FWIW and maybe I am crazy but this game has little to nothing to do to the argument about the Dream Team. If anyone was questioning the level of dominance between the two teams then first lol and second clearly this would dispel any doubt in this argument.

I have seen tons of people of twitter blowing up about how this has to be the end of the debate, because clearly the world has gotten so much better at basketball since the 1992 team. To me this perhaps even strengthens the argument that 2012 could beat 1992's team, by using the claim that the game has changed and gotten much tougher especially worldwide since 1992 doesn't the strengthen the idea that bball players in 2012 on average are tougher/better than 1992?

Personally I don't really have a horse in the race in this debate, but I think there is something to be said for the argument that the game has changed so much since 1992 and the level of play is likely much higher in the NBA as well as Olympics.

don't waste your one time, in 4 years you're going to want it back

Yes, that usually happens when people are losing at debate. You are just another sheep in the line.

Yep coming out of the woodwork. And that is where you and the other fanboys of the 2012 team will go if the USA keeps playing like today.

win by 83 omg they're great, win by 5 omg dream team way ****ing better its not even close.


wish a mod would blow this thread up.

eta: fwiw i think coach k used some terrible lineups today.

DT '92 lost a scrimmage against the likes of Bobby Hurley and other college players.

LOL @ bringing this up again. 2.8% is huge in the 100 meters. There are 7 runners that have run faster in the 100 meters in the last 4 years, than Carl Lewis' world record that stood in 1992. If there were 7 basketball players now that were better than Michael Jordan, I think that would be plenty to make the game uncompetitive. Obviously, the 100m is a little fluky in that it's the event where modern track athletes have done the best, but the jumping events that have a 10 to 20 year old record are similarly fluky. There's a slow, steady progression in the sport as a whole, but variance will sometimes make it look like it's not progressing at all in some events while making it look much faster in others.

BTW, I guarantee you that if races weren't timed, and people just watched and gave their impressions, you'd get a bunch of nostalgia people out there saying "Usain Bolt's fast", but he's not as fast as Carl Lewis. Carl Lewis dominated, he's the GOAT." And then the people who chimed in on Bolt's side would get accused of "recency bias".

Nah, I'll be right here regardless . You keep beating up on that strawman though pookie.

Lots to notice about todays game for the USA squad.

(1)To much 1 on 1
(2)Bad shooting from distance
(3)Poor Defense by multiple players

However, the main thing I saw.......is Kobe just looks OLD out there.

Good thing Lebron is around to bail them out at the end.

Still on the track theme. Don't you have anything to contribute about basketball?

Usain Bolt also beat the silver medalist by 2% in the 2008 Olympics. One man is reponsible for most of the difference. One man with no year round drug testing in his country. Tracks are a lot faster now too. PED use is way more widespread with 100 m sprinters and PED's are way more beneficial for straight line speed than dribbling and shooting.

How much have those other 7 sprinters with faster tracks and improved PED's beaten Carl Lewis by?

Pookie? are we long lost friends?
Hummm........instead of using the "strawman" term every other post, and throwing around loving euphemisms, maybe you could make a point on topic.

When you have something constructive to say about 2012 being better than the dream team, let us all know.

You act as though the improved PEDs aren't available to the top bball players as well.

See when you say things like this, it becomes really obvious that you're trolling. If only if it weren't for that one crazy outlier in Usain Bolt, only 6 runners in the current Olympics would be faster than Carl Lewis!


10 fastest men to ever run the 100 meters:

Rank Fastest time (s) Wind (m/s) Athlete Country Date Location
1 9.58 +0.9 Usain Bolt Jamaica 16 August 2009 Berlin
2 9.69 +2.0 Tyson Gay United States 20 September 2009 Shanghai
3 9.72 +0.2 Asafa Powell Jamaica 2 September 2008 Lausanne
4 9.75 +1.1 Yohan Blake Jamaica 29 June 2012 Kingston
5 9.78 +0.9 Nesta Carter Jamaica 29 August 2010 Rieti
6 9.79 +0.1 Maurice Greene United States 16 June 1999 Athens
7 9.80 +1.3 Steve Mullings Jamaica 4 June 2011 Eugene
(t) 9.80 +1.8 Justin Gatlin United States 24 June 2012 Eugene
9 9.84 +0.7 Donovan Bailey Canada 27 July 1996 Atlanta
(t) 9.84 +0.2 Bruny Surin Canada 22 August 1999 Seville

Carl Lewis' world record in 1992 was 9.86.

How many positive tests for PEDs have there been with NBA players over the past 20-30 years? Do you think PEDs help basketball players more or less than sprinters, who are simply running in a straight line?

Look at Kevin Durant, who has led the league in scoring each of the past 3 seasons. Can you tell me with a straight face this dude is on steroids?

By a tiny fraction of Lewis' time 20 years ago. The magnitude is relevant, so I'm not sure what you're talking about or why you think I'm trolling.



Thanks. Looks like Carl Lewis was within a fraction of a percent of all but 4 of those times, 20 years ago.

How much would you attribute to faster tracks? How about better PEDs and better strategies for beating drug tests?

I don't really need to, as I haven't been arguing that one side is clearly that much better than the other. I've been arguing it's close either way. You're the one that seems to have a clear bias towards one side.

Also, Carl Lewis competed in the long jump and was the best in the world. This took away his training time for the sprints, and competing in the long jump took away some of his energy when actually running the races. Usain Bolt doesn't compete in nor train for this completely different event, and this gives him more time/energy to improve his sprint times.

None of the other sprinters you mentioned compete in jumping events either.

How much do you think this effected Carl Lewis's times? What if we combine this factor with the slower tracks and not having access to the more advanced PEDs?

Would this affect his time more than a fraction of a %? I'd say almost certainly.

Have tracks really gotten faster since 1992? I haven't heard anything about this. If you could link to an article or something, that would be great. I Googled and came up with nothing.

This explains it a little bit:

http://coachjoeenglish.wordpress.com...aster-or-slow/

I remember in the lead up to the Beijing Olympics people talking about how the track was constructed and how fast it was for sprinters with the more advanced surface. I'll have to look harder for more specific stuff -- I keep getting junk with the google terms I'm using.

Edit -- derp I probably should have tried "beijing track surface":

http://www.designnews.com/document.a...Layout=article

As for the other major jumping event, this jump:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEt_Xgg8dzc

Would have been good for gold in the 2008 Olympics. It would have beaten the 2008 gold medalist's jump by almost 15%.

(For those that don't click on the link, this jump took place 44 years ago.)

Cliffs: Lithuania plays 12' team close.... '12ers now backing down their hard line stance. 1 game at a time.

we can stop beating the 'lolmvp' horse; it's already been converted to glue. so let's just change it to MVP-candidate or -level. to me, the point is that Malone must have some of those non-measureables that imo would factor into a game between the 2 best basketball teams ever assembled. And given how old he was, he must have a lot of them. now, you can argue he didn't have them when he was younger, but... let's not.

-------------------------

obviously, "omg they won by 80" vs "omg they won by 5" is a red herring. if anything, it might illustrate how dependent the 12ers are on their 3-point shooting tactical advantage. durant's average on defense afaik, but LOL melo/love.

I still think the 12ers' deficiencies >> the DTers' deficiencies. And when you look at both sides of the coin, DT>12.

Flip side to that coin.