Early Olympic favourites and a TV-movie conundrum

So, Spain.

No big surprise that they won the European championship for the second successive time – they were silver medalists four years ago at home, too – and now the question arises:

Think they can beat the USA at the London Gams.

Sure, we’re just under a year out and no one knows for sure who’ll end up playing for either country but the prospects of a Spain-USA gold medal Olympic game – reprising the brilliant game in Beijing in 2008 – is truly enticing.

Spain has become – without doubt – the second most powerful basketball nation on Earth, surpassing Argentina and, in the distant past, Yugoslavia.

Every time I ask Jose Calderon why that’s happened, why a soccer-playing nation has become so adept at basketball, he tells me the same thing.

It’s a confluence of timing – who saw a group so spectacular arriving in its prime at the same time? – and an interest in the game among young Spaniards that grew out of the original Dream Team’s dominance at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

At that stage, kids in Spain were truly turned on to the game, it had been part of the sporting landscape but it got a huge boost in popularity among youngsters in the early- to mid-1990s, a boost that helped create the talent pool that led the formation of this current dominant, deep team.

(Yes, it is truly too bad that, say, Canada didn’t capitalize on that same phenomenon, I blame the Tall Foreheads at Canada Basketball at the time).

Anyway, if Spain returns the same team, and there’s no indication they won’t, I can absolutely see them being a legitimate challenger to whatever group the Americans come up with.

Remember Beijing? The gold medal game was in doubt until the final minute and remains, to me, one of the top seven or eight game I’ve ever seen.

With four more years of experience and playing together, and with so many of this year’s team still in their primes, to overlook Spain in London is folly.

The Americans, if they can get their best players, would have to be favourites today; but the gap is much smaller than many think.

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Not sure how many of you saw this but stopped out to see the women before they took off for Puerto Rico (exhibition games) and Colombia (Olympic qualifier) and here was the end product.

I’ve been saying this for a couple of years now but the women stand a better chance of (a) being in the Olympics and (b) doing something when they’re there than the men. They have a better team, in comparison to their competition, and the reason is simple:

There are more Canadian women playing at the highest level of European basketball than there are men and that competition stands them in far better spread.

Spain, Russia, Turkey, all good leagues, all with Canadians in prominent roles and what it’s done is deepen the talent pool at, comparatively, the highest level.

I’m not sure if the women can get the one Olympic berth available at this tournament – Brazil can be formidable – but I have no doubt they’ll be in the final tournament next summer.

And with another year of top-notch competition, who knows how that’ll turn out.

If you need to get up to speed on what they’ve been doing, or what they are doing, Kim Smith reminds that she keeps a pretty impressive blog going at the Canada Basketball site.

If you click here, you can read it and, yes, I can handle the competition.

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Okay, so Super Brother and a crony and I are standing around the saloon the other night and, because we’re us, all of a sudden the conversation goes off on a tangent.

And it left me trying to figure this out:

Is this better?

Or is this?

You can imagine the affinity I felt for Oscar Madison – there was a point in time when I was, you know, him – and it’s hard for me to pick one.

Me? I take the movie, with the admission I’ve never seen Neil Simon’s play on the stage.

You?

And is this the best TV-show-to-come-from-a-movie ever?

I’d have to say so.

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So, ran into the former head coach of the HOTH while visiting the peninsula the other day – that Starbucks on the Lane is like the meeting place for all the cool kids – and it seems the NBA’s keeping him kind of busy.

There’s this camp in Australia that includes the top 17-year-olds from Australia, New Zealand, China and Korea and apparently Jay and Alex English are serving as part of the coaching staff.

Not a bad gig, eh? Not only keeps their hand in on-court coaching, it’s kind of cool travel and the networking with other coaches can’t be a bad thing, either.

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Man, did the Emmy’s suck, or what?

Sure, it was nice to see some clips and wins for Modern Family – a great, great show – and there were some wacky clothes (although nothing really out there, it seemed to me) but other than that?

Boring.

And hands up everyone who felt cheated when Charlie Sheen took the high road?

