Eric Gordon and Stephen Curry also made the final team over Rondo thanks to their ability to shoot the basketball outside of 12 feet, something Rondo is unable to do.  Head coach Mike Krzyzewski commented on how different the international game is from the NBA, which is a standard reason for other players having tough times helping Team USA in the past such as Stephon Marbury and Richard Jefferson.

Look, Rondo is a great NBA player.  But when he can’t make a team as the point guard when Chris Paul, Deron Williams and Jason Kidd are already taking the summer off, don’t we need to start second guessing the wild comments that everyone made when he was “leading” the Celtics in the playoffs (while playing with three future Hall of Famers).

With Rondo quitting the team this year because he wasn’t going to make it anyway, there is no doubt that he will be no where near the team in 2012 when the best players in this country will represent the red, white and blue in the Olympic Games in London.  So again, maybe it’s time to start rethinking the “Rajon Rondo is the best point guard in the NBA” argument.

Yes, I am calling him overrated.

Smells like Gold (although what the heck is Tayshaun Prince doing on this team????).

The first semifinal game will be between Brazil and Argentina, who will face off at 4pm EDT tomorrow, followed by the U.S. against Puerto Rico.

After calling Argentina a rival to the U.S., LeBron James responded by scoring 15 points, helping in a full team effort for the victory. Luis Scola led the Argentinians with 20 points.

“It’s definitely become a rivalry between us,” said James regarding the Argentinian squad, which has beaten Team USA twice since they started using NBA players for the squad. The South American country became the first to defeat an NBA/Team USA team in the 2002 World Championship in Indianapolis, then beat them again in the 2004 Olympics in Athens. In between those two games, the Americans beat Argentina twice in the 2003 Tournament of the Americas, one by eight points and the other by 33 in the championship game.

However, regardless of what LeBron thinks, players for Argentina seem to disagree. “Our biggest rival is the team we are going to face on Saturday,” said Argentinian Carlos Delfino, who has taken a bigger role with the team since Manu Ginobili, Andres Nocioni, and Walter Herrmann all decided not to play this time around. All three are expected to play in next year’s Olympics. Argentina is the only other undefeated team in the tournament, but has not been winning quite at the pace that the Americans have.

Regardless of the past, Team USA should have no rivals on the international circuit. Despite not being successful the past couple of years, no one on that team should admit that another country is a rival, even one who has the talent to defeat the newest attempt at recreating the Dream Team.

If LeBron wants to fire up the other players on the team by convincing them that Argentina is a rival, so be it, but there is no reason to say it publicly and embarrass himself like he did.

Bryant, who has volunteered to guard each team’s best player so far, was in charge of shutting down tournament leading scorer Leandro Barbosa, who scored 36 points in Brazil’s victory over the U.S. Virgin Islands on Saturday. The defensive prowess that was needed to slow down Barbosa was evident throughout the game and Bryant held Brazil’s leading scorer to 4 points on 1-7 shooting.

Team USA video coordinators put together a DVD for Bryant of Barbosa’s play for the Phoenix Suns and the Brazilian national team, as well as comprehensive statistics on which moves Barbosa likes to make in different places on the court. Bryant apparently studied quite a bit as Barbosa was lost on the offensive side of the ball for the entire game.

Bryant’s defensive aggressiveness isn’t lost on his teammates either. “For him it’s about playing defense, and he enjoys that challenge. He understands he doesn’t need to score 60 points to help us win, so he can use a little more energy on the defensive end than he’s done in the past,” Jason Kidd said. “He loves the challenge, and since the opening tipoff of that first game against Venezuela, he wants to take that best offensive player on the opposing team and make it as tough as possible. Against Barbosa, he did it again.”

It has become very clear that Bryant is the difference maker for Team USA this time around. Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James were unable to deliver Gold the last time they played for their country and both seem more determined now that Bryant is around. Players are more active during practice and have been showing an increased hustle during games unseen for years. With Bryant leading the way defensively, often diving for loose balls and gluing himself to the hip of his opponent, other players on the team seem to be following his lead.

Team USA has a 48.4 points per game margin of victory so far in the tournament, numbers not seen since the first Dream Team. I am not saying that this team even holds a candle to the 1992 Olympic Team, but they seem to be taking this tournament more seriously than previous squads. The last couple of star-studded teams that have been put together for Team USA appeared to have a swagger about them as if opponents would just roll over once they stepped on the court, but unfortunately that hasn’t been the case. Bryant’s appearance on this team has ended that mentality.

Round Two will open up Monday against Mexico, followed by Puerto Rico on Tuesday, Uruguay on Wednesday and Argentina on Thursday. The semifinal match, if this week goes well, will be Saturday with an Olympic birth on the line (the top two teams automatically qualify for the Olympics in 2008). If the previous games have been any indication, Kobe Bryant will be the man to lead the team back to Olympic glory.

“He’s ready to come in at any time,” said head coach Mike Krzyzewski. “Most shooters need time to find their rhythm. He’s ready right away and he knows he’s subbing for Kobe. Obviously he’s a key guy for us and that’s something we did not have last year.”

Mike Miller and Amare Stoudemire each contributed 13 points, as all 12 players scored during the game.

The next two games for Team USA will be Friday against Canada and Sunday versus Brazil. The Brazil contest will be closely watched, as the Brazilians sport one of the most competitive teams in the tournament outside of the U.S.

Michael Redd also dropped 17 points and the Americans got 16 from Amare Stoudemire and 12 from Dwight Howard. They will face the U.S. Virgin Islands, led by Phoenix Suns guard Raja Bell, in their next game Thursday night.

“The tournament’s going to get a lot harder than we had tonight, but as a team I think we played well,” said LeBron James. “We shared the ball well. We did everything that we needed to do to win a basketball game.” Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James and Kobe Bryant were all named starters last week and were joined on the court by Jason Kidd and Dwight Howard to begin the game.

Greivis Vasquez scored 12 points for Venezuela, which will face Canada on Thursday.

There was some speculation that Miller or Redd could be cut if Durant made the team, but it’s clear that Team USA’s lack of outside shooting in the past couple of competitions necessitated that both stay on the roster. Collison was brought onto the team after Chris Bosh went home with a foot injury, so it is not a great surprise that he was left off the team, despite his previous international experience which includes a 2003 Olympic Qualifier.

Durant was an obvious choice early on to be cut, but made the decision a little more difficult when he scored 22 points in an intrasquad game the team held a couple of weeks ago. Nevertheless, the reigning college player of the year did not make the final cut.

It will be interesting to see who will be the primary scoring option for the team that is simply packed with scorers. Carmelo Anthony led the last Team USA in scoring and seems to want to be in that role again. However, Anthony is now joined by two-time NBA scoring champion Kobe Bryant, who is playing in his first international competition for Team USA. It’s clear that with both of these guys on the roster, LeBron James and everybody else will certainly be fighting for shots. Let’s all hope that this doesn’t mess with the team overall and cost them Gold.

Andre Iguodala, Al Jefferson, LaMarcus Aldridge, Monta Ellis, Devin Harris, Jason Kapono, Jeff Green Aaron Brooks, and Channing Frye will join Lee on the scrimmage team. Hopefully, Lee can take advantage of his opportunity and show that he deserves to be on the US Senior team in the future. He was one of a handful of players to average a double-double last season and only looks to improve moving forward.

Blog link (needs ESPN Insider)

my previous post about it