Fresh off the Gold medal win in Beijing, Team USA is back state side. Redeemed, Vindicated & Blinged out the 2003 NBA draft class {Melo, Bron & Wade} will always be remembered as the guys who restored order back in the Basketball universe. We can’t over state what they accomplished, with the greatest compilation of players since, 1992. In fact, I don’t think TEAM USA had the BEST team in Beijing. I rank SPAIN & ARGENTINA ahead of us, in terms of TEAM players & team play. You can have talent, but not be a total player. Indeed, this is why we lost in ‘06, ‘04 & ‘02.
Talent alone isn’t enough. You need versatile players committed to playing both ends of the floor. Team USA won because players 6-12 could have competed for a medal, thats how deep we were. What does it say when you need the best players in the known Universe to just squeak by in International ball? It says, that your team’s glory days are limited, if not behind them.
REDEEMED & READY 4 SEASON
Dwyane Wade just returned Monday from Beijing, along with Dwight Howard & Carlos Boozer who will take charter flights to Orlando & Utah respectively. Boozer should just go ahead & settle into his home in Miami, and send for his family to join him here in So-Fla! We’ll send Haslem, some cash and a couple of youngins to make the deal complete… sorry I digress! 
“I can get used to it. I’m going to get used to it. I’m going to have it on for a little while,” the Heat guard said, still beaming after Olympic teammate Carlos Boozer departed the airport for his Miami home and Dwight Howard remained on the charter flight for the short hop to Orlando. “It’s just great. I’ve seen a bronze before, and it looks nothing like a gold, I tell you that.”
This is Wade’s 3rd International competition, he was in Athens 2004 & Japan in 2006. 3, must be his lucky number. He wears #3, and struck GOLD in his 3rd Int’l competition.
“We were just on the plane, saying, ‘Wow,’” he said. “You look at it, you get an opportunity to look at the gold, and you just say, ‘It’s real.’ A lot was put into this. A lot of years, a lot of hours were put into this, and to finally have it is a dream come true.”
Why do Americans proclaim the NBA championship, a world championship. Rather, the Olympics are truly a world championship because all the world (who have ball clubs) competes. I think its a little disingenious for us to make an ethnocentric statement like that. With this in mind, everyone wants to compare the two, to me, there is no comparison. One is regional, the other global!!
“I think the difference between winning the NBA championship and winning a gold medal is when I won an NBA championship, it was my third year in the league. … When I won a championship, everything was going great as an adult, nothing went wrong. I’ve had a lot of things that went bad since then.”
Reports say that Wade is still involved in divorce proceedings with his estranged wife. Everyone knows this past season was his worst professionally with the prevalence of injury amid a losing season that saw the end of his run with buddy Shaquille O’ Neal. Wade, just 26 years old would be 28 fot the World Championships in 2 years, and 30 in 2012 in London. Would he be open to returning to defend his crown?
“It’s not even an option in my mind right now,” he said. “I’m happy with this one and I’ll think about that in four years. Right now, I’m just excited that I was healthy enough to play in this Olympics and contribute and to win the gold medal.”