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Kind of cool that we know almost three-quarters of the field for the Olympics, at least for the men.

We’ve got Great Britain and the USA as automatic qualifiers and Tunisia, Argentina, Brazil, Australia, Spain and France have earned berths.

All that’s left to do is determine the Asian representative – I think the smart money is on China – and then sit back and see what three countries come out of next year’s final qualification event.

For that one, Nigeria, Angola, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Russia, Macedonia, Lithuania and Greece already in with another two to come from Asia.

The interesting thing is going to be where that tournament is played. FIBA is likely to simply open bids with the biggest cheque winning the day and if I had to guess right now, I’d say we’re in Russia.

Most likely will be in Europe to lead into the London Games, and since Lithuania just hosted EuroBasket and Greece had the final qualifier four years ago, looks like Russia by default.

What I’d like to see, though, is Macedonia host it; that’d be a nice road trip for someone.

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Comments

[Travis]

"For that one, Nigeria, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Russia, Macedonia, Lithuania and Greece already in with another to come from Asia."

I believe it is 2 teams from Asia that will play in the qualifier... to round out a field of 10

Blogger's note: Missed a couple, actually; am fixing now

[LeeZ]

Didn't watch the Emmys, but I did see some clips. I thought Ty Burell's (Phil Dumphy on MF) speech was just hilarious, in a very low-key way. On the Emmy website they have an x-rated skit parodying Jersy Shore that I'm SURE wasn't on the actual show. Jane Lynch is an absolute treasure.
As for the Odd Couple, gosh, that's a tough one but I too would pick the movie. This is my absolute fave scene from the movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDXSXkYoM5Y
And I would put MASH right up there with Odd Couple in terms of spin-offs from movies.

[RK]

The Spain vs. France final was one of the best games I've ever seen (although I am not of a certian vintage yet, so the sample size of games I've seen live is quite smaller than that of other Irregulars). Up-tempo, well coached, great plays and players and plenty of wow moments. And Jose even dunked the ball! First time I've seen him dunk...

Doug, I don't know if you know, but the next Eurobasket (2013) is being held in Slovenia! Arvydas Sabonis, the legendary Lithuanian centre, officially passed the ball (or rather shoes, since he handed out a bronze sculpture of a pair of sneakers) to none other than Rasho (who is now officially Slovenia's ambassador of all things basketball) at halftime of last night's game. It was quite a nice ceremony, despite the cheesy speech they both had. So Doug, might we see you in Slovenia in two years?:)

Blogger's note: Oh, I'm aware of 2013 and will start pleading case soon

[Jeff]

Doug, while I enjoyed the odd couple, I'm sure even you would agree that M*A*S*H was the better movie-to-TV result.

Blogger's note: Prefer that TV show to the movie

[ditch]

http://www.soulpepper.ca/performances/11_season/The_Odd_Couple.aspx

I'm not connected to the theatre involved so this is not a plug. The play is hilarious and I imagine Soulpepper will have an outstanding rendition.

It might be too late for you to audition for Oscar but maybe you could understudy.

Sports Writer: Well, that's the ballgame.
Oscar Madison: It's not over yet.
Sports Writer: Bases loaded, Mazeroski up, ninth inning - you expect the Mets to hold a one-run lead?
Oscar Madison: What's the matter? You've never heard of a triple play?

-30-

[Lorie]

Morning Doug,
The announcers were frequently a scream, the mascots "unusual" and, of course, the basketball, terrific. But mostly I had fun watching Jose Calderon played for his country: it's obviously a passion for him, and I thought, while he may not have played his best EVER, (but that dunk wasn't exactly chopped liver - or is it jambon?) he's playing with teammates whose skills complement and require his; his steadiness in the backcourt - especially since Rubio, to me, is still working on his decision-making and involving his teammates - was a huge part of the reason for Spain's success. Two quick thoughts: I really had no idea how very large Sabonis is until I saw him against that pipsqueak Rasho; and Doug! - Slovenia DOES look beautiful: you MUST get there. And with Rasho as your tour guide/sidekick/straightman, well, that trip might be worthy of a book all on its own! And the other thing: Walter Matthau always made me laugh just thinking of him. I loved him and Jack Lemmon in "The Odd Couple" film, but "Grumpy Old Men" (and the outtakes with Burgess Meredith always have me rolling on the floor laughing) is my favorite film pairing of these two. So, Doug, if you were Matthau, which of your cronies would have been cast as your Lemmon??? :) Cheers!

