My Big Fat Greek Upset
One thing I like about these blogs is that you can go back and edit previous entries. Yeah, I can see myself going back and switching little things around, like I actually predicted Greece winning.
It would sound something like this:
"There's no way that the United States will be able to handle shooting guard Vassilis "Cut and Paste" Spanoulis, and world renowned big man Sofoklis "Lisp" Schortsianitis. That dreaded combination will send the Americans into the bronze medal game. Count on it."
Of course, journalists (and in this case, amateur journalists) are never 100% right. In fact, if they/we are right 50% of the time, people label them/us genius'. I don't know if there was a single journalist outside of Greece who had them beating Team America. Sure, they were the European champions and that should have counted for more, but come on! There weren't any NBA players on that team. How could they compete?
I know there's going to be a ton of NBA bashing today. In fact, look no further than
Chris Sheridan, who of course boasts, "Anybody believe me now?". I'm not going to go into the blame game today, however.
An English teacher during my freshman year six years ago (not kidding) once told me that it was always more difficult to write an article praising someone than it was to dog them. I'm taking the high road. Say all you want about the Americans not having adequate time to prepare, or the fact that there's no fluidity to their offense. How about this: Greece actually outplayed the United States.
It sounds like a silly concept, but maybe the Team USA didn't lose the game as much as Greece won. I saw the game, and Greece excelled at all the intangibles. They couldn't stop Schortsianitis down low. Spanoulis made some outstanding shots under duress. As a team, Greece's zone defense completely stifled the Americans. As good as Carmelo Anthony is, and he's been really good, Greece took all of their other weapons away.
Kudos to Greece. The Americans, despite what the papers will say, did everything in their mite to win gold in Japan. It didn't happen, but given their finishes in the previous two FIBA get-togethers, they're headed in the right direction. Cut them some slack.
It would sound something like this:
"There's no way that the United States will be able to handle shooting guard Vassilis "Cut and Paste" Spanoulis, and world renowned big man Sofoklis "Lisp" Schortsianitis. That dreaded combination will send the Americans into the bronze medal game. Count on it."
Of course, journalists (and in this case, amateur journalists) are never 100% right. In fact, if they/we are right 50% of the time, people label them/us genius'. I don't know if there was a single journalist outside of Greece who had them beating Team America. Sure, they were the European champions and that should have counted for more, but come on! There weren't any NBA players on that team. How could they compete?
I know there's going to be a ton of NBA bashing today. In fact, look no further than
Chris Sheridan, who of course boasts, "Anybody believe me now?". I'm not going to go into the blame game today, however.
An English teacher during my freshman year six years ago (not kidding) once told me that it was always more difficult to write an article praising someone than it was to dog them. I'm taking the high road. Say all you want about the Americans not having adequate time to prepare, or the fact that there's no fluidity to their offense. How about this: Greece actually outplayed the United States.
It sounds like a silly concept, but maybe the Team USA didn't lose the game as much as Greece won. I saw the game, and Greece excelled at all the intangibles. They couldn't stop Schortsianitis down low. Spanoulis made some outstanding shots under duress. As a team, Greece's zone defense completely stifled the Americans. As good as Carmelo Anthony is, and he's been really good, Greece took all of their other weapons away.
Kudos to Greece. The Americans, despite what the papers will say, did everything in their mite to win gold in Japan. It didn't happen, but given their finishes in the previous two FIBA get-togethers, they're headed in the right direction. Cut them some slack.
posted by Justin Cherot @ 2:47 PM
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