Why is the United States so much better at basketball than the rest of the world?

[QUOTE=tomtucker]no, this is the reason why china is good at sports
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[IMG]http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/07/31/article-0-144C3340000005DC-58_306x434.jpg[/IMG]


[IMG]http://zazenlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/article-0-145294AB000005DC-827_634x800.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE]

I must have missed the part where I said "sports" instead of "badminton" and "ping pong".

:facepalm

[QUOTE=greymatter]I must have missed the part where I said "sports" instead of "badminton" and "ping pong".

:facepalm[/QUOTE]

Still they always excell at sports where training is more important than athleticism or "genetic" talent of any kind.

you gotta have athleticism "black" and an IQ to be good at bastetball.


Blacks are the most athletic race and U.S.A. has the smartest blacks :confusedshrug:

[QUOTE=Overdrive]Still they always excell at sports where training is more important than athleticism or "genetic" talent of any kind.[/QUOTE]

"Always"?

Last time I checked, their men can't win at anything outside of ping pong, badminton, and diving. Their women win at the same + weightlifting and swimming.

Not exactly a huge list.

This one is extremely easy:

1) number of players
2) money invested in High School and College basketball
3) tradition (better coaches even at low levels)

Why are Spain, Germany, Brazil, Italy, and many more (even Portugal) so much better at football than the USA?

1) number of players
2) money invested in youth systems
3) tradition (better coaches even at low levels)

It works like that with every single sport. You can overcome the poor tradition by investing money in bringing the best coaches in the world to your country and replicating their system.

[QUOTE=greymatter]"Always"?

Last time I checked, their men can't win at anything outside of ping pong, badminton, and diving. Their women win at the same + weightlifting and swimming.

Not exactly a huge list.[/QUOTE]

Maybe the wording was wrong, what I tried to express is that anytime some chinese sportsman/woman win's it's most likely something almost only dependant on training and time put into that very sport. Not that they excell in every sport.

Funding and incentives is the biggest issue for most countries.

In the US, you can be encouraged and motivated to play competitive basketball staring at high school because of these 2 reasons.

1. Its cool to be on the basketball team because its such a popular sport in the US.

2. If you play really well, you have a good shot at getting a scholarship for University.

Once your in University there are 2 incentives again.

1. Its cool to be on the basketball team because its such a popular sport in the US plus imagine all te girls you can get in college just for being on the team.

2. You can have a shot at an NBA career and earn millions of dollars or if your not that good just finish your degree for free that would have cost you thousands and thousands of dollars if not for your scholarship.

In most countries, people don't have these opportunites because of the lack of funding for scholarships because there is no college level competitions. However, there are some countries with the same incentives like the Philippines but the problem then becomes genetics and 99% of Asians that have the skills dont have the height and athleticism to compete at an NBA level.

[QUOTE=Bigsmoke]you gotta have athleticism "black" and an IQ to be good at bastetball.


Blacks are the most athletic race and [B]U.S.A. has the smartest blacks [/B]:confusedshrug:[/QUOTE]
That's debatable a lot of top black physicians in USA are Nigerians

[QUOTE=Bigsmoke]you gotta have athleticism "black" and an IQ to be good at bastetball.


Blacks are the most athletic race and U.S.A. has the smartest blacks :confusedshrug:[/QUOTE]

And just how do you know that USA has the smartest blacks?

You people with your hair brained theories and uninformed opinions on genetics and intelligence :lol

It's because U.S.A. is the father-country and central hub of professional basketball, it has a league (the NBA) with the tenured and well-earned reputation as the "best" in the world as such - more systems and opportunities have been in place to develop our young talent. And it is an absolute magnet for the greatest U.S. [I]and[/I] International talent. The best players in the world will always gravitate towards the NBA - not some scrub-league team. So more great players also want to live here.