Blogger's note: I've got to think on that; it probably comes down to Perk or Cathal

[doug]

Modern Family is a television gem, that episode called "Caught in the Act" was just to funny...for a young show it's like those old Billboard music charts, it's a bullet moving up onto my top 5 comedies of all time on t.v.....I liked the television version of the Odd Couple as to do a on-going comedy week after week and keep the audience engaged as well as fresh material isn't easy without jumping the shark...so to me the Odd Couple t.v. show was pretty good viewing...I think there is no way to spruce up those awards shows, although when all the ladies went up on stage led by Amy Poeller that was good stuff....maybe a trend to come...

[D-Mac Ottawa]

Wait a minute, Doug, you were once an Oscar Madison? The same guy who often mentions those cleaning chores around the old Casa? The same guy who often mentions ironing in hotel rooms? Ironing! In hotel rooms! Is there some error here? Or was there some manner of Miraculous Matrimonial Transformation (MMT) along the way you'd like to share? Meanwhile, for sure, the movie. Mostly because Walter Matthau was the spitting image of my Uncle Mike. Only Uncle Mike was much funnier (honest! much funnier; and you shoulda seen him and Uncle Jim in high fettle: priceless). Okay, cheers. And go Canuckle Women!

[doug]

oh I forgot to mention this in regards to boxing...some advice for any boxer out there, when you head-butt a opponent (which in boxing is the lowest of the low), and you apologize, kiss your opponent on the cheek...don't ever,ever leave your hands down to the side after you tap gloves to resume boxing....that's not a sucker punch that's the guy that was just head-butted being ticked and getting payback.....speaking of head butts in that incident of Tyson biting Hoylfield's ear, Holyfield had head-butted Tyson twice before that incident and to say Tyson was ticked is well a understatement, that headbutting has seemed to be lost in the discussion of that bite..

[Tim H.]

"Think they can beat the USA at the London Gams."

Is that a leg competition, or something? :) Sometimes typos are more fun the correct thing!

[Wayne Matheson]

Hi Doug
FYI Today Halifax Rainmen signed former NBA journeymen Rodney Buford and Eddie Robinson.
Gotta be MASH man. What were you thinking with The Odd Couple.

[Nick M]

LeeZ,

Completely agree with you on Ty Burell's speech, so Phil Dumphyesque. I actually turned to my wife after the speech and wondered allowed whether or not he was acting or is actually like Phil Dumphy. I hope its the latter, and if so, how great would that set be to work on!

[doug]

I wrote earlier but no sign of it...anyways Modern Family is a gem, the whole "caught in the act" episode was classic tv....I am a fan of the Odd Couple television show as they kept it fresh, great acting and just good tv...and in regards to movies becoming shows what about the opposite, shows becoming movies, the worse ever may be the Beverley Hillbillies...and next time when a boxer headbutts his opponent just don't think that you can apologize and all is well, or at least have your hands up after you tap gloves...it wasn't a sucker punch, you headbutt be ready afterwards....

[Penguin]

Thanks for the Odd Couple opening, Doug. It's always had a special place in my own heart, because...wait for it... I actually grew up in that building in NYC. The specific address is 1049 (you can see it on the awning in the opening) Park Avenue, between 86th and 87th streets. When people ask where I grew up, if they are at least of a certain age, I ask them if they recall the opening for the Odd Couple.

[sportschick]

I think a trip to Slovenia should definitely be in the works.

Echoing all the Modern Family love.

I guess you're happy Dancing with the Stars has returned, so it's another potential topic for discussion. Did they call the player formerly known as Ron Artest by his new name?

Blogger's note: Was covering baseball and didn't see it, sadly