Here's the TV schedule for five warmup games the U.S. men will play before the Olympics. All times ET:
July 25: USA vs. Canada, ESPN, 8 p.m.
July 31: USA vs. Turkey, ESPN2, 8 a.m.
Aug. 1: USA vs. Lithuania, ESPN2, 8 a.m.
Aug. 3: USA vs. Russia, ESPN2, 3 a.m.
Aug. 5: USA vs. Australia, ESPN2, 8 a.m.
This is the Jedi mind trick the U.S. men's senior national team will try to manage at the 2008 Beijing Olympics: Winning the basketball gold medal without disrespecting their opponents, knowing most people think anything less than gold will equal failure, and only a confident, brash, American (read: cocky) showing will accomplish that against a field that doesn't fear the U.S.
Here's U.S men's senior national team managing director Jerry Colangelo recently trying to juggle all of that at once. He starts by saying he's comfortable with the idea that the Olympic tournament is a "must-win" situation for the U.S.
USA men's senior national team honcho Jerry Colangelo tapped 10 young NBA players and recent draft picks, including No. 1 overall pick Derrick Rose (Chicago), to help prepare the U.S. for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Seattle (cough, cough), I mean, Oklahoma City forward Kevin Durant is the only player on the U.S. Select Team who is on the full men's national team, from which the Olympic team was chosen.
Durant, the 2008 NBA Rookie of the Year, was the lone newbie added to the team last summer so the U.S. could start building a pipeline for future national teams.
U.S. basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski is talking the talk about how his star-laden U.S. team knows better than to underestimate their future Olympic opponents.
To walk the walk, the U.S. has to navigate Pool B play in Beijing, where Spain figures to be the toughest initial matchup. Spain beat Greece, which had beaten the U.S. in the semifinals, to win the 2006 World Championship in Japan.
The U.S. opens Olympic pool play against China on Aug. 10 (10:15 a.m. ET). The Americans play Angola on Aug. 12 (8 a.m. ET) and Spain on Aug. 16 (10:15 a.m. ET). U.S. opponents for Aug. 14 and Aug. 18 are being determined this week in Athens, Greece.
If you're looking at the U.S. men's basketball roster, Michael Redd sticks out. The Milwaukee Buck is the shooter on a team of versatile athletes that will try to win gold at the Beijing Games beginning Aug. 10.
Redd says the team was able to rebuild some chemistry during a short trip to Las Vegas at the end of June. He also believes the Americans have enough size, though it features just three true big men, and enough of a plan on defense to handle whatever opponents throw at them.
Chris Paul says USA coach Mike Krzyzewski has a solution for keeping egos in check on an Olympic team that will feature Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, LeBron James and CP3 himself: Don't try.
USA point guard Jason Kidd is trying to become the seventh American to win two Olympic gold medals at the Beijing Olympics.
But is that cooler than winning an NBA title, that elusive NBA title, J-Kidd?
After hearing the news, over a year ago, I'd be covering the 2008 Summer Olympics, I called my sister in California.
"I got the call. I'm going to Beijing," I said. "Holy crap!" she replied.
Because China is so big and we grew up with our six siblings in a place so small (Planada, Calif.), I thought her response appropriate ... but in a good way.
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski was an assistant under Chuck Daly during the 1992 Barcelona Olympics when the Dream Team pounded the rest of the world in winning the gold medal.
The practice fodder for that team that summer in San Diego was the U.S. Select team that included Duke's Grant Hill, and Bobby Hurley, North Carolina's Eric Montross, Michigan's Chris Webber and Tennessee's Allan Houston.
DURHAM — Duke and U.S. national coach Mike Krzyzewski said, besides Kobe Bryant and Carlos Boozer, who played at Duke, he never recruited any of the current superstars on the U.S. team that will compete in Beijing.
Guys like LeBron James, Dwight Howard, and Carmelo Anthony weren't going to stay around college at all or long enough to make it worth Duke's trouble.
Krzyzewski said Wednesday that one look at Howard convinced him to leave it alone. James was an NBA target before the end of his junior year in high school. Bryant actually tried to visit but never did.