Europe for example, isn't producing "inferior" competition (Dirk, Sabonis, the Gasols, Manu, Parker - etc) - the reason foreign leagues like EUROLEAGUE sucks in comparison is because the good Europeans play for the NBA. The American NBA is stacked with not just America's best talent - but also the greatest talent from everywhere on the planet. Therefore American and International scrubs alike who can't make it in the U.S.A. tend to get repelled towards International leagues.

Again to the people getting caught up in race :facepalm :facepalm :facepalm

And the reason International teams don't look like U.S. teams is because the U.S.A. is f*cking massive in talent pool compared to the countries we face. We have 50 f*cking States to pull our talent from many of which have large cities which are extremely competitive with the kind of basketball talent they cultivate - some of which (like California) are as big or bigger than the countries we are facing. Europe as a whole, does not necessarily produce inferior talent. And even China is getting in the game now. Race isn't the problem. International basketball isn't really that bad considering their lesser population pools (Europe) and/or level of economic development or interest in the game (Asia, Africa, South America). I think what people get confused by things like EURO[U]LEAGUE[/U]. And Euroleague does suck at basketball. Royally. Because nobody great wants to play for some second rate Euroleague. But that doesn't represent International basketball - the NBA's great European players do.

/thread

Come to europe and yuo will see.
Very few people care about basketball.

USA has the best athletes in terms of basketball athleticism. It is as simple as that.

I don't think many other countries are producing guys like Shaq, Duncan(i know), KG, T-Mac, Kobe, Lebron, CWebb etc...there may one or two a generation per country but USA has several freak athletes every generation.

Just look at the last decade...

Lebron
Wade
John Wall
Melo
Rose
Rondo
CP3
Josh Smith
Dwight Howard
etc.

This could be just a function of having more people. But, I still think our freak athlete to population ratio may be higher than other countries.

[QUOTE=greymatter]"Always"?

Last time I checked, their men can't win at anything outside of ping pong, badminton, and diving. Their women win at the same + weightlifting and swimming.

Not exactly a huge list.[/QUOTE]

[B]oh really ?[/B].


[IMG]http://www.csmonitor.com/var/ezflow_site/storage/images/media/content/2012/0812/08_12olympicmedalcount/13441320-2-eng-US/08_12OlympicMedalCount_full_600.jpg[/IMG]


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:biggums:

[QUOTE=CavaliersFTW]:facepalm :facepalm :facepalm :facepalm :facepalm :facepalm :facepalm[/QUOTE]

Its a politically incorrect statement, but there is some truth to it.

[QUOTE=MavsSuperFan]Its a politically incorrect statement, but there is some truth to it.[/QUOTE]
No, there is NO truth to it, slaves were not BRED. There were a lot of horrible things connected to what was happening when slavery was active in the United States - but there has never been any evidence of any American slavery SELECTIVE BREEDING PROGRAM. Honestly, research this sh*t people. Black Americans with slave ancestry are not products of selective "breeding", that's nothing but an ignorant assumption. In fact, via genetic research through programs like 23andme many black Americans are finding out they have surprising amounts of "European" ancestry mixed into their DNA - the polar opposite result of what one should expect from "selective breeding" pressure. Apparently these white slave owners couldn't resist some black poon - there by f*cking up any chance of successfully "breeding" slaves which doesn't matter anyways because such a movement has never been known to historically exist to begin with.

I don't think we're that much better than other countries. It's just the majority of great players all play in the NBA. It's not like the NBA is made up completely of American born players. Also, basketball is all about recognition. We have so many colleges where players can showcase their talents. Many countries don't have that luxury.

USA has a massive talent pool with superior athleticism.

A underrated aspect is the emergence of handball in Europe which is very unfortunate, a lot of potential good basketball players play that instead.

There are lots of places where they run very good development programs which is the reason for the influx of top European bread player in the NBA.
Lithuania for example has an insane amount of good players compared to only being 3.5 million people.
The Sabonis academy in Kaunas probably runs the best basketball program in the world.

