Jose sends hisimpression of the Goodwill Games.Thanks Jose!
I watched the last two games USA Men's Basketball Team at the 2001 Goodwill Games, which concluded today (9/9/01).
Unfortunately, TNT did not broadcast the complete games. The USA team was composed of "freshman and junior" NBA players.
Don't take me wrong, but Kobe, Garnett, Iverson, and company were not part of this team that barely won the Gold Medal.
In the Dream Team's era (teams with NBA players), no USA Men's Basketball team has lost a game. They almost did, and on the final game, clearly the level of intensity was much higher than against Brazil. Shane Battier was one of the players of this team.
The roster consisted of NBA players who were in the NCAA tournament recently ('99-'01) and two NBA players that jumped from
High School (Jermaine O'Neal '96 and Rashard Lewis '98) and have developed very well. The former collegians who played
are: Shane Battier (Duke '01), Calvin Booth (Penn State '99), Baron Davis (UCLA '99), Marcus Fizer (Iowa State '00), Shawn
Marion (UNLV '99), Kenyon Martin (Cincinnati '00), Andre Miller (Utah '99), Mike Miller (Florida '00), Wally Szczerbiak
(Miami-OH '99) and Jason Terry (Arizona '99). Mark Madsen who played at Stanford '00 was selected but did not played
because of being injured. Flip Saunders, Doc Rivers, Michigan State's Tom Izzo and Dayton's Oliver Purnell coached the team.
From a basketball standpoint, the Goodwill games were not as important this year because the European teams did not participate (they are playing for the European Championship in Turkey) and some marquee players were not playing for
countries that participated (i.e.: Najera did not play for Mexico and Nash did not played for Canada). I suspect that USA Basketball wanted to give some experience to future Olympic DREAM TEAM IV members.
The first three games were relatively easy. Victories by 74, 30, and 41 points, respectively. However, the semifinal game
would be remembered by them.
USA 132, Mexico 58 (9/3)
Battier played 15 minutes. He had 4 points (FG 1-4 - missed two 3-pointers), 2 free throws, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 3
steals, and had no turnovers or 2 personal fouls.
USA 111, Cuba 70 (9/5)
Battier played only 5 minutes. He pin a shot to the backboard, in my view, he had a block. He had one assist for a
3-pointer and one rebound.
Final
USA 91 - Argentina 63 (9/9)
The team came out and they were mad. At one point during the first half, the score was 37-12. They did not allowed them
to score for over 8 minutes.
Argentina links