One of my colleagues here at The Drubbing is totally enamored with Rubio and his growth  potential as a player and court leader, however I am not. Does he seem like a nice kid, sure – but were I the Timberwolves would I have leveraged my future on drafting him, absolutely not. Playing in the NBA is a privilege not a right, just ask Richard “Pee Wee” Kirkland. So why is Ricky Rubio turning down that privilege – because he doesn’t like Minneapolis-St. Paul and the Timberwolves brass? Get outta here!

My math isn’t perfect but here’s what I got: Rubio plays in Europe until the summer of 2011 where he is then contractually eligible to play in the NBA for the MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES!!! Granted, they will want to keep him but a trade is most likely since Rubio doesn’t seem too high on the idea of trading Barcelona for Minneapolis (can’t blame you for that). OR, Minnesota could make his life hell and deny any trade and retain the rights to Rubio for at least another year, possibly three and then he’s an unrestricted free agent.

My suggestion is go play for the horrible Timberwolves, KG did it for a decade now look at him – at the very least it will build character. So, Rubio plays for the Timberwolves until the summer of 2012 and then he becomes an unrestricted free agent. I’m not sure how many euros FC Barcelona is paying him but I’m willing to bet that he can squeeze a few more dollars out of the Timberwolves for the simple fact that they need him more than he needs them. Do you really want Jonny Flynn running your team? – I’d rather have Greg Paulus.

Leading up to the start of the race it was reported that Armstrong was prepared to accept a support role, if Contador proved too much to overcome. I for one didn’t think Armstrong would let this happen or take to riding for someone else very lightly. Whether Armstrong let it happen is probably inaccurate. I think, at this point in his career, Armstrong had no choice but to embrace the role and be a professional. He checked his ego at the door, took his bike every day and rode in a manner that best suited the goals of the Astana team. For that, Armstrong can be applauded. He has shown great respect for Contador, whom he rivaled with in years past. They are now teammates, albeit for just this year.

Lance will be the lead man on his own team, once he drops Astana, and joins up with RadioShack, who will sponsor Lance next season.

It’s become apparent over the last couple of weeks that Armstrong has a much better grasp on his abilities and expectations than some outsiders do (you can put me at the top of that list). I was caught up in the mystique of his past performances and expected the same level of excellence. I’m not about to say that Armstrong hasn’t shown a level of riding that is far superior to most, but it’s just not at the level needed to wear the leader’s jersey.

Maybe with another year of training and the unwavering support of an entire team of riders, Armstrong can reclaim his place atop the podium. Maybe he can’t. The extended break from the pro-cycling circuit may have caught up with him. Either way, Armstrong has shown that he can still ride with the best in the game, and compete at a level the rest of us can’t even begin to comprehend. He’s a special rider and is doing special things.

Whether he one day wins the Tour again or not, I think Armstrong realizes that his legacy is in tact. He has larger goals that go beyond cycling which I think are more important to him.

Saturday’s Stage 20 is going to be tough. Contador has practically locked up first place while Armstrong, sits in third – a few seconds ahead of Bradley Wiggins. Armstrong will have his work cut out for him. Andy Schleck (second overall) and brother Frank Schleck are two very tough mountain climbers. They were able to hang with Contador the other day in the Alps. Wiggins, who isn’t known for his climbing abilities, is still within striking distance. It will be an all out grudge match with a handful of riders trying to position themselves for a spot on the podium in Paris, Sunday.

Enjoy the race.

Moreover, I am one of those people that could watch countries compete in anything. I am that guy that got wrapped up in U.S.A curling during the last Olympics. Heck, I even looked for the closest curling rink to me home. If you live on the tri-state area, the answer to that question can be found here . How could you not be excited by something called the Nutmeg Curling Club? But I digress. The biggest concern among teams during the last WBC was the health of their players, specifically their pitchers. This year, the list of pitchers who are pulling out of the tournament is growing by the day, and the list of position players who declined is significant as well. Now, knowing this, MLB should be doing everything possible to assuage and ensure teams that the tournament is as player friendly as possible, and as protective as it could possibly be. It would stand to reason that as time on the field increases, so does the chance of being injured. So, MLB should be seeking to limit the number of games required as well as establishing pitch counts, etc.