[QUOTE]The complex is located a bit outside of the city center of Kaunas. It features 4 basketball courts of which 2 are FIBA certified. These two courts are generally used for the games of the teams of the school but also for some games of Senior teams from Kaunas. The two other courts are only used for practices. Next to the courts, the center has a top-notch weight-lifting room, 9 dressing rooms, a cafeteria and a trophy lounge where you can sip a coffee while watching basketball games on the courts or on TV. The dimensions of the center would make lots of professional teams jealous as it features everything that you need for a quality practice.

Currently there are more than 700 kids practicing in the Sabonis school. Depending on their age, they have three to seven practice units per week. The youngest players are around 10 years old while they can stay up to their majority at the age of 18 in the school. The competition is rude among the different Basketball academies as there are 7 Basketball academies in the 350,000 people city of Kaunas alone. From the moment that you can detect a highly interesting talent, all schools try to chase the kid in order to get him in their system. Of course, the Sabonis School has the best options as it is the biggest and the most famous one but this does not mean that their teams are dominating everything as we could see in the games that were running while we were at the complex.

Talking about games, there are about 400 games per season in the center as all the teams compete in different local, regional or national championships. Next to a specific athletic and weight-lifting coach, there are 13 basketball coaches active in the school. They normally follow one generation over several years in order to better understand and see their progress over the years. The kids themselves do not stay overnight at the academy. As most of them come from the city of Kaunas, they stay with their parents but just come to the Sabonis center for the practices. But the school is also recruiting nation-wide and even internationally. For these players, they help to find places where they can live during the week or the season depending on their situation.

Next to the ordinary basketball school, the Sabonis center is also organizing summer and winter camps for any kind of youth basketball teams. You can find more information about these camps on the official website of the academy. The future looks good for Lithuanian basketball with academies like this. It will probably not last long until the next big name is coming out of the Sabonio Krepsinio Centras.[/QUOTE]

[URL="http://www.europeanprospects.com/sabonis-basketball-academy-the-pride-of-kaunas/"]http://www.europeanprospects.com/sabonis-basketball-academy-the-pride-of-kaunas/[/URL]

for dudes who follow a sport dominated by black athletes......lot of y'all are really clueless

it's almost as if you don't know ANY Black people in real life to be that clueless..or the ones you know are the ones who grew up as only black kid on the block or something ....like sean elliot or somebody

[QUOTE=Horde of Temujin]Well if they're so much better than the rest of the world then why did Spain give them such a hard time in the Olympics?[/QUOTE]

On ISH, a 5 point win over Lithuania and a 7 point win over Spain = "sooooo much better than the rest of the world".

Just grasp that the average IQ in this forum is about 60.

[QUOTE=TaLvsCuaL]Here several factors:

NBA rules favor the athletic players much more than FIBA rules.

NBA players are not used to playing under FIBA rules.

Spain has been playing a long time together.

Spain is enjoying a unique generation of players, especially Pau and Navarro are two of the best European players in history.

USA did not take some of their best players.[/QUOTE]

FIBA rules are now almost identical to NBA rules, even the way refs interpret fouls is 100% copied from the NBA now.

What you claim was only true in the past.

[QUOTE=Euroleague]FIBA rules are now almost identical to NBA rules, even the way refs interpret fouls is 100% copied from the NBA now.

What you claim was only true in the past.[/QUOTE]
who is considered the best European player EVER?

[QUOTE=CavaliersFTW]You people with your hair brained theories and uninformed opinions on genetics and intelligence :lol

It's because U.S.A. is the father-country and central hub of professional basketball, it has a league (the NBA) with the tenured and well-earned reputation as the "best" in the world as such - more systems and opportunities have been in place to develop our young talent. And it is an absolute magnet for the greatest U.S. [I]and[/I] International talent. The best players in the world will always gravitate towards the NBA - not some scrub-league team. So more great players also want to live here.

