Sazar
Rest In Peace
- Joined
- 12 Apr 2002
- Messages
- 14,905
a minor rant about something that has pissed me off since a coupla weeks before the olympics even began
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...2&u=/ap/20040815/ap_on_sp_ol/oly_swimming_swm
the thing I want to concentrate on is not michael phelps record attempt but rather the fact that a swimmer as great as gary hall jr was bumped off to feed the media frenzy for phelps..
if you look @ the team composition gary hall jr with his times and overall record would have been a better suited member of the team...
why was he not included?
just before being bumped off the team in favor of phelps he had spoken out about the bumping off of other swimmers in the US relay team to allow phelps an opportunity @ tieing or (before this loss) breaking the record set by the incomparable spitz...
personally I have no problems with phelps attempting to do this... he still has an opportunity to tie the record for most medals @ one olympics in his grasp (8)... but to bump a proven short distance swimmer of the calibre of gary hall jr for a guy who is for the most part a longer distance swimmer (most of his individual events save the fly are 200m) makes no sense... hall had a faster qualifying time for his leg than phelps did in the event as well which makes this an even more puzzling decision
even IF he was included why not bump one of the other lads? like ian crocker who laid a turd on the first leg and saddled his team with what was ultimately an insurmountable deficit?
I just don't understand this decision making and the pressure on the teams from people who don't know better...
for crying out loud these lads are representing the United States of America... not VISA or American Express or Nike or Speedo or any other company with vested interests... why then should the TEAM suffer @ the hands of these interests?
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another classic example is the current Dream Turd that bombed so magnificently against puerto rico of all teams...
the team is so obviously built for marketing its ridiculous...
no outside shooters... no play-maker (save a shoot-first marbury) and no interior presence save for tim duncan (who was completely blanketed today and received barely inlet passes from his team-mates)
I understand other big-name players are not present... but instead of sending the best marketed lads why not send people the TEAM could use and who actually know how to play as a TEAM?
carmello anthony and lebron james did nothing at all to help the team along and have not shown anything in the warmups the United States played... lebron hasn't even faced proper zone defence in his life (save for the token zone played in the NBA which is not like the zone in college or international basketball)
hopefully one day TEAM USA will go back to meaning more than marketing and actually represent the BEST the nation has to offer as a TEAM setup...
invidually we may have some of the best (and this is a fact) but as a TEAM we are sorely lacking in many disciplines where ego's and business men call the shots...
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...2&u=/ap/20040815/ap_on_sp_ol/oly_swimming_swm
the thing I want to concentrate on is not michael phelps record attempt but rather the fact that a swimmer as great as gary hall jr was bumped off to feed the media frenzy for phelps..
if you look @ the team composition gary hall jr with his times and overall record would have been a better suited member of the team...
why was he not included?
just before being bumped off the team in favor of phelps he had spoken out about the bumping off of other swimmers in the US relay team to allow phelps an opportunity @ tieing or (before this loss) breaking the record set by the incomparable spitz...
personally I have no problems with phelps attempting to do this... he still has an opportunity to tie the record for most medals @ one olympics in his grasp (8)... but to bump a proven short distance swimmer of the calibre of gary hall jr for a guy who is for the most part a longer distance swimmer (most of his individual events save the fly are 200m) makes no sense... hall had a faster qualifying time for his leg than phelps did in the event as well which makes this an even more puzzling decision
even IF he was included why not bump one of the other lads? like ian crocker who laid a turd on the first leg and saddled his team with what was ultimately an insurmountable deficit?
I just don't understand this decision making and the pressure on the teams from people who don't know better...
for crying out loud these lads are representing the United States of America... not VISA or American Express or Nike or Speedo or any other company with vested interests... why then should the TEAM suffer @ the hands of these interests?
----------------
another classic example is the current Dream Turd that bombed so magnificently against puerto rico of all teams...
the team is so obviously built for marketing its ridiculous...
no outside shooters... no play-maker (save a shoot-first marbury) and no interior presence save for tim duncan (who was completely blanketed today and received barely inlet passes from his team-mates)
I understand other big-name players are not present... but instead of sending the best marketed lads why not send people the TEAM could use and who actually know how to play as a TEAM?
carmello anthony and lebron james did nothing at all to help the team along and have not shown anything in the warmups the United States played... lebron hasn't even faced proper zone defence in his life (save for the token zone played in the NBA which is not like the zone in college or international basketball)
hopefully one day TEAM USA will go back to meaning more than marketing and actually represent the BEST the nation has to offer as a TEAM setup...
invidually we may have some of the best (and this is a fact) but as a TEAM we are sorely lacking in many disciplines where ego's and business men call the shots...
