2008 USA Basketball Roster Released

[jdubv724]

http://olympics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/23/us-mens-basketball-roster-announced/

Carmelo Anthony (Denver)
Carlos Boozer (Utah)
Chris Bosh (Toronto)
Kobe Bryant (Lakers)
Dwight Howard (Orlando)
LeBron James (Cleveland)
Jason Kidd (Dallas)
Chris Paul (New Orleans)
Tayshaun Prince (Detroit)
Michael Redd (Milwaukee)
Dwyane Wade (Miami)
Deron Williams (Utah)

I wonder why none of the big three arent on the lineup. It would be a much better team if you take out Boozer, Prince, and Wade in exchange for Pierce, KG, and Allen. Oh well...

I cant wait to see Dwight Howard bullying the paint in the Olympics. :rockon:

I think the starting 5 should be

5. Howard
4. Mello
3. LeBron
2. Kobe
1. CP

Maybe Kidd instead of Chris Paul......

[str8jacket]

Melo....

:mad: Lets hope K can get him to play Defense for once in his life.

[DawgFanatic]

Amare Stoudemire declined the invitation. I can't see the u.s.a winning with this team...way too many ego's here. And they could of used better players than redd,deron, bosh and anythony. They are great.. but they would be better with kg and the celtics stars.

[Peerless]

They need Tim Duncan.

[Atwnbroncfan]

I'm a little frightned when your starting PF is Melo. Yes he is a great low post player but lacks the size. How on earth is he going to defend big PF, like Dirk. Although Melo has proven to be the best International basketball player for the U.S. We will se what happens, but I think the lack of big men will hurt them.

[jdubv724]

Melo and Lebron both are 6'8 240 +. Not too many international players playing the 4 spot are that big. Yao Ming and Zydrunas Ilgauskas arent playing in the Olympics this year.

I dont see us having any problems this year. No team can run with us. Especially when Kidd is running the show. We will wear down the other teams bigs and we have more than enough depth. If for some reason we are getting killed on the block, then we can just bring Bosh or Boozer to play alongside Howard. But, I dont think we will ever need to play 2 bigs together at the same time.

[silkamilkamonic]

And this is arguably the best team USA has at the moment with the exception of a handful of players.

My oh my how far down has USA basketball fallen from it's yesteryears.

[Maharishineo]

Garnett and Duncan both declined to participate in yet another stint with the American basketball team.

While Kobe and LeBron and the two staples of this team, the 2012 Olympic team is going to by dynamite--despite the likelihood of not having Bryant, or at least a much older version of him. Melo, James, Bosh, and Wade will all be peaking, Deron Williams and Chris Paul will both be on the top of their game as point guards, as will Dwight Howard. Who knows, maybe Greg Oden will be a force by then, and he'll be enthused about joining up.

We're stacked, and we definitely have the talent to win this time around, so long as the talent meshes. But that's why they've been so focused on trying to practice more, and participate in more events leading up to the games. Still, I personally can't avoid looking forward to the 2012 Olympic games, I just hope these guys can do better than me and nag this round--because I think the 2012 group will be the best since the Dream Team.

[jdubv724]

Garnett and Duncan both declined to participate in yet another stint with the American basketball team.

While Kobe and LeBron and the two staples of this team, the 2012 Olympic team is going to by dynamite--despite the likelihood of not having Bryant, or at least a much older version of him. Melo, James, Bosh, and Wade will all be peaking, Deron Williams and Chris Paul will both be on the top of their game as point guards, as will Dwight Howard. Who knows, maybe Greg Oden will be a force by then, and he'll be enthused about joining up.

We're stacked, and we definitely have the talent to win this time around, so long as the talent meshes. But that's why they've been so focused on trying to practice more, and participate in more events leading up to the games. Still, I personally can't avoid looking forward to the 2012 Olympic games, I just hope these guys can do better than me and nag this round--because I think the 2012 group will be the best since the Dream Team.


I dont know.... It will be pretty tough for us to put together a team as good as the 1992 dream team. With the exception of Christian Laetner everyone on that team was one of the top 50 players in NBA history. Stockton, Malone, Barkely, Jordan, Bird, David Robinson, Bird, Magic, (wasnt Olajuwan on the team?), Shaq, Isiah Thomas...

2012 could. I just think it would take a helluva lot. The backcourt could be just as good if LeBron gets a jumpshot and the other players you named keep getting better. But outside of Dwight Howard i dont think there is a young big guy in the league that can come close to the big men that were on the 92 dream team. We will definitly be a more versatile team though.....

[Maharishineo]

I dont know.... It will be pretty tough for us to put together a team as good as the 1992 dream team. With the exception of Christian Laetner everyone on that team was one of the top 50 players in NBA history. Stockton, Malone, Barkely, Jordan, Bird, David Robinson, Bird, Magic, (wasnt Olajuwan on the team?), Shaq, Isiah Thomas...

2012 could. I just think it would take a helluva lot. The backcourt could be just as good if LeBron gets a jumpshot and the other players you named keep getting better. But outside of Dwight Howard i dont think there is a young big guy in the league that can come close to the big men that were on the 92 dream team. We will definitly be a more versatile team though.....

10 of the players on the Dream Team were on the 50 greatest players of all time list. I don't know that one can ever be beat. I wasn't saying that 2012 is going to be better, but it should certainly be the closest we've come since.

:salute:

[Ohio Broncos]

The team looks alright. My only beef is that the only deadeye sniper on this squad is Michael Redd. I would've liked to see another long range bomber added to this team since most of the international teams will try to play zone against the US and they could always use another shooter.

If it were up to me, I would've dropped Kidd and added Joe Johnson, unless Johnson decided not to play (honestly, I don't know if he was asked or not).

[Peerless]

My oh my how far down has USA basketball fallen from it's yesteryears.

You can say that again.

What happened to the "team" play?

[CTM]

You can say that again.

What happened to the "team" play?

You just made the point I was trying to make. I think we always stack the team with stars who are used to taking 25 plus shots per game and then when you bunch them together they dont know how to play with eachother.

We need to rely on Chris Paul and JKidd to distribute the ball effectively and we should be fine though.

[Bronco Axe]

The friggin Olympic teams lately make ya sick dont they? One word describes them, SOFT!!! If they have another repeat of the last 2 games, then it has got to be time to go back to College players again!:fight: Really no excuse thay shouldnt win EVERY game by blowout scores, but defense, and the jump shot, is starting to become a lost art.

[bronc_fan23]

Didn't we cruise through the Pan-Am games with almost the same team? They seemed to work well as a team.

[jdubv724]

Just in case yall want to watch us destroy Canada, Team USA plays on Friday on ESPN 8:00 PM Eastern time:rockon:

USA Basketball TV Schedule
http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/olybb/news/story?page=2008teamusaschedule

Friday, JULY 25
EVENT TIME
USA vs. Canada 8 p.m. ET, ESPNHD, ESPN360.com
THURSDAY, JULY 31
EVENT TIME
USA vs. Turkey 8 a.m. ET, ESPN2, ESPN360.com
USA Basketball All-Access Show: "Road To Redemption" 7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2
USA vs. Turkey, Re-Air 8 p.m. ET, ESPN2
FRIDAY, AUGUST 1
EVENT TIME
USA vs. Turkey, Re-Air 6:30 a.m. ET, ESPNU
USA vs. Lithuania 8 a.m. ET, ESPN2, ESPN360.com
USA vs. Turkey, Re-Air 8 p.m. ET, ESPNU
SATURDAY, AUGUST 2
EVENT TIME
USA vs. Lithuania, Re-Air 3 a.m. ET, ESPN2
SUNDAY, AUGUST 3
EVENT TIME
USA vs. Russia 3 a.m. ET, ESPN2, ESPN360.com
USA vs. Lithuania, Re-Air 5:30 p.m. ET, ESPNU
USA vs. Russia, Re-Air 7 p.m. ET, ESPN2
USA vs. Russia, Re-Air 10 p.m. ET, ESPNU
MONDAY, AUGUST 4
EVENT TIME
USA vs. Russia, Re-Air 6 a.m. ET, ESPNU
TUESDAY, AUGUST 5
EVENT TIME
USA vs. Australia 8 a.m. ET, ESPN2. ESPN360.com
USA Basketball All-Access Show: "Road To Redemption" 7 p.m. ET, ESPN2
USA Basketball All-Access Show: "Road To Redemption" 7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2
USA vs. Australia, Re-Air 8 p.m. ET, ESPN2