Europe for example, isn't producing "inferior" competition (Dirk, Sabonis, the Gasols, Manu, Parker - etc) - the reason foreign leagues like EUROLEAGUE sucks in comparison is because the good Europeans play for the NBA. The American NBA is stacked with not just America's best talent - but also the greatest talent from everywhere on the planet. Therefore American and International scrubs alike who can't make it in the U.S.A. tend to get repelled towards International leagues.

Again to the people getting caught up in race :facepalm :facepalm :facepalm

And the reason International teams don't look like U.S. teams is because the U.S.A. is f*cking massive in talent pool compared to the countries we face. We have 50 f*cking States to pull our talent from many of which have large cities which are extremely competitive with the kind of basketball talent they cultivate - some of which (like California) are as big or bigger than the countries we are facing. Europe as a whole, does not necessarily produce inferior talent. And even China is getting in the game now. Race isn't the problem. International basketball isn't really that bad considering their lesser population pools (Europe) and/or level of economic development or interest in the game (Asia, Africa, South America). I think what people get confused by things like EURO[U]LEAGUE[/U]. And Euroleague does suck at basketball. Royally. Because nobody great wants to play for some second rate Euroleague. But that doesn't represent International basketball - the NBA's great European players do.

/thread[/QUOTE]


Team USA can beat Spain, Lithuania, Russia, but it could NOT beat a unified European team, such as a Euroleague all star team.

You are an even bigger moron than the racist Afro supremacists are. Because they say the things they do out of racism. You are evidently saying them out of simply being a freaking dumb ass.

[QUOTE=jongib369]who is considered the best European player EVER?[/QUOTE]

In top European basketball circles (former hall of fame players, coaches, long time media that covered European basketball)....

The names you will hear the most as being discussed for it would be:

Dino Meneghin
Nikos Galis
Drazen Petrovic
Drazen Dalipagic
Kresimir Cosic
Radovaj Korac
Arvydas Sabonis
Dirk Nowitzki
Pau Gasol
Sergey Belov

If you only wanted to count the NBA, then objectively, you have to pick Dirk. If you wanted to count European club play, then it's probably Meneghin.

If you want to put world-wide international play at the top (things like Olympics and World Basketball Cup), then it's probably Belov.

If you simply want to go by who was the best player at their primes, then it should be either Galis or Petrovic.

[QUOTE=Euroleague]Team USA can beat Spain, Lithuania, Russia, but it could NOT beat a unified European team, such as a Euroleague all star team.

You are a an even bigger moron than the racist Afro supremacists are. Because they say the things they do out of racism. You are evidently saying them out of simply being a freaking dumb ass.[/QUOTE]

What would make Team USA struggle against the EuroLeague All-Star Team?

[QUOTE=Euroleague]In top European basketball circles (former hall of fame players, coaches, long time media that covered European basketball)....

The names you will hear the most as being discussed for it would be:

Dino Meneghin
Nikos Galis
Drazen Petrovic
Drazen Dalipagic
Kresimir Cosic
Radovaj Korac
Arvydas Sabonis
Dirk Nowitzki
Pau Gasol
Sergey Belov

If you only wanted to count the NBA, then objectively, you have to pick Dirk. If you wanted to count European club play, then it's probably Meneghin.

If you want to put world-wide international play at the top (things like Olympics and World Basketball Cup), then it's probably Belov.

If you simply want to go by who was the best player at their primes, then it should be either Galis or Petrovic.[/QUOTE]
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hy-f3C7e_kU[/url]

thats the only highlight I can find of him, do you know of any more? the music makes me LOL

And btw, I didn't create this thread to hate on overseas ball at all. If you want, message me sometime and possibly go into depth in your reasoning on some things. I'm interested in what you know

Yeah I'd say the college system, large population and to a small extent the African American race. They are the best but not by alot though. If anything the egos that many American players have had ingrained into them hold them back in team sports a bit.

