Re: more pack journalism

["Lance Jacobson" <lancejacob@xxxxxxxxx>]

I confess I cannot reconcile your agreement with Lance with your obvious
desire to see Pierce "go coast to coast" because no one can guard him. Since a
basic tenet of Lance's opinion seems to be based on Pierce's "inherent
selfishness" -- so much so that he "infects" other teammates with his
ballhoggedlyness>>Bird


I made two points over the last week:  The USA team plays a crappy style of
one-on-one play, and that the guys don't put out effort all the time.

Joe's agreeing that we can still win on athleticism, that if our guys work
hard on defense (duh) and also take charge on offense, beating their man early
to the hoop rather than passing up shots and drives, they can play to their
individual potentials and win.

I agree with this.  Doesn't mean that the style is pretty, smooth or smart,
but it's the offensive answer to our doldrums; the best the team can come up
with on short notice.  It will tire out our guys, but two waves of talented
Americans driving hard might well out run the Foreign Legions.

As I said, it's crappy basketball, but I certainly DO want them to win the
rest of the games to prove that they're arrogant, lazy and have been too
reliant on second-half effort to win.  Not just Paul's scoring, but tougher
defense, harder work, more DETERMINED play.  It's as if they've not seen any
tape at all and need to play a half before they'll commit.

We agree that that'll be the way they need to win.  Doesn't mean Joe likes
NBA-style hoop any more than I do.  No sense in trying to run sneaky pass
plays now--neither O'Neal or Wallace can hold position AND finish.