time in the League. Santiago spent two years on the Suns' bench before playing in Italy, and recently signed to play next year with the newly decimated Bucks. Ortiz played two seasons in the late '80s with the Jazz before returning to Puerto Rico, where he became an island celebrity, played on the same club team (Cangrejeros) with Arroyo, opened a bar and earned the nickname "Picoline."

        Also, Ortiz looks horrifyingly like Lorenzo Lamas. I kept waiting for him to yank out the red laser pointer and point out the flaws on Joumana Kidd, who was courtside with T.J. and my main man Ahmad Rashad, apparently enjoying an off day from caddying for Michael Jordan.

        The game tipped off and AI immediately began moving the ball around, whipping it to McGrady or Kidd and avoiding getting himself into many of those Philly situations where he's got the ball with ten seconds left on the shot clock and has to force up, as Marv Albert would say, a...wild shot. The Puerto Ricans, wearing jerseys from And 1 that looked like the old Sixers uniforms that Charles Barkley once described as looking like his daughter had drawn them with a crayon, took the ball to the hole, especially their big men. Ortiz and Santiago looked like All-Star centers (in the Eastern Conference, at least), diving to the basket and going right around Jermaine O'Neal again and again.

        Kidd soon came out, replaced by his mini me, Mike Bibby, who was joined by Vince Carter. VC15 wore no braces except on his teeth, but he didn't appear to have the confidence in his legs that he used to spring around with, often resorting to his fadeaway jumper.

        Entertainment between quarters was provided by a group of freshly-scrubbed white people called the "Fan Patrol." Ben asked me to mention here how he was upset there was no attempt to appeal to the considerable Puerto Rican fan base.

        Speaking of considerable Puerto Ricans, with 9:40 to go in the second, Fat Joe and his posse (featuring his main man/manager Macho) rolled in, taking regular seats in the stands a section over from us.

        Puerto Rico, down 31-23 after one quarter, staged a mini-run against the US reserves (Bibby, Vince, Elton Brand, Ray Allen and Richard Jefferson). Ray Allen, wearing the Jordan 18.5s, was the only real threat for the US, hitting jumper after jumper. Again, there was no real scoring threat inside for the US, despite a considerable size advantage. The score at the half was US 54, Puerto Rico 48.

        At halftime we checked out the merchandise stands, where there was no Puerto Rico stuff for sale, except for a lame t-shirt that also had the US logo on it. In the media work room we bumped into Le Monde corespondent Pascal Giberne, who was saying that there was no way the game should be so close. The US, he noted, was filled with NBA All-Stars, while the Puerto Ricans had no business being in the game. I argued that just because the US has all the best players in the world, they had only practiced together three times and hadn't become a cohesive team yet. The best players, I said, don't always make the best team. As evidence, I trotted out the French national soccer team from the 2002 World Cup, the defending champs who went 0-3 in the first round and got sent home.

        "They did not have the best players," Pascal argued.

        Zidane (who was injured, I know), Thierry Henry, Trezeguet, Desailly, Barthez. Not the best players, but definitely some of the best players, for sure.

        "They were tired," Pascal said.

        Tired? So was his argument. But I think I got my point across. (It's all love, Pascal. Holla at your garçon.)

        The third quarter was more of the same, with the US settling for midrange shots and Puerto Rico going to the rim. If Puerto Rico could have hit their outside shots, they probably could've built a lead. Instead, the only perimeter doing anything for them was Arroyo, who regularly broke down Kidd off the dribble and drove to the basket. Late in the third, as Kidd dribbled at midcourt, Arroyo ripped the ball from him, clean, and the crowd went wild. The only other time the crowd was as excited was late in the game, when Nick Collison, team USA's token whipping boy, came in and fumbled a pass, then passed it directly out of bounds, drawing boos. A few minutes later he got a rebound and stuck it in, then

        The US pulled ahead in the fourth and started playing like a team, mainly on defense, and they outscored Puerto Rico in the fourth 26-8. Though the US couldn't score inside, they outrebounded Puerto Rico 54-23, mainly because Puerto Rico shot 37 percent from the field for the game. Arroyo finished with 18 points and 4 assists, playing 36 of the 40 minutes. The US was led by the Tim Duncan Robot, who put up 21 points and 15 boards, doing it as stealth as his personality.