[QUOTE=Euroleague]Team USA can beat Spain, Lithuania, Russia, but it could NOT beat a unified European team, such as a Euroleague all star team.

You are a an even bigger moron than the racist Afro supremacists are. Because they say the things they do out of racism. You are evidently saying them out of simply being a freaking dumb ass.[/QUOTE]
No.

Barely better with over 300million population than a country with under 3millions ? Wouldn't be proud...

[QUOTE=jongib369][url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hy-f3C7e_kU[/url]

thats the only highlight I can find of him, do you know of any more? the music makes me LOL

And btw, I didn't create this thread to hate on overseas ball at all. If you want, message me sometime and possibly go into depth in your reasoning on some things. I'm interested in what you know[/QUOTE]

Belov was about a 6-4 180 SG. He was known as the Jerry West of Europe. He's still considered to be the best Russian player ever to this day in Russia.

Of course, in the US everyone says it is Kirilenko because he played in the NBA.

Anyway, Belov was the best player on the 1972 Soviet Olympic team...so that's probably why he has never gotten any mention in the US. People still won't let it go, even 40 years later. Of course we can't really compare these players across eras. Same as with NBA players.

Personally, myself, I think Galis is the best European player ever.

If you have a question about European basketball, feel free to ask.

[QUOTE=Sakkreth]Barely better with over 300million population than a country with under 3millions ? Wouldn't be proud...[/QUOTE]

Exactly. USA 99 - Lithuania 94...........

I fail to see how this thread makes sense.

Yes, the US is better than every other country of the world individually in basketball.

However, they are not "oh so very much better" as is implied here. Hell, they were losing to Spain in the gold medal game deep into the second half of the game.

Also, again, the "better than the rest of the world" thing isn't realistic or true.

USA never plays against a unified European team, or a unified world team. It's only against single individual countries that USA plays.

The people that think USA can really beat a unified European or world team are morons. So they are not actually "better than the rest of the world". That's WRONG.

They are better than any other single individual country.

And no, I don't think the 2012 Team USA Olympic team would be favored to beat a Euroleague all star team.

A team of NBA All-Stars could be chalenged only when all the other countries join forces.

15-20 years ago US could beat anybody, any team assembled, and the gap was very obvious. And keep in mind that the game was played under FIBA rules.
Nowadays there is some lack of great talents in NBA, esspeccially with center positions. And the foreign players in NBA (a lot more than 15-20 years ago) knows that they can play the game with the best or at least they do not fear them anymore. Half of the Spanish team was assembled from NBA players.

[QUOTE=Euroleague]Team USA can beat Spain, Lithuania, Russia, but it could NOT beat a unified European team, such as a [SIZE="4"]Euroleague all star team[/SIZE].

You are a an even bigger moron than the racist Afro supremacists are. Because they say the things they do out of racism. You are evidently saying them out of simply being a freaking dumb ass.[/QUOTE]

please give player names on that team !

[QUOTE=Euroleague]Exactly. USA 99 - Lithuania 94...........

I fail to see how this thread makes sense.

Yes, the US is better than every other country of the world individually in basketball.

However, they are not "oh so very much better" as is implied here. Hell, they were losing to Spain in the gold medal game deep into the second half of the game.

Also, again, the "better than the rest of the world" thing isn't realistic or true.

USA never plays against a unified European team, or a unified world team. It's only against single individual countries that USA plays.

The people that think USA can really beat a unified European or world team are morons. So they are not actually "better than the rest of the world". That's WRONG.

They are better than any other single individual country.

And no, I don't think the 2012 Team USA Olympic team would be favored to beat a Euroleague all star team.[/QUOTE]


Euroleague all star team? You're joking right? A good match up would be a European all-star team vs Team USA but as we have seen a Euroleague all star team would have difficulty beating Nigeria! What "great" Euroleague players even made the Olympics? Only Juan Carlos Navarro and he was on a team with two NBA stars and a couple of other NBA players. I guess if you include AK-47 but he only played one year in Euroleague (winning league MVP and DPOY) before going back to being a role player in the NBA.

