Tag: Olympic games

Q: There has been a lot of conversation …

Q: There has been a lot of conversation in the documentary about what he was like as a teammate on the Bulls. What was he like as a teammate from your perspective? Chris Mullin: It’s a totally different atmosphere when you’re playing on All-Star teams, Olympic teams. The amount of time is much shorter. Less games, more practice. The times I got to play with Michael — 1984 and the Dream Team — there was nothing really to be upset about, because we didn’t lose a game. We played eight exhibition games with the NBA, and I think we won all of them. Then we played eight games in the Olympic Games. Both in ’84 and ’92, we won all the games. My experience with Michael was we were 24-0, so that’s not bad. But look, everyone knows the drive he has, the competitive fire that burns within him and his love for the game. So I really never had anything but good experiences with Michael. As long as you’re on the same level in terms of dedication, work ethic, discipline and focus, you’re all good. That didn’t change. I saw that in 1981, and I saw that in 1998 when we played while I was with the Pacers. He was very consistent, and that’s why he’s considered the greatest of all time.

His relationship with his sister …

His relationship with his sister heightened Booker’s sensitivity to the challenges people with disabilities face in social situations. Over the course of his NBA career, he has worked with Special Olympics organizers to bring its members to two draft lotteries. On Thursday morning, Booker became the newest Special Olympics global ambassador. “I am really excited about it,” Booker told ESPN during a phone interview. “I have always dibbled and dabbled in partnering with them. Being raised with my sister and the challenges she faces every day have always driven me.”

“Having somebody in my life that faces …

“Having somebody in my life that faces challenges every day with the immune system, I think people are not aware of it,” Booker said. “People need to hear about it more and how this can really affect other people lives, no matter how healthy you are. I would say it’s selfish in a way, but it’s not quite selfish because they don’t have the right information.” Booker paused before settling on the word “naive” as an apt description.

Now you wanted to play in the Olympics …

Now you wanted to play in the Olympics this summer would have been your fifth Olympics. Can you hang on for 2021? Pau Gasol: Well, I’m gonna try. But first of all, I was just got to, I got to focus on what I can control which is my rehab and, and kind of follow that process and get healthy, get that foot strong. And now then find out whether if I can or I won’t. So that’ll be the that’ll be the process and, and right now everything is up in the air. So we have to kind of wait and see it’s hard to access any medical facility now to get any type of test done. So all that’s been postponed and delayed. So I’m just gonna, you know, kind of take it, take it one day at a time just like everyone else do, we’ll do what I can stay positive, stay strong to stick to my routines and, and be ready for for when I’m able to go out there and find out.

“He wanted to in the worst way,” said …

“He wanted to in the worst way,” said Colangelo, who was the managing director of USA Basketball Men’s Senior National Team program at the time. “I put him on by saying, ‘Look, we may want you to do something else rather than score. We may need you to be the distributor’ and he kind of looked at me funny and we smiled and he said, ‘I’ll do whatever you want. I just want to be part of it.’” This was coming off the 2004 U.S. Olympic team winning just a bronze medal.

“We go to training camp in Vegas and …

“We go to training camp in Vegas and he’s there two days early and is in the workout room at 5:30 in the morning working on his weights,” Colangelo recalls. “If you practice twice a day, that was his first workout before the two regular workouts. As players like Carmelo and LeBron, Wade and (Chris) Bosh and others, they saw that and they started going in that early. So he led by example.” Case in point. “The first day of scrimmage, he’s diving on the floor for a loose ball,” Colangelo said. Bryant scored 20 points in the 118-107 gold medal victory over Spain in Beijing, hitting clutch shots in the fourth quarter. “Had it not been for Wade and in particular, Kobe’s late-game heroics, we may not have won,” Colangelo said. “Spain played that well against us.”

New dates set for Tokyo Games

Sergio Scariolo, head coach of Spain’s …

Sergio Scariolo, head coach of Spain’s senior national team, drew a positive note from the postponement of the 2020 Olympic Games. He mentioned via the “Tiempo de Juego” that moving the Tokyo Games to 2021 can allow Pau Gasol to compete in the Olympics for the fifth time. “This actually gives him a better chance of making it,” said Spain’s head coach, “This summer might have been a stretch, but with one more season ahead he can get back on the courts and be as close as possible to the Olympic Games.”

The HoopsHype Weekly: The Olympics getting postponed could have huge ramifications towards the NBA

Will NBA players attend the Olympics in 2021? Will the games overshadow the NBA? Could a different group of players go to Tokyo than planned?

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OLYMPIC BASKETBALL: With the announcement this week that the Olympics would be getting postponed until 2021 due to the coronavirus outbreak, things regarding the upcoming Games got interesting from an NBA perspective. That’s because we now have to wonder: Depending on when the Olympics are rescheduled, could that prevent NBA players – not just Americans, but from all over the world – from participating?

After all, we don’t even know when the NBA will be returning to complete the 2019-20 campaign  – if they do at all. If the mid- to late-June projections are true, that would leave the league without enough time to start the 2020-21 season in October like they usually do, likely pushing back the start date of next year’s campaign, too. There’s little chance if that’s the case, that the timeline for the Olympics and 2020-21 season don’t clash, leaving us without the possibility for NBA players joining in on the competition.

What’s more, and even worse for the league, let’s say the Games occur in April or May when the NBA playoffs usually take place, will the postseason get overshadowed by the vastly popular and global Olympics? That could be a nightmare scenario for Adam Silver and Co.

Perhaps the 2020-21 season is planned with the Olympics in mind in order to avoid competing against the once-every-four-year festivities and allowing for NBA players to participate. But if they aren’t, basketball in the Games might not be as fun as it usually is.

HOPEFUL CORONA UPDATE: Our own Alex Kennedy spoke to former NBA forward Donatas Motiejunas, who plays in China, to discuss what things are like in Shanghai now that they’ve successfully flattened the curve. Motiejunas was happy to share that the massive Chinese city is slowly coming back to life.

SLAM DUNK CHAMP: Two-time Slam Dunk champion Jason Richardson dominated a couple of All-Star weekends in his heyday, but he never did so as an All-Star himself. The 13-year NBA veteran feels he should have made a few All-Star rosters, though. He discussed that and much more recently with us.

CLUTCH GENE: Curious about which NBA players have been the most productive during what the league defines as “clutch time” (when the score is within five points in the final five minutes of regulation or overtime) over the past 24 years? You’re in luck, as we broke down what the numbers say about 50 popular NBA stars’ clutchness here.

WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN: We recently talked to four-time All-Star and University of Memphis head coach Penny Hardaway, who said a lot of interesting things, including that if Shaq had stayed in Orlando, they would have won championships (plural) together.

LOOKING BACK: We re-ranked a couple of classic drafts, the one from 1998 and the one from 1999, to determine what the actual draft orders should have been. A couple of international players, Dirk Nowitzki and Manu Ginobili, made big jumps to No. 1 in both rankings.

SCARY NIGHT: Jazz rookie Juwan Morgan discusses what the night that the NBA season got postponed was like, an important first-hand account as a teammate of Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell.

BIG IMPLICATIONS: The coronavirus-forced break of NBA action will present major challenges to both the league and its players, including a potentially (much) low salary cap and a huge loss of Basketball Related Income.

SNEAKER LIFE: Recruiting and pitch meetings are just as important in sneaker free agency as they are for regular player free agency. Find out why here.

FRESH POD: We were joined by ex-NBA guard Larry Hughes, who talked about playing with Michael Jordan and LeBron James, losing his brother, Justin, to a heart issue, being limited by injuries throughout his career and more.