Instead, MLB has come up with an asinine schedule that can only best be explained by showing the diagram they designed to do so:

Now, to keep things from getting too complicated and avoid probability math, let’s just play out an example. Suppose U.S.A beats Canada, Venezuela beats Italy, then the U.S.A beats Venezuela. The U.S.A has now qualified. Let’s then assume that Venezuela beats the winner of Italy/Canada, clinching qualification for Venezuela as well. Here is where it gets stupid. U.S.A and Venezuela now have to play each other just to determine who wins and who loses, even though both teams move on to the same bracket in Round 2. It is a useless game that means nothing, but will require teams to use players nonetheless. Moreover, teams won’t want to use any premier pitchers, so they will almost be encouraged to max out the pitch counts on the guys that do pitch.

Now, I know what you are thinking, this is bad enough; but it gets worse. When you look at that schedule, that means that in each bracket, one team that advances is guaranteed to have to play 4 games, while the other team will have played 3. To top it all off, they repeat the same insanity in round two. If you want to protect players, ensure that they play less games…not more.

The way to solve this problem is to utilize a simple round-robin format where each team plays every other team once, for a total of three games each round. This is what they did in 2006, and this is what the World Cup has utilized for decades. Sure, some games would be meaningless, but some of those third games would be very important (as they were last time for the U.S.A in both rounds 1 & 2). More importantly no team would have to play four games to advance. I would have to imagine that they moved to this new format to ensure that tiebreakers aren’t needed and that advancement is settled on the field. I just think it is at the expense of the players and increases the chance of injury (whatever that chance may be). Someone from MLB would have to be awfully persuasive to convince me that this is better.

CBA chief Liu Xiaonong cited the Chinese national team’s poor performance in the 2008 Beijing Olympics as time when they realized their players needed to “strengthen their physical presence” if Chinese basketball players were going to be able to compete with the rest of the best of the world.

Instead of yielding the desired effects, which are still unclear, the CBA has levied a record $140,500 in fines this season. The fines have been for unruly fans as well as the players physical violence both on and off the court. Most of the incidents involving fans were due to spectator outrage at the calls or non-calls of officials abiding by the new CBA directives.

What little I know about the Chinese culture doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in me that their people could suddenly, overnight adapt to a more physical, less respectful, confrontational form of this sport without some kind of blowback. This really shouldn’t have been a surprise to anyone.

Instead of questioning whether this was actually a good idea in the first place, or whether the roll out of such a sweeping change in how the game is played in such a quick manner was the right plan of action, the CBA blamed the problems on bad marketing and bad officiating.

The league has not done a good enough job in getting the message about physicality out.

There is too great a distance between the standard of refereeing and what is required at this competitive level.

- CBA chief Liu Xiaonong

Never missing an opportunity to drum up a possible corruption and conspiracy theory, the CBA claimed that the poor officiaing of some refs might be proof of bias.

My one piece of advice to the Chinese Basketball Association, be yourself. Don’t try and mold yourself the the status quo. Be the Duke Blue Devils, be the Phoenix Suns. You can still compete and win with a different style of play.

Not exactly the style I had in mind

Before Shaq, Phoenix didn’t have a bruising behemoth of a center. They had a bunch of fast guys that could run up and down the court all day and put up crazy points. It may not have gotten them a championship, but they were competitive, won a ton of games each year and were always relevant come playoff time.