        After the game, Ben and I headed down into the media holding area, which smelled vaguely of elephants, since it's where the elephants are kept when the circus is in town. For some reason, none of the national magazines that cover basketball (except for SLAM, of course) were there. None of them. No Sports Illustrated, no ESPN the Magazine, not even the NBA's own Hoop, I don't think. Which meant that there were only about 30 media people and a room full of All-stars It was the kind of access you rarely get, that I don't think I've ever received before. Unfortunately, I wasn't working on a story, so I had nothing particular to ask these guys about.

        T-Mac was the first to arrive, wearing a white T-shirt and black pants. He sat down at a table and was joined by one writer. Vince followed him in, wearing a baby blue and gold Rucker All-stars jersey. He sat down at a table alone, so I sat with him. In front of us walked Allen Iverson, wearing a Glenn Robinson Hawks jersey with a matching Hawks cap, accesorizing his outfit with a small child draped over his shoulder. I turned and asked Vince how the knee was.

        "Good."

        Great! Was he worried that the game was so close for so long, that the US couldn't pull away until the very end?

        "Nah. They've been practicing for four months, and we've barely practiced a week. Once we play together a little more we'll be even tougher. A lot of us don't know the little things about playing with each other. Like, where does Allen want the ball to get his shot off, or when is Jason going to throw an alley oop and when is he going to throw a bounce pass. There's a lot of that sort of stuff we've got to get used to about playing with each other. It's about getting acclimated to the style of play, too. In the international rules, you can play a straight-up zone, just stand there in the lane all day, things you just don't see in the League."

        Did he think Puerto Rico was about as good as the teams they'll face in Puerto Rico for the actual tournament?

        "Well, they're a great team, and you can tell they've worked hard and put in time on their offense and defense. But the team's we'll play down there are going to be a lot better. And I'm not trying to take anything away from Puerto Rico, but we definitely need to get better."

        What did he do on Thursday night?

        "During the blackout? I was at the hotel [the Ritz Carlton on Central Park South], and I hung out in the lobby. I ended up sitting outside on the curb with AI and Tracy. We just sat out there and played cards until it was about 11:30 or so."

        Did you go out after that?

        "No, I got tired and went up to my room. But it was so dark that I couldn't see anything in my room. I couldn't even see the desk or anything, so I opened up my cell phone and used the light on my phone to see my way in."

        I wandered over to Iverson and asked him about the blackout. He said he got hot and found an ice cream man on the street.

        "It was hot, and when I got my ice cream, I had a big cup that I couldn't wait to get to," he said. "But the first scoop tasted terrible. It spoiled my day."

        I asked him about hanging out with Vince and Tracy during the blackout.

        "In a way, it was good, because you're with a bunch of people and you, you know, you have to make the best of a bad situation. I know that guys could have gone upstairs to their room, tried to sleep in that heat and tried to deal with [the blackout] on their own, alone. But guys dealt with it together and complained to each other. And in the middle of all that, we had a lot of laughter, played a lot of card games. It's definitely something I'm going to remember for the rest of my life. And it was kind of scary at first, too, because no one was sure if it was maybe a terrorist situation or whatever. But once we knew what it was, we just made the best of it."

        And the really big question: Who won the most money at cards?

        "No one. We didn't play for money. I was mad about that, too, because I wanted to take all their money."

        One last thing worth noting: Of all the times I've seen Allen Iverson talk to reporters over the last five years, I've never seen Allen like he was yesterday. He sat there for maybe twenty or thirty minutes, answered everything all the reporters asked him, even seemed to be having fun with it. Then he was on "SportsCenter" last night talking about how he wants to be a "real man," even mentioning cutting off his hair and having his tatoos "lasered off" (which might take the Star Wars Missile Defense System to accomplish). Could we be seeing a new Allen Iverson? I don't know, but it's something worth considering.

