In Saturday's Australian preview I included a section at the end about a reader's dislike of Australians. The post took off and generated some hits. In the process it became less about an Olympic bound team with an interesting mix of experience, size, and youth and more about Australians - their accents, colonial history, etc. In an attempt to reclaim the post I simply deleted the final section, which in hindsight I should not have done given my take when this went down. Some background. I spent 6 weeks during each of the past 2 summers working in England on a diverse staff - English, French, German, American, Australian, India, South African, probably more. And throughout my time there we had a back and forth that never bothered me. Of course it does not translate all that well to this format. And as is expected people take nationalities seriously, which I will be reminded of while profiling Wednesday's featured country - Croatia.
Some related thoughts:
1. I definitely underestimated both the history and the current bigs depth of the Boomers. To that end I really enjoyed this preview from A Stern Warning (hat tip Ball Don't Lie) as well as this one from JR, On Fire (hat tip A Stern Warning). There is more info out there than I realized. Half the battle is just knowing where to look.
2. Andrew Bogut and company (David Andersen, Matthew Nielsen and Chris Anstey) represent possibly the best Australian front line ever. Factor in the Boomers tradition of playing physical basketball with a chip on their shoulders and I'm really intrigued to see how the Americans fare on Tuesday, particularly with the make up of Team USA (primarily wings and guards).
3. Like I said I may be guilty of underestimating the Boomers. Yet I currently believe in Greece, Spain, the US, and to a lesser extent - due to injuries, age, and retirements - Argentina.
Filed under: