Street Ball and US basketball

Off Topic
21

[quote]paytonsp wrote:
malontd: We need Shaq in the since of, every team US faces uses a zone defense. Dump the ball down low, then kick back out to a shooter. Some one will be open. Also when was Kidd ever considered a outside shooter. That is the weakest part of his game.
[/quote]

Could we use Shaq, definitely. Do we “need” him? I don’t think so. The collapsing zone in international rules is different from the active zone rules in the NBA and I think that we negate some of his dominance. Besides, kicking it back out to a shooter only works if you have a shooter.

As far as Kidd; I didn’t mean to say he was a great shooter. He’s definitely better than Marbury. And he’s pretty much a pure point guard, something I think Team USA needs.

Also, don’t think the Globetrotters are just tricks and gimmicks. These guys have real talent and abilities. They do have fundamentals and play together as a team. Granted, I haven’t watched them in years, but I would assume the tradition continues. Sure, they don’t make a lot of money in basketball standards, but if you put them in the NBA playoffs each year, I guarantee they would be competitive and be a challenge for most teams to beat.

22

Yea, I agree with the guy that said that people don’t realize that some of the streetball guys HAVE went to college. Like Skip To My Lou, he went to Fresno State and was damn good, and now he’s playin in the NBA. A bunch of them have gone to college and didnt make the nba.

23

[quote]Sonny S wrote:
Some of you guys completely missed the point of my post. I don’t have a problem with the show, I enjoy it. But, I spec. mentioned the young guys doing these amazing moves INSTEAD OF working on their fundamentals.

Again: they have coordination athleticism and competitiveness and a love for b-ball, and that makes them candidates to play high levels of b-ball, from HS on up.

They bother me because they have a bright future but instead do a circus act. I’m a teacher, and I hate to see talent go to waste.
[/quote]

Sonny -

These guys do what they do because they love it. So what if they don’t want to work on fundamentals or aspire to be an NBA player. If they love what they’re doing and can make a living doing it let 'em be.

24

SS- I guess.

25

[quote]Sonny S wrote:
Some of you guys completely missed the point of my post. I don’t have a problem with the show, I enjoy it. But, I spec. mentioned the young guys doing these amazing moves INSTEAD OF working on their fundamentals.[/quote]

Why should they care about “fundamentals” when their sport (streetball) doesn’t require them.

Besides, how do you know they don’t work on other basketball skills?

26

litespeed- I don’t know. But I do know that the amount of time and practice to learn these moves so well is substantial, and could be better spent on, again, fundamentals. Especially shooting. Everybody agrees that US players are lacking in this area, and I see this as the ultimate proof of this fact.

An hour a day of messing around learning moves that are useless in competition could be used as, what? 200-300 jump shots? Or 200-300 hook shots? Or 150 treys?

Do the math over a course of a few years for a akid in junior or senior high. 4-5 x a week, 40 weeks a year…

27

A few things…

Comparing street ball is like comparing WWF with actual Freestyle wrestling… one is for show and entertainment, the other is for real (albeit I’ll have to say some NBA is also for show but not so much).

We are knocking our NBA team because they can’t shoot blah blah blah, that’s beside the point. Individually, theses guys rock, granted they aren’t tier one, but come on, I’d take just about any of them in a game of 1v1 against anybody from any other nation.

What the team is lacking is TEAMWORK! Five individuals can’t stand against one team of five, as shown in the game as Puerto Rico. We got thrashed because there was hardly any team defense, passing, setting picks, just TEAM stuff.

I say we sent the NBA champion to the olympics four years from now, whoever wins. Think about it, had we sent the Pistons this year, we would dominate. While yes, the Pistons don’t have superstars like Shaq and Kobe or Duncan, but they have the team dynamics. They got their shooters, the inside man, their sixth man, their passer, driver, etc. They have heart and teamwork!

So instead of viewing Olympics as a hassle to have to “give up a summer for”, it really should be a privilege for the NBA champion to “get to participate in.”

28

I will keep this short. Tim duncan with another defensive tower such as kg, oneal or even rasheed to limit opposing points in the paint, plus shooters and a great primeter defender like artest (to keep the opponents shooters in check) is all you need to beat any international team.

No one on this planet can hold duncan man on man, the zone will collapse on him, and he will kick it out to open shooters. Now if those shooters are bibby, redd, ray allen etc instead of rj, melo and the young ones we have the intertional teams are in a lose lose situation.

Either you die at duncans hands in the post or you die by the long bombs collapsing on duncan will create.

29

It’s good entertainment. As long as people don’t get the delusion that they are as good as NBA players…

30

I hate Carmelo Anthony.

http://msn.foxsports.com/story/2677388

The part about him in this article just increases my hatred for this self-centered, sorry excuse for a human being. I wish someone would put him in his place.

31

In response to the first post :

And 1 is not real streetball. No one thats any good at ball does any of those moves in a pickup game. And there are still people who practice like Larry and Michael used to, Im one of them.

32

There probably is a fundamental problem with how basketball is taught and played nowadays, but I don’t think that’s what’s causing the U.S. team’s recent struggles at the international level.

8-12 years from now we will get smacked up by the competition, because by then, all the “ballaz” who can’t make a shot outside 3 feet, dribble legally, pass, rebound, or play defense will make up 95% of the NBA. But yo, dey will have phat tattoos and PLATINUM CHAINS, yo!

The problem with our current team is with selection of players. Here’s who, ideally, I would’ve sent:

Duncan, Garnett, Shaq, Kobe, Kidd, McGrady, Paul Pierce, Jermaine O’Neal, Michael Redd, Ben Wallace, Marbury, Baron Davis.

Now, I realize some of these guys bowed out. But I don’t understand how Richard Jefferson and Lamar Odom are our starting forwards, or how LeBron, Carmelo, Wade, and Okafur ALL made the team. Sure, send a token rook/college player (Wade is the best of the four right now and LeBron would be the marketing angle)…but one-third of the team?!

Also…AI is good but not the best player on the U.S. team as he is portrayed by himself and the media. Heavily overrated.

33

I give Iverson credit because he was the fisrt superstar to say he was going, an disregard what everybody else was doing. Plus, he is a competitor beyond his abilities.

Second, looking past Kidd, Wade might be the second best “pure” point guard we had to represent Team USA right now.

Do we really need both Carmello and Lebron? No. But, Lebron has been ok; whereas ‘Melo has been totally ineffective. I think Carmello is still wrapped up in the "’ Bron and " Melo" rivalry. He’s not ready to represent America in the Olympics.

34

Mego- where do you play?

BTW- I forgot to mention Toni Kukoc and Steve Kerr on those Bulls teams. Oops.

35

I disagree–I think Baron Davis is the next best PG after Kidd in the NBA right now, although Wade will be among the best very, very soon.

36

Anyway you slice it, Lithuania just took control after that 4 point play and the USA loses, again.

This is getting just downright pathetic.

37

Go Creamed Team go.

It’s sad how many players do not want to represent the country that has given them so much. If it were not for the US and the NBA, the majority of these guys would be pumping gas. Stardom and millions of dollars have turned these guys into selfish, ungrateful bums.

On a side note, Lithuania houses around 3.6 million people, and Puerto Rico is just shy of 4 million…USA? 275 million and we can’t pull a decent team of 12 guys together to play a game that we invented.

Stone

38

Not to be overly offensive, but couldn’t time spent whining about lack of fundamentals in US amateur basketball be better spent on coaching said basketball? I’m sure there’s a shortage somewhere. Or improving one’s teaching skills? I assume there’s some single part of your approach and practice that is weak.

Do you really think streetball is endemic to the USA and responsible for the USA team’s losses? Could they have been beaten by a better team?

I find your reasoning almost communistic. People show ability that is related to a marketable skill so their future actions should be directed? If the guy flipping bugers shows excellent manual dexterity, lets get him to work towards being a surgeon, where that skill is needed?

I guess my point is there are doubtless many reasons someone plays streetball. It’s not hurting you. Let’em.

39

Sorry stone, invented by a Canadian who happened to be at UMass at the time.

And Sonny, look at your very first post. Who says these players want to play in a ‘serious, organized game’? Some do, some don’t. The ones that do probably practice both. Look at Rafer Alston (aka “Skip to My Lou”).

40

I think the moves that the guys do on these shows are great. who cares if they cant use them in a real game or what not. they are practicing them for “fake” games anyways. aka for fun. Now if they wanted to make the league then they could do like Skip to My lou AKA Rafer Alston now of the Toronto raptors did, have your flashy moves and what not, but practice jumpshots and running a team. Rafer isnt the best guard in the league but he just got like 29 million for 6 years while being considered the greatest “streetballer” of his time and one of the best to do it.

Why do we hold these guys up to such standards anyways, they are just playing a game and having fun. If they win or lose it doesnt matter much.

Same goes for the olypics. if the US loses who cares. Basketball is fun to play and watch, dont get so caught up in the final score. Besides what some of the teams are quite good and losing to them is nothing to be ashamed about.