And yes the US is all lot better then the rest of the world. You mention their close games this summer. The point is they have gone through the past three global tournament without losing a game. Yes on a bad day they beat Lithuania by 5 and Spain by 7 but on a good day they beat France by 27, Argentina by 29 and Nigeria by 83! On a bad day Spain loses to Brazil and Greece loses to Nigeria...NIGERIA!!!!!

We have black people who are driven to play either basketball or football. End of story. It is scientifically proven (and common sense, really) that black people have the superior athletic genes.

Imagine if soccer in the US became as big as basketball and football... we'll be taking over that sport, too! :bowdown:

[QUOTE=Sakkreth]Barely better with over 300million population than a country with under 3millions ? Wouldn't be proud...[/QUOTE]

lawl, gtfo

take a specific state like maryland which has less than 6 mil people and they would still dominate teams like lithuania even though lithuania per population density has one of the highest participation rates in the world


even take a team of players from a single city like chicago and they would beat countries with similar population size with ease

i'm aussie and our national team would be torn to pieces from a team from california

OK, not a defender of Euroleague, since I'm mostly an NBA fan, but:

[QUOTE=gabepizza]Euroleague all star team? You're joking right? A good match up would be a European all-star team vs Team USA but as we have seen a Euroleague all star team would have difficulty beating Nigeria![/QUOTE]

Please, point out the "Euroleague all star team" that had any difficulty beating Nigeria.

[QUOTE]What "great" Euroleague players even made the Olympics? Only Juan Carlos Navarro and he was on a team with two NBA stars and a couple of other NBA players. I guess if you include AK-47 but he only played one year in Euroleague (winning league MVP and DPOY) before going back to being a role player in the NBA.[/QUOTE]

If the only logic applying for a player's value was how well a player performs in the NBA, team USA would have no business beating any opponent by less than 30 points. I mean, come on, any other NT consisted of Euroleague/other Euro/Afro/Asian "mediocrities" and a few NBA scrubs/role players, with only a few exceptions, like the Gasols, Scola, Manu, etc.

[QUOTE]And yes the US is all lot better then the rest of the world. You mention their close games this summer. The point is they have gone through the past three global tournament without losing a game. Yes on a bad day they beat Lithuania by 5 and Spain by 7 but on a good day they beat France by 27, Argentina by 29 and Nigeria by 83! On a bad day Spain loses to Brazil and Greece loses to Nigeria...NIGERIA!!!!![/QUOTE]

No problem with calling the USA the best team in the world (hell, they [B]should [/B]be, no other country respects basketball as much, with a few exceptions, like Lithuania, whose population is not bigger than the population of a small USA state or Serbia, also pretty small, or the Philippines, a country lacking big bodies). Now, using analogies like "USA beat Nigeria by 83, Nigeria beat Greece, so imagine how bad the USA would beat Greece" can only bring laughter to a reasonable person. Just as a reminder, the same Lithuania that the USA struggled to beat, ALSO lost to Nigeria in the same tournament with Greece, but later on easily beat the Nigerians to avenge the loss. According to the stupid logic that some people here use, such a thing should not happen. Another fun example: Greece in 2006 beats USA by 6, then loses to Spain by 24. This would mean that Spain would beat the USA by 30, right?

Its easy really. In Europe, we don't dream about becoming basketball players. There is no interest which basically means that you don't get to watch basketball which leaves you with no basketball idols. Kids idolize Cristiano Ronaldo, Messi and the other soccer stars, not basketball players. We're daily reminded of soccer with news, games, sites and we grow up with knowing everything about it.

Kids don't even know who Lebron James or Kobe are and they get to know about their existence when they get older and can start looking for information themselves.

