Team USA Notebook: McMillan Preparing to Have Fernandez in Training Camp

Filed under: Trail Blazers, USA Basketball, Thunder, FIBA World Championship

ISTANBUL — Portland coach Nate McMillan wouldn’t mind at all seeing Rudy Fernandez stay with the Trail Blazers.

McMillan, a Team USA assistant, was asked by FanHouse if his hope is the disgruntled swingman will remain with the team.

“He’s a great player,” McMillan said. “He’s a good player. A talented player. Very talented.”

Asked further about the subject and McMillan said, “He is in my notes for training camp. All right.”

Fernandez, unhappy with his role in McMillan’s offense, wants to be traded and already has been fined $25,000 by the NBA for that demand having been publicly issued. Through his agent, Andy Miller, Fernandez told The Oregonian two weeks ago he intends to not report to training camp even though he has two years left on his contract.

 

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Team USA Notebook: McMillan Preparing to Have Fernandez in Training Camp

Filed under: Trail Blazers, USA Basketball, Thunder, FIBA World Championship

ISTANBUL — Portland coach Nate McMillan wouldn’t mind at all seeing Rudy Fernandez stay with the Trail Blazers.

McMillan, a Team USA assistant, was asked by FanHouse if his hope is the disgruntled swingman will remain with the team.

“He’s a great player,” McMillan said. “He’s a good player. A talented player. Very talented.”

Asked further about the subject and McMillan said, “He is in my notes for training camp. All right.”

Fernandez, unhappy with his role in McMillan’s offense, wants to be traded and already has been fined $25,000 by the NBA for that demand having been publicly issued. Through his agent, Andy Miller, Fernandez told The Oregonian two weeks ago he intends to not report to training camp even though he has two years left on his contract.

 

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The Works: Oscar on LeBron, Depressing Anthony Randolph Trade Rumors

Filed under: Bulls, Knicks, Pacers, Trail Blazers, FIBA, USA Basketball, FIBA World Championship

In The Works today: when “out-athleting” makes sense, but doesn’t; Kevin Love, secret weapon or boring garbageman?; and the heartbreaking rumor of a potential Anthony Randolph trade.

But first, Oscar Robertson speaks truth on LeBron James.

The Great Cynic: The ranks of basketball royalty haven’t been universally opposed to the Miami Three — it’s just seemed like it. Legendary former Georgetown coach John Thompson spoke highly of LeBron James’ decision to join the Heat, and even Isiah Thomas — a not-so-undercover Knicks operative — appreciated that LeBron exercised his right to choose.

Most other Hall-of-Famers who have spoken, though, have panned the move. Michael Jordan razzed LeBron for not being willing to do it on his own; Magic Johnson and Larry Bird also slipped on their tough-guy pants to assert they would never have teamed up with a top rival in the quest for glory. But all three of those legends are currently affiliated with teams in some capacity — Magic as a partial owner, Jordan as a majority owner and Bird as a general manager.

 

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For Russian Coach, Game Against US Comes Full Circle

Filed under: USA Basketball, FIBA World Championship

ISTANBUL — On Sept. 9, 1972, David Blatt was a 13-year-old kid living in Framingham, Mass., who bled red, white and blue.

On that day, the U.S. Olympic basketball team suffered a shocking and controversial 51-50 loss to the Soviet Union in the final of the 1972 Olympics in Munich, to fail to win the gold medal for the first time. It’s something Blatt never will forget.

“I was one of those kids crying when the Americans lost the game in the Olympics, when (Alexander) Belov made the shot at the end,” Blatt said of the ending in Munich in which the Soviets scored on a third inbound attempt with three seconds left on a length-of-the-court pass to Belov. The American players believe to this day they were cheated and have refused to accept their silver medals.

Flash forward exactly 38 years, and on Sept. 9, 2010 — which is Thursday — and the American-born Blatt, who now lives in Israel, will coach the Russians against Team USA in a World Championship quarterfinal at the Sinan Erdem Dome.

 

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Chauncey Billups Leads Team USA in Rout of Angola

Filed under: Nuggets, USA Basketball, FIBA World Championship

ISTANBUL — Chauncey Billups had moved to shooting guard and forgot the shooting part.

But it all came back Monday.

Billups, who is Denver’s starting point guard but switched to starting shooting guard for Team USA, shot just 4-of-19 from three-point range in the World Championship in the group stage.

But Billups found his range Monday against Angola. He shot 5-of-7 from beyond the arc and scored a team-high 19 points to lead the Americans to a 121-66 rout in a round-of-16 game at the Sinan Erdem Dome.

Team USA, 6-0 in the tournament, advances to a quarterfinal game Thursday against the winner between Russia and New Zealand.