And Duke knows their guys won’t make it in the NBA. So they don’t build an NBA-style team with a true center, a power forward that can post up, some wing players that can run and knock-down j’s and a point guard that can lead the team. The put a bunch athletes that were spoiled as children and now think too highly of themselves, but are willing to work hard for 40 minutes. And against collegiate competition, their style works. They’re always in the top-25, and as long as they don’t have to play VCU, they’re always a team to be reckoned with in the NCAA tournament. The important part is that it’s their style, and it works for them.

Even the international style of basketball is a much more fluid, less physical and confrontational type of game. The USA Basketball Team adapts to that in the way they select their players. That’s why there were more jump shooters and big men that could drive and shoot on the 2008 Gold Medal winning team.

So China, do it your way, create your own style of play and make the rest of the world adapt to you.

The scandal came to a head on October 8th when prosecutors in Tiawan detained six members of the Dmedia sponsored T-Rex team including the CEO Shih Jian-hsin, general manager, three players a player/coach, their manager, as well as four bookies. They’re being charged with crimes relating to ten fixed games dating back to March of 2008. The player/coach is a pitcher and the teams hitting coach, Cory Bailey, a U.S. citizen and former Major League Baseball player.

Additionally, the prosecutor’s office has reported that the executive director of the T-Rex team, Shih Chien-hsin, has confessed to what many had already believed, that the team executives were in collusion with a ring of mobsters who were actually running the team, and organizing the match-fixing.

Since they’re arrests, all six members of T-Rex have been fired from the team and can never be re-hired since they’ve been involved with match-fixing, by CPBL (Chinese Professional Baseball League) rules. After being released, Cory Baily allegedly returned/fled back to the United States. And although his representatives have claimed that he will return to Taiwan to face prosecution when the time comes, the authorities are much less optimistic that they will ever see him on Taiwanese soil again. Baily has repeatedly denied any involvement in the scandal. He has cited the importance of honor to himself and his family for why he would never involve himself in something like this and has said that the press reports that he confessed to his involvement in the scandal are false. Several of the players, fearing retaliation from the mob have had to video tape their deposition and entered into protective custody.

In an attempt to maintain what little integrity is left for the league, CPBL officials have repeatedly apologized to fans, banned Baily, players Chen Ke-fan, Chen Yuan-chia and manager Wu Chao-hui from the league, suspended the Dmedia T-Rex team and canceled all of their remaining games. Formally expelling the team on October 23rd.

Prior to this year, T-Rex was known as Macoto Cobras, but was renamed after it was purchased by Dmedia Corporation. When the CEO purchased the Cobras in 2007, he allegedly financed the team with help from gangs and money launderers. Not surprising the anyone other than perhaps the CEO, the gangs then used their financial leverage to control the team and players to make huge gambling profits.

With the team suspension, the league has been reduced from six to five teams for this year. And it is unlikely that will change next year as it will be nearly impossible for T-Rex to get another sponsor while everyone associated with the team scrambles to distance themselves.

Compounding this nightmarish situation is the fact that this has happened before. Back in 1996 another game-fixing scandal broke out and was so perverse that the league was forced to disband the China Times Eagles. Hopefully this will be the last time they have to clean up a mess of this magnitude. Because as the crowds in the stadiums and viewers at home continue to dwindle, the next scandal could mean the end of the league.