        (And I loved how AI used the phrase "squeaky clean" eight times. Yes, I was counting.)

        So that was that. Interestingly, the games in Puerto Rico will not be on TV. I don't know who's fault this is, but I'll blame ESPN. Speaking of, I was talking to an NBA official before the game when he mentioned how much better ESPN's coverage will be next season if they can add Doug Collins as an announcer. I informed him that Doug Collins had signed with TNT (according to the NY Daily News, Collins thought the ESPN product was inferior to the TNT product). The NBA staffer was shocked, asked me if I'd made it up.

        Congrats on the long-term deal with ESPN, all you NBA suits!

        Comment

        • BALListic
          Rookie
          • Jun 2003
          • 50

          #49
          Re: u.s. team

          From Today's Links:

          by Lang Whitaker
          (for Monday, August 18, 2003 -- posted at 2:30 p.m.)

          It has been just over two months since the San Antonio Spurs finished off the New Jersey Nets to win the NBA title. But it seems longer. Since then we've had nothing but Kobe, Kobe, Kobe, and, despite one night of fun with LeBron and his amazing un-technicolored dream suit at the Draft, there's been little actual basketball to distract us from the offseason maneuvering and manure.

          Which is why I was so excited to get back to action and see the US Men's National Team play. Even if it was against an overmatched Puerto Rico squad.

          The game was originally scheduled for Friday night, but it would have been hard to play in Madison Square Garden without any power (though the Knicks have been doing it for nearly two seasons now), so it was rescheduled for noon yesterday.

          I got to the Garden one hour before tip-off and headed down courtside. Unlike the NBA media availability rules, international basketball laws forbid reporters from the locker rooms, so I sat on the US bench and watched Allen Iverson, Tracy McGrady and the Tim Duncan Robot shoot around. As he left the court, Iverson stopped and patiently signed autographs for a good ten minutes, something I've never seen him do before.

          Since it was a noon game, the Garden switched up their normal bacon and eggs menu in favor of sausages and small pancakes. I grabbed three pancakes, smeared them with butter and covered them syrup. One bite in, I realized that I'd actually smeared them with cream cheese, which was sort of like spackling the pancakes together. It was probably because I'd got up at 8:00 yesterday morning to watch the US Under-17 soccer team play live in Finland against Sierra Leone, where the next LeBron, 14-year-old Freddy Adu, scored the winning goal in the 89th minute. Gangsta.

          Anyway, SLAM senior editor Ryan Jones decided to go up and sit in our assigned seats in the press tables, but contributing editor Ben Osborne and I sat with the people, finding two empty seats at midcourt in the lower level. The stands were maybe three-quarters full, and though I figured there might be a majority of Puerto Rico fans at the game, it was probably about equal. Anyway, after hearing the Puerto Rican national anthem, I can see why there weren't more Puerto Rico fans. I wonder how hard it would be to change the national anthem to Big Pun's "Still Not a Player"?

          The Us took the court looking rested and ready -- JASONKIDD! was tanned and I think he was still wearing his golf spikes. The US starting line-up was JASONKIDD! and Allen Iverson in the backcourt, T-Mac at the three, Jermaine O'Neal at the four and the Tim Duncan Robot at center. Puerto Rico countered with Carlos Arroyo and Eddie Casiano in their backcourt, with a frontline of Jose Ortiz, Elias Ayuso and Daniel Santiago. Of that quintet, Arroyo has probably had the most distinguished NBA career, spending the last three years as a third-string point guard in Denver, then Toronto and then Utah, where he could inherit the starting gig this season. Last year, in Utah, Arroyo played in 44 games and averaged 8.1 minutes per game. Last season in Jersey, JASONKIDD! played in 80 regular season games, averaged 37.4 minutes per game and received consideration as the Most Valuable Player in the League. Santiago and Ortiz have also spent time in the League. Santiago spent two years on the Suns' bench before playing in Italy, and recently signed to play next year with the newly decimated Bucks. Ortiz played two seasons in the late '80s with the Jazz before returning to Puerto Rico, where he became an island celebrity, played on the same club team (Cangrejeros) with Arroyo, opened a bar and earned the nickname "Picoline."

          Also, Ortiz looks horrifyingly like Lorenzo Lamas. I kept waiting for him to yank out the red laser pointer and point out the flaws on Joumana Kidd, who was courtside with T.J. and my main man Ahmad Rashad, apparently enjoying an off day from caddying for Michael Jordan.

          The game tipped off and AI immediately began moving the ball around, whipping it to McGrady or Kidd and avoiding getting himself into many of those Philly situations where he's got the ball with ten seconds left on the shot clock and has to force up, as Marv Albert would say, a...wild shot. The Puerto Ricans, wearing jerseys from And 1 that looked like the old Sixers uniforms that Charles Barkley once described as looking like his daughter had drawn them with a crayon, took the ball to the hole, especially their big men. Ortiz and Santiago looked like All-Star centers (in the Eastern Conference, at least), diving to the basket and going right around Jermaine O'Neal again and again.

          Kidd soon came out, replaced by his mini me, Mike Bibby, who was joined by Vince Carter. VC15 wore no braces except on his teeth, but he didn't appear to have the confidence in his legs that he used to spring around with, often resorting to his fadeaway jumper.

          Entertainment between quarters was provided by a group of freshly-scrubbed white people called the "Fan Patrol." Ben asked me to mention here how he was upset there was no attempt to appeal to the considerable Puerto Rican fan base.

          Speaking of considerable Puerto Ricans, with 9:40 to go in the second, Fat Joe and his posse (featuring his main man/manager Macho) rolled in, taking regular seats in the stands a section over from us.

          Puerto Rico, down 31-23 after one quarter, staged a mini-run against the US reserves (Bibby, Vince, Elton Brand, Ray Allen and Richard Jefferson). Ray Allen, wearing the Jordan 18.5s, was the only real threat for the US, hitting jumper after jumper. Again, there was no real scoring threat inside for the US, despite a considerable size advantage. The score at the half was US 54, Puerto Rico 48.

          At halftime we checked out the merchandise stands, where there was no Puerto Rico stuff for sale, except for a lame t-shirt that also had the US logo on it. In the media work room we bumped into Le Monde corespondent Pascal Giberne, who was saying that there was no way the game should be so close. The US, he noted, was filled with NBA All-Stars, while the Puerto Ricans had no business being in the game. I argued that just because the US has all the best players in the world, they had only practiced together three times and hadn't become a cohesive team yet. The best players, I said, don't always make the best team. As evidence, I trotted out the French national soccer team from the 2002 World Cup, the defending champs who went 0-3 in the first round and got sent home.

          "They did not have the best players," Pascal argued.

          Zidane (who was injured, I know), Thierry Henry, Trezeguet, Desailly, Barthez. Not the best players, but definitely some of the best players, for sure.

          "They were tired," Pascal said.

          Tired? So was his argument. But I think I got my point across. (It's all love, Pascal. Holla at your garçon.)

          The third quarter was more of the same, with the US settling for midrange shots and Puerto Rico going to the rim. If Puerto Rico could have hit their outside shots, they probably could've built a lead. Instead, the only perimeter doing anything for them was Arroyo, who regularly broke down Kidd off the dribble and drove to the basket. Late in the third, as Kidd dribbled at midcourt, Arroyo ripped the ball from him, clean, and the crowd went wild. The only other time the crowd was as excited was late in the game, when Nick Collison, team USA's token whipping boy, came in and fumbled a pass, then passed it directly out of bounds, drawing boos. A few minutes later he got a rebound and stuck it in, then

          The US pulled ahead in the fourth and started playing like a team, mainly on defense, and they outscored Puerto Rico in the fourth 26-8. Though the US couldn't score inside, they outrebounded Puerto Rico 54-23, mainly because Puerto Rico shot 37 percent from the field for the game. Arroyo finished with 18 points and 4 assists, playing 36 of the 40 minutes. The US was led by the Tim Duncan Robot, who put up 21 points and 15 boards, doing it as stealth as his personality.

          After the game, Ben and I headed down into the media holding area, which smelled vaguely of elephants, since it's where the elephants are kept when the circus is in town. For some reason, none of the national magazines that cover basketball (except for SLAM, of course) were there. None of them. No Sports Illustrated, no ESPN the Magazine, not even the NBA's own Hoop, I don't think. Which meant that there were only about 30 media people and a room full of All-stars It was the kind of access you rarely get, that I don't think I've ever received before. Unfortunately, I wasn't working on a story, so I had nothing particular to ask these guys about.

          T-Mac was the first to arrive, wearing a white T-shirt and black pants. He sat down at a table and was joined by one writer. Vince followed him in, wearing a baby blue and gold Rucker All-stars jersey. He sat down at a table alone, so I sat with him. In front of us walked Allen Iverson, wearing a Glenn Robinson Hawks jersey with a matching Hawks cap, accesorizing his outfit with a small child draped over his shoulder. I turned and asked Vince how the knee was.

          "Good."

          Great! Was he worried that the game was so close for so long, that the US couldn't pull away until the very end?

          "Nah. They've been practicing for four months, and we've barely practiced a week. Once we play together a little more we'll be even tougher. A lot of us don't know the little things about playing with each other. Like, where does Allen want the ball to get his shot off, or when is Jason going to throw an alley oop and when is he going to throw a bounce pass. There's a lot of that sort of stuff we've got to get used to about playing with each other. It's about getting acclimated to the style of play, too. In the international rules, you can play a straight-up zone, just stand there in the lane all day, things you just don't see in the League."

          Did he think Puerto Rico was about as good as the teams they'll face in Puerto Rico for the actual tournament?

          "Well, they're a great team, and you can tell they've worked hard and put in time on their offense and defense. But the team's we'll play down there are going to be a lot better. And I'm not trying to take anything away from Puerto Rico, but we definitely need to get better."

          What did he do on Thursday night?

          "During the blackout? I was at the hotel [the Ritz Carlton on Central Park South], and I hung out in the lobby. I ended up sitting outside on the curb with AI and Tracy. We just sat out there and played cards until it was about 11:30 or so."

          Did you go out after that?

          "No, I got tired and went up to my room. But it was so dark that I couldn't see anything in my room. I couldn't even see the desk or anything, so I opened up my cell phone and used the light on my phone to see my way in."

          I wandered over to Iverson and asked him about the blackout. He said he got hot and found an ice cream man on the street.

          "It was hot, and when I got my ice cream, I had a big cup that I couldn't wait to get to," he said. "But the first scoop tasted terrible. It spoiled my day."

          I asked him about hanging out with Vince and Tracy during the blackout.

          "In a way, it was good, because you're with a bunch of people and you, you know, you have to make the best of a bad situation. I know that guys could have gone upstairs to their room, tried to sleep in that heat and tried to deal with [the blackout] on their own, alone. But guys dealt with it together and complained to each other. And in the middle of all that, we had a lot of laughter, played a lot of card games. It's definitely something I'm going to remember for the rest of my life. And it was kind of scary at first, too, because no one was sure if it was maybe a terrorist situation or whatever. But once we knew what it was, we just made the best of it."

          And the really big question: Who won the most money at cards?

          "No one. We didn't play for money. I was mad about that, too, because I wanted to take all their money."

          One last thing worth noting: Of all the times I've seen Allen Iverson talk to reporters over the last five years, I've never seen Allen like he was yesterday. He sat there for maybe twenty or thirty minutes, answered everything all the reporters asked him, even seemed to be having fun with it. Then he was on "SportsCenter" last night talking about how he wants to be a "real man," even mentioning cutting off his hair and having his tatoos "lasered off" (which might take the Star Wars Missile Defense System to accomplish). Could we be seeing a new Allen Iverson? I don't know, but it's something worth considering.

          (And I loved how AI used the phrase "squeaky clean" eight times. Yes, I was counting.)

          So that was that. Interestingly, the games in Puerto Rico will not be on TV. I don't know who's fault this is, but I'll blame ESPN. Speaking of, I was talking to an NBA official before the game when he mentioned how much better ESPN's coverage will be next season if they can add Doug Collins as an announcer. I informed him that Doug Collins had signed with TNT (according to the NY Daily News, Collins thought the ESPN product was inferior to the TNT product). The NBA staffer was shocked, asked me if I'd made it up.

          Congrats on the long-term deal with ESPN, all you NBA suits!

          Comment

          • BTB
            Th*s **n't s** w*rld
            • Mar 2003
            • 3520

            #50
            Re: u.s. team

            Ya, at first I wanted PP to be there but then I realized how the guy needs a break. People dont realize this, but he probably wasnt 100% for a single game last year. He had constant nagging injuries and the dude had been playing non stop for a year. He needs the summer break and he'll be a lot better this year than he was last.

            The dynasty will return


            Paul Pierce... talent + heart + toughness = The Truth

            Comment

            • BTB
              Th*s **n't s** w*rld
              • Mar 2003
              • 3520

              #51
              Re: u.s. team

              Ya, at first I wanted PP to be there but then I realized how the guy needs a break. People dont realize this, but he probably wasnt 100% for a single game last year. He had constant nagging injuries and the dude had been playing non stop for a year. He needs the summer break and he'll be a lot better this year than he was last.

              The dynasty will return


              Paul Pierce... talent + heart + toughness = The Truth

              Comment

              • BTB
                Th*s **n't s** w*rld
                • Mar 2003
                • 3520

                #52
                Re: u.s. team

                Ya, at first I wanted PP to be there but then I realized how the guy needs a break. People dont realize this, but he probably wasnt 100% for a single game last year. He had constant nagging injuries and the dude had been playing non stop for a year. He needs the summer break and he'll be a lot better this year than he was last.

                The dynasty will return


                Paul Pierce... talent + heart + toughness = The Truth

                Comment

                • battousaiken
                  Rookie
                  • Sep 2002
                  • 183

                  #53
                  Re: u.s. team

                  Can somebody post the e-mail for the writer of this article? As a Puerto Rican I have taken great offense over his national anthem comment, and the whole inferior paintbrush with which he is painting anything Puerto Rico related...

                  Comment

                  • battousaiken
                    Rookie
                    • Sep 2002
                    • 183

                    #54
                    Re: u.s. team

                    Can somebody post the e-mail for the writer of this article? As a Puerto Rican I have taken great offense over his national anthem comment, and the whole inferior paintbrush with which he is painting anything Puerto Rico related...

                    Comment

                    • battousaiken
                      Rookie
                      • Sep 2002
                      • 183

                      #55
                      Re: u.s. team

                      Can somebody post the e-mail for the writer of this article? As a Puerto Rican I have taken great offense over his national anthem comment, and the whole inferior paintbrush with which he is painting anything Puerto Rico related...

                      Comment

                      • fsquid
                        Banned
                        • Jul 2002
                        • 17635

                        #56
                        Re: u.s. team

                        I can't believe he called Freddy Adu "gangsta"

                        Comment

                        • fsquid
                          Banned
                          • Jul 2002
                          • 17635

                          #57
                          Re: u.s. team

                          I can't believe he called Freddy Adu "gangsta"

                          Comment

                          • fsquid
                            Banned
                            • Jul 2002
                            • 17635

                            #58
                            Re: u.s. team

                            I can't believe he called Freddy Adu "gangsta"

                            Comment

                            • truballer4life
                              Rookie
                              • Sep 2002
                              • 332

                              #59
                              Re: u.s. team

                              I thought the article was very good i especislly liked the interviews (i dont know why)

                              Comment

                              • truballer4life
                                Rookie
                                • Sep 2002
                                • 332

                                #60
                                Re: u.s. team

                                I thought the article was very good i especislly liked the interviews (i dont know why)

                                Comment

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