Rudy better be the primary factor.

would make my day!

Has enough wood for them unless Marc learns to play D in the next few days but I was behind Greece against the arrogant kings of bling last time and in no way consider that unpatriotic.

I don’t think it’s automatically unpatriotic to not root for the US team if they’re a bunch of punks that you don’t want to represent you… but I don’t feel that way about this team.

and then have the US beat them in a narrow victory.

Also, I want to see Pau Gasol shut down.

but there is a reason i’m not watching the olympics

Having Rudy be the one player that we (as in Americans, it seems that some have forgotten) can’t shut down.

But have USA still win by 35.

I love the Blazers as much as anyone, I’m drunk off the Blazer Kool-aid too. I would vote for Roy and Oden as Pres/VP of anything (either being President). But in no way will I ever root for ANY country EVER to smack around a team that’s representing the United States. Rudy or no Rudy.

P.S. It would be a failure for the Blazers if USA lost. They’re being coached by Nate. They practiced against LMA and Bayless. That means more to me than a guy who hasn’t played a single minute in the NBA wearing a Blazers jersey.

The US team is awesome and amazing and they deserve all the good
adjetives you can add. The rest of the World feels like playing against superheroes, like these guys swimming against Phels. If they don´t win I´ll consider it almost an accident. I´m interested about Rudy and Ricky performances. It´s gonna be hard for both of them because coaches have started to do special work to stop them and exploit their faults as they are very important pieces in the Spanish coach´s systems.

wait…what’s that?…we didn’t qualify because the US beat us like a dirty rug?….I guess I’ll cheer for the spanish…

Like everybody and their brother I think the US WILL win gold, but I would find it more funny if some other nation does and changes in the way the US team is constructed and prepared for an international event continue. Right now, they already feel too entitled again.

Preferably that nation shouldn’t be Argentina though. I hate Spurs fans shoving the brilliance of Ginobili & Co. in my face. I have been enlightened to believe that Rudy one day will be bigger than MJ (thanky, myemic23). Ginobili is not, period!

competitive game. Isn’t that what it’s all about?

"We can win to the US team not allowing that they crush us with their physical power in the one on one defense. We should try to get fouls when they press much on defense, doing penetrations without losing the ball, and in defense we have to play team defense because to stop them individually is impossible. We have more habit than they have, they do a more physical pressure, but individually ".

I haven’t rooted for the US team in the Olympics since ‘76 and haven’t even watched summer Olympics since ’92.

U.S. Olympic teams are arrogant jerks. The fans chanting “USA! USA!” don’t pump me up — they remind me of the mob at … how do I put this tactfully … an ultra-nationalist rally. The US media rarely show events where they don’t think Americans will win a gold medal. We have turned the whole event into a nationalist orgy, instead of a celebration of the people and athletes and countries of the world. So in fact, if I were watching, I would be rooting for people not countries — largely against the US and for various athletes I happen to take a liking to.

If I were watching this game, I’d root for Rudy and Spain.

But not without some difficulty. It is a difficult thing to root for the likes of Kobe, Melo, Kidd, Tayshaun, etc. I can’t stand some of those guys and it feels, well, wrong to wish them success. Fortunately, most of the team (LeBron, Wade, CP3, Bosh) seem to be generally good guys.

My best case result – Rudy rips it up for 30 and dunks four times in Melo’s face, Kobe goes 0-for-11 from three and gets benched, Kidd gets kicked out of the game for hitting on a female ref, and the US wins a close one as Gasol has eighteen turnovers and Wade, CP3, and LeBron are unstoppable down the stretch.

OT, did anybody see the story on truehoop about a Redeem Teamer hitting on a married distance runner and asking for her number? What are the Vegas odds on who the unnamed player was?

Yeah, there’s a few characters I don’t root for personally, but I still want team USA to CRUSH every one of their competitors. I haven’t felt this way for a while. When they won the bronze I said, “Serves them right”. They have the most talent and fail to utilize it.

But I think the wake up call was sent, they are actually playing with determination and defense. So again I root for them.

If that means Rudy is shut down and Spain is defeated by 60, so be it. That is what I want to see. No close games.

I don’t doubt that we will be on a streak for a while with international competiton before inevitably slippling back to complacency. I will then root for anybody to give us another whooping.

But for now, CRUSH ’EM.

If you want the nation to take notice of the Blazers then there would be no better way than rudy leading the Spanish national team to victory over team USA. I fully agree and if this where to happen the NBA would be absolutely freaked out about the Blazers and most teams would probably just forfit to us out of sheer fright.

Since it’s closer to my birth country, which probably doesn’t even have a national team (go Joel Freeland!). And I’m always one to root for the underdog, hence why I became a Blazer fanatic the season before the 21 wins. It just seems appropriate.

I think it’s hard to argue the ethical high-road here, since while many of us talk about the US team being arrogant jerks/bad sportsmen, etc, the Spanish team isn’t showing any lack of those same characteristics. I don’t have pride connected to either team, unless it was actually me doing the playing. Nationalism is kind of lame you guys!

To be honest, I’m rooting for a good competitive game and I want the US to come out on top because there are more people on the roster that I like than I don’t like. Also the coach of my favorite NBA team is coaching team USA.