It marked the third straight game Team USA faced a hopelessly outclassed foe. But the Americans didn’t struggle at the start as they did against the previous two such opponents, leading both Iran and Tunisia 19-13 after the first quarter. Team USA made sure Monday’s game was over early, leading 33-13 after the first quarter and 65-38 at halftime.

 

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Billups’ NBA Playoff Pedigree Shows in Team USA’s Rout of Angola

Filed under: Nuggets, USA Basketball, FIBA World Championship

ISTANBUL– Nobody has attached a nifty slogan to it such as “Win or Go Home.” But the knockout round in the World Championship is like the playoffs in the NBA.

And we’ve all seen how Chauncey Billups transforms when the playoffs start.

The guard was the Finals MVP when Detroit won the NBA crown in 2004 and was in line to claim the award again until the Pistons blew a nine-point second half lead in Game 7 of the 2005 Finals against San Antonio.

Billups’ career regular-season scoring average: 15.4.

His postseason career scoring average: 17.8.

 

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Turkey’s ‘12 Giant Men’ Taking Giant Steps in 2010 FIBA World Championship

Filed under: Bucks, Kings, Suns, FIBA World Championship

ISTANBUL — Turkey is home to the world’s tallest man in 8-foot-1 Sultan Kosen. But he is not a Giant Man here.

There are only a dozen such men in Turkey. And one is Ender Arslan, who stands a modest 6-foot-3.

The popular name of the Turkish national basketball team is Oniki Dev Adam, which means The 12 Giant Men. And they take the motto quite seriously here.

Before the Turks routed France 95-77 Sunday at the Sinan Erdem Dome to reach the quarterfinals of the World Championship, the home fans stood and sang the theme song for their heroes, simply called “Oniki Dev Adam.”

Translated it goes, “We will win. We will be the champions. We are 12 Giant Men. We are 12 Giant Men. You will not be alone.”

 

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Slovenia Trounces Australia at Worlds

Filed under: FIBA World Championship

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) — Jaka Lokovic scored 19 points and Slovenia hit 16 of 33 3-pointers to eliminate Australia 87-58 Sunday in the round of 16 at the basketball world championship.

Lokovic’s corner 3-pointer in the game’s opening seconds sparked a 12-0 run and Slovenia never looked back. Primoz Brezec of the Milwaukee Bucks had 12 points and Goran Dragic added 10 points and eight assists for Slovenia.

Slovenia’s guards cut into Australia’s interior defense all game for easy looks or passes to wide-open perimeter shooters.

“We did a poor job of getting to their 3-point shooters,” Australian coach Brett Brown said. “We pride ourselves for playing hard, tough defense. We don’t have great athletes, we aren’t very quick.”

 

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Team USA Notebook: Players Getting Used to High Expectations

Filed under: Raptors, USA Basketball, FIBA World Championship

ISTANBUL — If there’s a guy who knows about inflated expectations, it’s Mike Krzyzewski.

“I’m accustomed to that,” said Krzyzewski, who has led Duke to four national titles in the past 20 years, including one last April. “No matter who you put out for Duke, it should be win every game and not let anybody score. Other than that, you’ll be all right.”

So the Team USA coach just shrugs when a foreign journalist asks after the team scored 100-plus points in a lopsided win why it didn’t score more.

This is new for some of American players at the World Championship. With Team USA undefeated but still hearing plenty of nitpicking, they’re learning the expectations that come with wearing red, white and blue in international competition.

“You’ve got to win every game by 60,” said forward Kevin Durant, whose Americans face outmanned Angola in a round-of-16 game Monday at the Sinan Erdem Dome. “Fifty is not good enough.”

 

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Anderson Varejao, No Longer With LeBron James, Preps for Argentina

Filed under: Cavaliers, FIBA, FIBA World Championship

ISTANBUL — Anderson Varejao was asked to compare Brazil-Argentina to an NBA rivalry. Lakers-Celtics, perhaps?

Cavaliers-Magic or Cavaliers-Celtics wasn’t suggested, even though Varejao (top, left) plays for Cleveland. The Cavaliers, you see, don’t have any big rivals left now that LeBron James has bolted the team as a free agent for Miami.

Varejao is busy now trying to help his Brazilians, who face Argentina in a round-of-16 game Tuesday at the Sinan Erdem Dome, to a World Championship medal. But in three weeks he’ll show up at a very different Cavaliers training camp.

Varejao, a big man who played the past six seasons in Cleveland with James as his teammate, is the longest-tenured Cavalier remaining after the departure of James and center Zydrunas Ilgauskas, who has followed James to Miami as a free agent. He and guard Daniel Gibson are the only players left from the 2007 Cleveland outfit that advanced to the NBA Finals and looked to be on the verge of eventually winning the team’s first NBA crown.

“We lost a big player, one of the best players in the world,” Varejao said of life in Cleveland without James. “But we know we can’t be thinking about that. … We’ve got to think about who is there now and try to do a good job this season.”

 

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