I'm reading posts here that say the US isn't better than the rest of the world because it only beats individual countries. Well I have news for you. The US is an individual country as well! Yes it is the 3rd most populous and that is one reason why it is so good. The only countries that have more people (India and China) aren't good at basketball. Well India sucks but China is not great.

And I think that brings to genetics too. India doesn't care about basketball but China, like for lots of the world, basketball is the 2nd biggest team sport after soccer. So why aren't they better considering the have 4X the population? One reason is that although many cities and parts of China are 1st world most of China is still third world. They do not have the resources to find and nurture young talent.

And I think the next is genetic. China is good at sports, I mean in the Olympics they are only 2nd to the US in medals but they do not excel in sports that require pure athleticism. Track and field, swimming, soccer basketball. No Asian countries excel in these sports (at least the men's teams) Unlike Africa which is the 3rd world, some Asian countries have the resources of 1st world countries. Because of this can we say Asians as a whole don't have the genetic make-up for those sports? Then can we say that Africans or African-Americans or African-Jamaicans have the genetic make-up to excel in these sports?

[QUOTE=Psileas]OK, not a defender of Euroleague, since I'm mostly an NBA fan, but:



Please, point out the "Euroleague all star team" that had any difficulty beating Nigeria.



If the only logic applying for a player's value was how well a player performs in the NBA, team USA would have no business beating any opponent by less than 30 points. I mean, come on, any other NT consisted of Euroleague/other Euro/Afro/Asian "mediocrities" and a few NBA scrubs/role players, with only a few exceptions, like the Gasols, Scola, Manu, etc.



No problem with calling the USA the best team in the world (hell, they [B]should [/B]be, no other country respects basketball as much, with a few exceptions, like Lithuania, whose population is not bigger than the population of a small USA state or Serbia, also pretty small, or the Philippines, a country lacking big bodies). Now, using analogies like "USA beat Nigeria by 83, Nigeria beat Greece, so imagine how bad the USA would beat Greece" can only bring laughter to a reasonable person. Just as a reminder, the same Lithuania that the USA struggled to beat, ALSO lost to Nigeria in the same tournament with Greece, but later on easily beat the Nigerians to avenge the loss. According to the stupid logic that some people here use, such a thing should not happen. Another fun example: Greece in 2006 beats USA by 6, then loses to Spain by 24. This would mean that Spain would beat the USA by 30, right?[/QUOTE]

Well the Greek team that just lost to Nigeria had the Euroleague Final Four MVP (Spanoulis) and the player that the poster "Euroleague" claims is the best Euroleague center who was selected to all-Euroleague 1st team three years ago (Bourousis) plus 3 other members of the Euroleague champions. I know Euroleague champions are different from a Euroleague all-star team but still. So since a team with two all-star Euroleague players would lose to Nigeria it is not so far fetched to think a few more wouldn't make a difference. Krstic and Teodosic? They couldn't even reach the top 7 in Eurobasket together. McCalebb? Couldn't even lead his team past Dominican Republic. Who else? Lorbek? Batiste? Please. Diamantidis? Schortsanitis? Last time they played together with Spanoulis and Bourousis (hell that's almost a Euroleague all-star team there) they finished 11th in the World Championship behind Australia and Slovenia!

And I never made the comparisons saying since the US beat Nigeria by 83 and Greece lost to Nigeria by 1 the US would beat Greece by 84. I was simply replying to people who were pointing to the US only beating Lithuania by 5 and Spain by 7 by saying that was a bad day by them and they still won. Yet on a good say they beat the top teams by 25+ and can destroy lessor teams by 80+. While on a bad day by the other top national teams they could lose to teams as bad as Nigeria and even Spain, the 2nd best team in the world, lost to Russia and Brazil.

[QUOTE=Sakkreth]Barely better with over 300million population than a country with under 3millions ? Wouldn't be proud...[/QUOTE]


Los Angeles metro area alone has produced better players than Lithuania. :no: