Final Olympics Roster: This Had Better Work

Go ahead and skin me. I spent way too much time hung up on the USA Basketball point guard controversy. We’ve got the final list, and both Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer made the final cut. What’s that mean? All my sturm und drang over Kidd vs. Paul vs. Williams was for naught.↵
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↵So yeah, sorry for taking up your sweet time and fraying your nerves with this non-story. Take this bunch, add Williams, Boozer, and Bosh, and that’s quite an imposing outfit. I personally would’ve liked to see Tyson Chandler instead of Bosh or Boozer. Or, going in the opposite direction, David West has more offensive variety working for him than either Booze or CB4 without sacrificing that much in the big man department.↵
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Incidentally, I hope Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett catch at least a smidgen of criticism for not making themselves available for the team. I get it: No one can question Garnett’s heart and intensity, and Duncan is a born winner. But why does that excuse them from playing, rather than making their presence a no-brainer? There’s a weird triple-standard going on here: Iverson or Arenas can’t get their foot in the door becaue they don’t play patriotic basketball. On the other hand, some players are so patriotic, they don’t even need to prove it. KG and Duncan are winning gold medals for this country every single day.↵
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↵Whatever, I’m just glad Shane Battier didn’t make the cut.↵