1st quarter… Argentina comes out in the Man to Man, if there is one team in this tournament that can play us straight man, Argentina is the team. However, this plays right into the hands of one Timothy Duncan. TD opened the game up with a nice post move. Manu scored the first 5 for Argentina, this made it 5-4 Argentina. Then, Duncan hit to free throws, AI with a short jumper, TD assist. 8-5. Odom now out the foul line, 1-2, 4 point lead. Oberto, who looks like your stereotypical Argentinean citizen, cuts it ot a 2 point game. TD with a lay-up. Manu comes back with the three point play…it’s the battle of the Alamo, Spur v. Spur. Today’s NBA player ready to thrash The Nightmare single-handedly is Emmanuel ‘Manu’ David Ginobili, he is going to go Dirk/Pau/Carlos Arroyo on us. Pepe Sanchez knocks one down from the promise land to tie it. The Argentines only shoot 29% from the promise land, but it looks like a safe bet that they will improve upon that this afternoon. TD owns Argentina, US by a deuce. Manu is looking to get another three point play after putting in another lay-up, and the free throw is good. Argentina has this guy Nocioni who just committed the most heinous of acts, a Vlade Divac flop. Apparently this guy is going to play for the Bulls next year. I personally think he would be a welcome addition to the Los Angeles Lakers for three reasons. First, the guy is a Devean George clone, he still has not committed a foul in his life. Second, he can compare flopping styles with Divac. Third, they need at least one more player to replace all the flops with resulting charges drawn by D. Fish. Ginobili with a great lay-in off a horrible oop from Pepe Sanchez and Argentina is up 4. Sloppy play in the last 40 seconds and the score 24-20, Argentina…it’s safe to say that the United States has a game today.

2nd Quarter… Nocioni opens with a field goal. The United States owns them on the offensive boards and after about 8 volleyball attempts at the field goal, they finally make it. I forgot to mention this but Argentina switched into an impervious 2-3 zone, we have been struggling since. Manu knocks down a three, he has 13 and the lead is now 7. Dougie just informed us that one of the officials is from Spain and the other official was a member of the crew in both losses. AI with an extended continuation, and it counts. The battle of the Alamo is going to take a brief recess now, whereas on two of the last three possessions fouls were called on Duncan (offensive) and Manu (reach in). The Matrix catches an oop from Wade and cuts it to two. With Duncan now out of the game, Argentina has gone back to the man to man, I personally think this is a questionable decision at best, but we shall see. This game is ugly. It’s like watching a Heat/Knicks game circa 1998. Dougie and his partner in the booth give me enough ammunition that I could essentially write this email completely about these idiots (which is disappointing, I expect more from Doug), but then you would have no clue what actually happened in the game. Argentina on a big run, and makes it a 9 point game and they are doing this with Manu, Pepe, and the other starters on the bench. Seriously, this is the most boring game thus far and we are losing by 7. I usually take pride in ripping The Nightmare, but today, not even I can get excited. Bron Bron with a clutch 3 to cut the Argentina lead to 5. After Boozer misses a lay-up, Argentina nearly drains a half court, but it goes off the front rim to end possibly the most boring half of basketball I have seen since January. Argentina leads going to the locker room 43-38.

Halftime… Lamps is talking about the inexorable gymnastics controversy. Seriously, I’m sick of it. Get over it, nobody watching this game cares about Paul Hamm. In our daily halftime message from Athens, from none other than Steven “It’s just the way I talk” A. Smith, I’m hearing something astonishingly similar to the previous games, “Argentina may have a 5 point lead, HOWEVER, we have AI and will win the game.” Wow that’s original Steven A. I’m sure three time best selling author Skip Bayless is right there with you.

