USA-Spain basketball game (gold medal) my personal report

[EKBATAN]

Truth be told , No team can win a championship without a proper center .

its merely impossible to do so without the presence of a big man in the paint.

90s bulls

[persianbruin]

Truth be told , No team can win a championship without a proper center .
& though i am a Kobe Lover till the end , i think he even found out after 3 seasons without Shaq that its merely impossible to do so without the presence of a big man in the paint.

I sound like a broken record but even with shaq the lakers were done. Didnt you see how they got trashed by the pistons and how the year before that they got bounced out in the second round???

What people fail to acknowledge is that the lakers lost their ENTIRE team when shaq left. Kobe one of the youngest all of a sudden became one of the oldest. That is a tough transition.

Also the year shaq won it. alonzo was getting the minutes half the time so he didnt ahve to be 100% even though he had lost 30 pounds from his laker days

[Milad-69]

Truth be told , No team can win a championship without a proper center .
& though i am a Kobe Lover till the end , i think he even found out after 3 seasons without Shaq that its merely impossible to do so without the presence of a big man in the paint.

[Behzad12]

well, the players tried to go to the inside but dwight couldnt get free like the way hakeem, ewing, shaq and david robinson did, so with the clock winding down they were forced to shoot a "contested" three. Howard is good defensively most of the time (except when he got posterized by a white boy) but offensively, he couldnt get it done.
Then again behzad I am from the era that there were a lot of true centers and I remember with shaq gettin old a lot of experts were saying the last true center is about to hang it up. If you ever get full length tapes of players like kareem, ewing,hakeem, shaq and robinson watch them. That is what I am talkin about

if your comparing him to the old greats that you listed, then yes i agree with what you mean

but i dont think that there are going to be anyone else in the NBA anytime soon that are going to be like the centres of old. the style of game has changed and so the players style of game has also changed. so i guess you can say in this day of age, dwight is the best centre of the NBA in ways

[persian boy]

hes the best center in the NBA

[persianbruin]

Internationally Dwight didn't dominate.
But in the NBA he is no doubt the best center.
he was the only person that went on a 20 - 20 game in the plays since KG.

I am not saying he is not a great player. I am saying he is not a true center

[Milad-69]

Internationally Dwight didn't dominate.

But in the NBA he is no doubt the best center.

he was the only person that went on a 20 - 20 game in the plays since KG.

[persianbruin]

Pau Gasol is not a dominant center???
The MVP award has nothing to do with winning a championship though - I'm more interested in the finals than the MVP award and I'm sure the players all feel the same way.
I wonder what Kobe would say if you asked him whether he'd like to trade in his MVP award in order to have beat Boston...

pau gasol is not even a center!!! He is a power forward!!!! He had such a miserable finals that one sports writer jokingly said the lakers should ask for the money back!! He was soft and everytime that he got pushed around he was byotchin to the refs about it.

Also its all reletive. This boston team was really really good and gelled as the playoffs went on. I am more scared of them this year because they have finally found that killer chemistry. They are the best NBA team since the 2001 lakers.

The year miami won they pretty much won by default!! I mean sombody had to win it right?? and it was them. The fact that dallas made it to the finals should say enough about the NBA that year

[faraz]

The fact stands,
shaq did it with kobe and shaq did it with wade. When shaq got a dominant gaurd did Kobe get a dominant center in return??
Also championship is a TEAM concept. When you are comparing who is better shaq or Kobe, then you are comapring individuals. The fact is:
Shaq needed Kobe to win an MVP. Kobe didnt need shaq to win one

Pau Gasol is not a dominant center???

The MVP award has nothing to do with winning a championship though - I'm more interested in the finals than the MVP award and I'm sure the players all feel the same way.

I wonder what Kobe would say if you asked him whether he'd like to trade in his MVP award in order to have beat Boston...

[persianbruin]

The fact still stands:
Shaq did it without Kobe
Kobe couldn't do it without Shaq

The fact stands,

shaq did it with kobe and shaq did it with wade. When shaq got a dominant gaurd did Kobe get a dominant center in return??

Also championship is a TEAM concept. When you are comparing who is better shaq or Kobe, then you are comapring individuals. The fact is:

Shaq needed Kobe to win an MVP. Kobe didnt need shaq to win one

[persianbruin]

persianbruin, i understand the fact that there was no inside presence, but what do you mean by Dwight not being a true center? i think this was more the fact that dwight isnt used to the international game, and even in the international game, there are A LOT of 3 balls taken and its more of a perimeter game.

well, the players tried to go to the inside but dwight couldnt get free like the way hakeem, ewing, shaq and david robinson did, so with the clock winding down they were forced to shoot a "contested" three. Howard is good defensively most of the time (except when he got posterized by a white boy) but offensively, he couldnt get it done.

Then again behzad I am from the era that there were a lot of true centers and I remember with shaq gettin old a lot of experts were saying the last true center is about to hang it up. If you ever get full length tapes of players like kareem, ewing,hakeem, shaq and robinson watch them. That is what I am talkin about

[faraz]

Both Kobe and Wade amazing which brings up the Q: should shaq even get half the credit he gets for all of those championships?? I mean except his rookie year the guy has ALWAYS had a dominant guard on his team!!

The fact still stands:

Shaq did it without Kobe
Kobe couldn't do it without Shaq

[Behzad12]

Dwight howard is nowhere near what a true center should be

persianbruin, i understand the fact that there was no inside presence, but what do you mean by Dwight not being a true center? i think this was more the fact that dwight isnt used to the international game, and even in the international game, there are A LOT of 3 balls taken and its more of a perimeter game.

[persian boy]

Miami will be a good team this year with Dwayne Wades return and Shaun Marion.

[maniei]

respect to spain

no team in the world could have survived an open battle against this us team. they even could decrease the score to two points.

it was a great tactical performance by the spaniards, and their game plan almost worked out.
they had speculated on americans being exhausted in the last quarter and not scoring that well anymore.
but the americans kept on scoring constantly untill the end of the game and thus won deservingly.

congrats to them