The Redeem Team is Good

So in the last post I said I would weigh in on the Redeem Team. But now the Olympics have been over for around 2 weeks and obviously, I’m over it.

But there is still things I can talk about that hasn’t been said before. During the Olympic run I kept up with the Redeem Team via SlamOnline. I’ve been an avid reader of SLAM magazine for maybe 9 years and their website is usually quite busy with blogs and rapid comment posts to their hilarious articles.

Today, there was a link to an article from the Illawarra Mercury, a regional newspaper in Australia which quoted Glen Saville as saying Kobe was a cool dude, but the rest of Team USA were assholes.

To my dismay, more and more Australians are posting comments on SLAM Online. Their responses to this article were generally along the lines of:

 ”I’m an aussie,and i went to the Gold medal match in Sydney in 2000.After the disgraceful performance by the the US 4X100m relay team(flexing their small P’s)i hoped the US BBall team would be different,unfotunately the same egotistical display was on show.Don’t get me wrong the US team were undeniably the best group of atheletes in the world but KG screaming F this and F that did leave a sour taste in my mouth.I love BBall,have since my first game back in 90,MJ,Pip,Magic,DRob,LJ C.Barkley but maybe the US forgets the true spirit of the Olympics.I wish only the best for the NBA,it’s my heartbeat and it saddens me to see the “dream team ” act like wankers.”

or

“As always, an Aussie says it the way it is. It’s worth noting the difference between an observation and complaining. There’s a reason this was only said in a small regional newspaper (not even a major city newspaper in Oz) and not shouted from the rooftops. Saville just pointed out the obvious.”

It makes me think alot of Australians are idiots. And it pisses me off that I’m an Australian.

Firstly, if you watched The Boomers play, you’d realise that they are one of the most aggressive teams in International basketball, lacking the United State’s athleticism and Eurobasketball’s agility and size, they compete by being gritty. They don’t let plays go, they’ll hack you before giving up a dunk, even if they risk injuring the other player.  In the NBA and most other Pro leagues, if a player has gone up for the dunk, the other players usually let them go. Australians don’t always do that. It’s not a coincidence that whenever USA play Australia there are fights because of that alone.

I also know that people outside North America in general, are not familiar with that American ‘Bravado’ concept. Perhaps the language barrier prevents flames from flaring between European Teams and the USA, but Australians understand that shit and take it personal.

Australians, and other people outside North America, don’t seem to understand that trash talk is not personal. They don’t recognise that the player who does the trash talking is trying to put you off your game, beat you psychologically, demoralize you.

Players will stare you down to make you mad, dealing with trash talk is a part of the challenge. Players who talk will talk every single game to anyone. I remember when I played on an Australian rep team touring the US, we played against this one team at a tournament who had this guy talking to his teammates in an Australian accent saying ‘mate’ and shit all game. I didn’t take it personally, it was actually kinda funny. (Mainly because it was a horrible attempt, but good effort).

It’s similar to when some fans hate Floyd Mayweather for being cocky. Now he is clearly trying to take fighters out of their frame of mind. After every fight I’ve seen, Mayweather is gracious to his opponent.

But either way, in this tournament, Team USA were out for revenge, after having been humiliated for the past 8 years, as an opponent, I’d expect the Americans to be angry. After all, the world is against them.

So that’s my speel about the Redeem Team. On a basketball note, The US better keep getting the best players to play and keep having them for a 3 year commitment, because that’s really what it takes now.

Cocky man, cocky.