3rd quarter… Manu opens with one from the promise land. RJ with a lay-in. Scola answers. Ginobili with a lay-in plus one. Argentina up 11. Pepe with a great feed and kicks up the lead to 13. The second half has opened with a flurry. Ginobili knocks down another from the promise land and the lead is 16. Starbury finally does something and makes a lay-up to take it to 14. Goaltending, back to 16. I think it’s time to ask ourselves, is it PC to root against The Nightmare? This team is utterly hopeless and an atrocity. I think it is disrespectful to me as a fan to put a team of this caliber on the court in the Olym pics. This is the Olympics Stu, I still refuse to blame the Commish for your errors and the pedantic efforts of this team. Dougie just said, “They can cut this lead to nine with a three.” That is hilarious a three, since we have made a grand total of zero thus far today. TD went out with 4 fouls while I was questioning the political correctness of rooting against this team. Also, we managed to cut the lead to 10, but Pepe pulled down an offensive board over Lamar Odom. Nice athleticism Lamar. AI with a three to cut it to seven! If I have said it once, I have said it a thousand times…AI is the one player who truly cares. AI has the most unfair reputation in The Association. Steven A., I’m with you on this one, but we will save my ode to AI for another time and place. Marion with a three to get it to six, who knew losing TD would key this run. With 2 minutes left in the quarter, we are down 9. I know Dougie is about to talk about winning the end of the quarter, but as I say this, Argentina makes another 3 and we are down 12. On cue, Dougie is now speaking about how you end quarters meaning so much…I can read him like a book at this point. The word “chippy” should be broken out soon. After an Odom free throw, Wade makes a steal and dunk to get it back to nine. However, as soon as I write this Manu gets fouled on one from the promise land and makes it, hits the free throw, and the lead is now 13. Boozer travels and I feel this one slipping away. Michael Jordan’s first professional coach tells us that Manu has 28 points on 11 shots. 70-57 after three…gold medal hopes vanishing as we speak. And the best part, they have been playing a lot of man, mixing in the zone, what great athletes we have.

4th quarter… Duncan opens with a shot to cut it to 11…Let’s Go! Starbury cuts it to 9 with a lay-up in transition. The announcers are again complaining about the officiating…please. Argentina with another three followed by a Starbury turnover. 12 point lead with 6:50 to go and Manu on the line to bump it to 14. Dougie with another profound statement, the United States has to play perfect basketball from here on to win this game. Well, Dougie, they have made their bed, now they get to lay in it. Manu hit one of two to get it to a bakers dozen. AI back in, this is our chance to make a run, Boozer tip in gets it 11. AI with a steal and Boozer is going to the charity stripe, this is really the last place we want to go at this point with our impeccable free throw shooting, yet as I type this, Boozer makes both; down to a nine point game. TD just fouled out on a moving screen, I think Argentina can…Put it on the board…YES!!! 4:41 to go we are down 11. Starbury with an and one off the turnover. Will he make the free throw to cut it to 8…of course not; nine point game. Oberto at the line, he is a 39% shooter and he is no hurt so they replace him at the line because he is hurt (sure). Odom with a lay-up cuts it to 8 with under four to go. Argentina with another from the promise land, eleven point game. Argentina is 11-21 from the promise land, this is the key statistic in the game. If they don’t pull off the miraculous comeback, my thoughts will be indelible so brace yourself $. Starbury with a lay-up and potential (key word) three point play…and its good; nine down, under three to go. RJ is now going to the line after an Argentina turnover with a chance to cut it to seven. RJ missed the first and made the second, down to 8. Argentina in transition 10 point game with under 2 to go. Starbury takes it back to 8. Two free throws, a ten point lead. The Nightmare cut it to six, Scola with a facial on RJ and that’s it, 89-81. All I can say is lets go Sarunas Jasikevicius, Jerry Garcia is smiling on down on your team from somewhere. I have nothing left to say.

Spain was undefeated in Pool Play (5-0). Spain has won 12 consecutive International Games and are regarded as the best defensive international team, which bodes really well for our chances with the marksmanship of our outside shooters. Sages just said that Larry got the team to watch “Miracle”…since when does the Dream Team need a miracle. And why does every US team at the Olympics have to watch “Miracle”? It’s a great movie no doubt, great story obviously. I loved it, my top sports movie of all time, but I’m sick of hearing about every team watching it. Phelps and his 4×200 Free Relay Team before they beat the Australians, the Women’s Gymnastics Team, The Nightmare, and on and on and on. At least Misty May and Kerri Walsh didn’t feel the need to watch it because they knew they were going to win. It’s getting to be ridiculous. I’m as American as the next guy and as stated, love the movie, but if I hear about it one more time, I might start pulling for the Russians to win the Medal Count.

1st Quarter…Spain comes out in the man to man…are you serious?!? TD with a lay-up. TD with a blocked shot. TD with a lay-up and one. The Nightmare is playing a 2-3 zone…what?!? Apparently Spain is the worst shooting Euro team, well i guess LB wants to find out for himself. Alright, back to reality, Spain in now in 2-1-2 with your boy and mine Pau Gasol in the middle. The 1 for Spain is Juan Carlos Navarro, he utilizes the extra step in international play and makes a lay-up, and one. Navarro was drafted by the Bullets back when Dougie was coaching them, they should sign him up quick, they could use him. Gasol with a facial on Odom. RJ knocked down a 3, “due to hard work” says Doug Collins. RJ with back to back 3′s, I don’t know who this RJ guy is but what did he do with the real RJ. The RJ that can’t shoot, can’t defend, and got lazy now that he got his max contract. Gasol with a follow dunk. Great, Boozer is in for Duncan after Duncan picks up a foul and Gasol immediately scores on him. AI for three. At this point I want to start a poll for worst Dream Teamer of all time…but before I could get going, JC Navarro drained a three…the Bullets really need him. Further diverting me from the subject at hand is the fact that Doug Collins can’t count. Duncan did not go to the bench with one foul but two. Gold medal..see…you…later. Starbury actually hit a three and the US is up 5, 4-5 from the promise land, no chance they keep this going, and if they don’t, I don’t like their chances. Starbury with a lay-up off the AI steal. Spain Lay-up and they are back in the Man to Man. Spain steal, Gasol leads the break delivers a textbook bounce pass in a three on two transition opportunity and how do you say…Three Point Game! Gasol fouled after the US misses a shot, PUT TWO MORE ON THE BOARD…YES!!! Wade with a charge. JC Navarro for another three and Spain takes the lead by 2. Quick break in the action so as far as the worst Dream Teamer of all time, I think we need to keep it to just Olympians because nobody really cares about the World Championships. My top 5 are Christian Laettner, Starbury, Emeka Okafor, Melo for his constant complaining, and the great Carlos Boozer, in no particular order. But the quarter comes to an end, with the score tied at 25 a piece and I would guess that you could say Spain didn’t play to their potential. Unfortunately, they probably realize that. The Nightmare still hasn’t reached their potential and we are in the medal round now.

