The Best Bronze Medal Money Can Buy?

The U.S. Olympic basketball roster was announced on Monday, and looking it over I think that we've finally engineered a lineup that can beat Angora. USA! USA! Getting by Argentina and Lithuania may be more problematic. Anyway, you've got your Kobe Bryant, your LeBron James, your Dwyane Wade, your Carmello Anthony ... in other words, an enormous cluster**** for the ball every time the shot clock winds below seven seconds. Thank God we'll have the iron nerve and Dumbleodore-like wisdom of head coach Mike Krzyzewski to draw on.

The rest of the U.S. roster: Jason Kidd, Tayshaun Prince, Carlos Boozer, Chris Bosh, Dwight Howard, Chris Paul, Michael Redd and Deron Williams. No tryouts of course — what NBA player is going to agree to show up if there's a chance he could get cut? — and the squad will play only one exhibition game, vs. Canada next month, before heading to China in August. Bryant, James, Anthony, Kidd and Dwight Howard started for a team that went unbeaten in the Olympic qualifying tournament last year.

And now in this paragraph I usually rant about how in the U.S., basketball is mostly devoid of fundamentals and is used merely as entertainment, while in the rest of the world it's still taken seriously. Also I would observe that a team of NBA stars got crushed in Athens in 2004. But for this post I'll skip it.

By the way, if you're an NBA player who feels slighted by not being included on the roster, take heart: There may yet be an opening.

James, Bryant To Lead U.S. Team In Beijing [NBC Sports]