>>>>>One word, Hugo: baloncesto! LOL
>>>>
>>>>Ouch! You like to pour salt on fresh wounds, do you?
>>>>
>>>>I re-watched Argentina - USA first half yesterday. It was a pity that Manu re-injured his ankle in the match, at the moment of his injury the score was 12-4 for USA and less than four minutes remaining in the quarter (he injured at around 3:43-3:39), and the quarter ended 30-11. The match would have been much much closed with Manu in it (of course Argentina having two other starters injured did not help us either :()
>>>>
>>>>Anyways, congratulations to the redeem team for the Gold they deserved it and I was most impressed with Kobe, not for his play but for his behaviour, He was really very classy thru the Olympics
>>>
>>>Agreed. I have never been a Kobe fan but no one could have asked for him to conduct himself better than he did in Beijing. The whole team did. Apparently someone got through to them that they were damaging their reputations in international competitions, not only losing but acting boorishly.
>>
>>They had Chris Bosh, and after playing in Canada, he's taught them all to be more polite. ;)
>>
>
>One thing I really don't get is the eligibility rules that allow athletes to compete for countries they don't live in, as long as they have family ties. The guy who almost beat Michael Phelps in the 100 fly is a Californian. He's lived there his whole life. His parents were born in Serbia before moving to California so he was able to swim for Serbia. A female American basketball player caught a lot of flak for playing for Russia under similar circumstances. And the NBA player Blair Kamin, who is American but has German ancestors, was publicly blasted by his own grandfather (the one who immigrated) for playing for Germany. I have no idea why this is allowed.
>
>After the Olympics I read something funny about Milorad Cavic, the "Serbian" swimmer who almost beat Phelps. He had been quoted saying it would be good for swimming if someone -- presumably him -- denied Phelps at least one gold. Phelps heard about it and taped it inside his locker. According to his coach, he uses stuff like this as extra motivation every chance he gets. Right before their race, Cavic was seen trash talking to Phelps by the blocks. An American coach who saw it was heard to say, "Go ahead, poke the tiger with the stick."

So, if I were an athelete, I could compete for Norway, Germany, England, or the Chippewa nation? :o)