2nd Quarter…Before we get it started again I need to say this…I can already see Pau Gasol going Dirk on us. On cue, Gasol with a nice post move and a lay-up. Then, Marion re-ties it with a follow dunk. Maybe I need to take Starbury off the list simply for his performance in this game, assuming we win, because the man just knocked down another from the promise land and is thus far 2-2. I think Stu Scott would say in order to keep my rep up, you know I gotta step up, but Stu Scott is an idiot. Lamar Odom with a nice and one play, due to a wonderful moving screen set by Shawn Marion. D. Wade with the steal and lay-up, The Nightmare up 8, however if there is one thing we have learned, its that no lead is safe for The Nightmare. Every time I see D. Wade, and I’m not sure about you, but I get this image of Shaq in Miami saying, “Dame Pesos” (Translation: Give me Money). Then in his deep Shaq voice stating, “This is D. Wade’s team I don’t want any questions about it.” Right. Odom is wearing a Breathe Right strip on his nose, no words can describe it. Gasol with 2 from the charity stripe and we are back to a six point game. Marion with a jumper, back to an 8 point game. Amare Stoudamire is in the game precipitating a run by Espana, and Gasol With a huge facial on Marion and Stoudamire…Wow!!! I am jumping up and down with visions of Bill Walton in my head screaming “Throw it down big man! Throw it down!” Down to a three point game. I think I need to add Amare Stoudamire to my list of worst Dream Teamers ever and this team now has 5 out of six. Gasol with a huge rejection on Marion! Gasol is taking over and The Nightmare is beginning to feel the absence of TD. Side note, Roberto Duenas is in the game for Espana and he is the hairiest man ever. Gasol with 2 free throws and it is now a one point game. After a D. Wade miss from three Gasol catches an oop, throws it down, and now Spain has a one point lead. After Spain made one of two from the stripe to tie, Boozer made a follow, then D. Wade made a steal and transition lay-up to take the lead. Stoudamire, in a valiant attempt to redeem himself, throws one down, 4 point game. But, Stoudamire bricks the free throw on the and one. 19 year old Rudy Fernandez cans one from the promise land at the buzzer, score at the half 44 to 43 and The Nightmare is walking on egg shells. Halftime stats for the Nightmare 51% from the field, 5 of 10 from the promise land which is a definite statistical anomaly, 5 turnovers, yet they are only up five. Indeed this was a laudable performance especially without TD in the game after the four and a half minute mark in the first quarter. However, with our propensity to go cold, not get the ball to TD, to forget how to play defense, and penchant for committing innumerable other insidious mishaps, this guy is a bit concerned.
It’s halftime and Lamps is talking about the US women’s soccer gold medal game upcoming this afternoon. I think that the network’s policy is to approach each game with a bit more trepidation. Lamps is talking about the excitement for the upcoming soccer game, I know that this guy right here, and probably everyone else watching this game with the possible exception of Nomar Hamm could care less about about the Women’s soccer team. Again I’m yearning for Chuck, The Jet, and EJ in the studio. If I can’t get that, maybe the Greeks could do a halftime show with Sages modeling his blazers with the NBC polo on, almost anything would be more exciting than this. I mean they could even do a pseudo-PTI with (and I can’t believe I’m saying this) three time best selling author Skip Bayless and Steven “It’s just the way I talk” A. Smith. Again, this game, I think I can again hear Steven A. all the way from Athens, in a situation that seems to be recurrent, at normal volume saying, “Spain may have Pau Gasol and be down one, HOWEVER, we have AI and that’s all I have to say Skip.” Steven A. I’m not sure if Skip can hear you at the PTI studios, but I hear you loud and clear.

3rd quarter…Odom can’t handle Gasol, Spain up one, Gasol with 20 points in 21 minutes thus far. Starbury with a three and takes us to a 4 point lead. Our announcers, Michael Jordan’s first coach in The Association and whoever the other guy is, have now resorted to complaining about the officiating. Could you imagine the announcers complaining about the officiating when we had a real Dream Team on the floor. Starbury with another from the promise land, could Starbury lead this team to a victory? Don’t blame me for skepticism. Gasol just drew the third on TD. RJ also has three fouls, but I think that may be a net gain for The Nightmare. Boozer is in…not good, and The Nightmare is in a zone to protect Duncan. Boozer with a lay-up to get it to an eight-point lead and the potential to push it to the largest of the game, but I’m a bit reluctant to simply put it on the board. Since, Duncan has 3 fouls, I would sum up our current standing in this game in one word, precarious. And Boozer misses the free throw, shocker, I know, The Nightmare is 5-9 from the charity stripe. Spain with one from the promise land. Starbury drains a pull up. Spain with a tip in and one on a Starbury foul, his third. Starbury with a pull up three and it drops, The Nightmare up 7. Gasol with a three point play as he continues to own Lamar Odom. Now we are perpetually sending Spain to the charity stripe…not good. JC Navarro knocks down 2 from the charity stripe, then goes coast to coast and we have a tie game. AI knocks down a jumper to regain the lead. Boozer with a follow, The Nightmare back up four. The game is moving fast and furious now. AI from the promise land; The Nightmare is now 9-16…the question now is will this aberrant shooting continue? If it doesn’t, we are in trouble. Gasol with 2 more from the charity stripe because Odom still cannot guard him LB. Melo is in the game…what is LB thinking? We are in a close game, he and Emeka are our victory cigars. Odom one of two from the free throw line; 6-11 as a team. Odom has 4 fouls for obvious reasons. Melo for three to close the quarter! Seven point lead 74-67! I guess LB knew what he was doing, but then again who am I to question Tony Kornheiser’s anointed greatest coach of all time. Can we hold on?

4th Quarter…Before we open, we are seeing an AI interview, this made waking up worth it. Spain opens with a lay-up to take it down to five. JC Navarro parts the defense like the Red Sea, 3 point game. AI drains another three, lead back to seven. Doug uses another of his catch phrases, “It’s getting a little chippy here,” after two bad calls against Spain and a malicious take down on AI. It has taken 6 games but I knew it was coming. AI one of two from the stripe, 5 point lead, we are 7-13 from the line. Well, its better than 50 percent. Spain has forgotten who Pau Gasol is, this is a critical error. Odom fouls out, but I don’t think that matters too much. TD is now on Gasol. Spain just dropped a bomb on from the promise land and Duncan committed foul away from the ball, his 4th. Spain now gets the ball back on the away from the ball foul. Spain had 3 opportunities from the promise land to make it 6 point play, but failed on all attempts and The Nightmare remains up four. Boozer with a tip to put them up 6. Rudy Fernandez cuts it to four. Starbury from the promise land again takes it to a seven point lead and he now has 24. The game is at a frenetic pace, The Nightmare is up 9, its largest lead of the game. They are 11-22 thus far from the promise land in this game. After 5 games, they were 10-62. Starbury himself is 6-9. With 3:18 to go and a lack of three point shooting (5-19 thus far) for Espana, according to Dougie, will this be enough? Boozer jumper 11 point game, then Espana banks a trey from straight on. The impossible just occurred, the US made 2 free throws, of course, it was Starbury who made them. Espana from the promise land after a turnover, 5 point game. Starbury over Gasol, he has 28. Doug is talking about how we have taken in up a notch this game, making an analogy from the regular season to the playoffs. Hey Doug, it’s not like we have a lot of superstars who really take over in the playoffs aside from TD and AI. Gasol only has 2 points in the quarter, clearly Spain has made a dreadful error. The last 43 seconds are now going to take 43 minutes whereas Spain is going to foul us on every possession. But amazingly, we are making them down the stretch and are maintaining a nine point lead. AI with 2 more and its an eleven point lead. Despite Pau Gasol’s best efforts, Spain is going to lose. I can’t help but feel bad for them after their undefeated record in Pool Play and this loss means they don’t even qualify for the World Championships. The crowd is now booing LB and The Nightmare because he called a timeout and the Spain coach is taunting LB with clapping and giving him a thumbs up, this is the moment of the game. But of course Dougie says LB will apologize because LB always plays the game the right way. If I hear the “play the game the right way” one more time, I am going to gag. Game over, we win 102 to 94. We have a developing situation, the Spain Coach goes after the officiating crew and has no interest in shaking LB’s hand after this game because he felt the timeout was disrespectful to his team when his team was up double figures. He is letting Brown know how he feels, sticking his finger in his chest, and Brown is shouting back, the truculence is off the scale. Wow!!! The coaching staffs are going at it and this is great. I want a rumble. But unfortunately for this guy, the situation is diffused as LB walks away. Sages interviews Starbury, informing him that he broke Chuck’s scoring record in the Olympics with 31 points in the game. I guess Starbury is off my list of worst Dream Teamers’ ever, but they still have 4 of 5 and 80% isn’t bad. We need Chuck in the studio for this reason exactly, I can only imagine what he would say. I am encouraged with this performance, I would call it our best yet. Still, I am a bit skeptical because next up I am almost certain that we get the joy of entertaining Manu Ginobili and Argentina assuming there isn’t a debacle tonight against the home Greeks. I must eat my words, they proved me wrong with the shooting, and a much better overall effort. At least by expecting the worst I couldn’t get disappointed. But overall, this guy is cautious yet optimistic, with a performance that was better, yet still not worthy of the USA Basketball label. And on that note, it’s time for Yao Ming v. Sarunas Jaskikevicius since there is no more water polo.