To be fair, as the kids say these days (I’m 24), MJ played against a bunch of plumbers.
2 Likes
The kids are stupid. James can’t hold Jordan’s jock.
5 Likes
Embiid not blocking out at all. Could be a tie game if he even put in half an attempt
That was exactly my thought
Man I hate Embiid… not sure why he’s the one tagged lead this comeback.
Lebron might trade Embiid to France with 2 mins left in the 4th
2 Likes
The thing about this US team is we have soooooo many guys to turn to in the 4th. Kerr can take his pick of almost any guy on the roster and say “make a clutch shot for us”. Serbia only has Jokic (and maybe Bogandovich) to turn to down the stretch.
2 Likes
Go USA! 
Really turned up the heat in Q4. (And lucked out that the Serbs missed some open shots.) Hopefully we play with that aggression early against France.
6 Likes
Instead of a UMBC, Ohio, or Furman game…. This was just the UNCW game where Shayok (Curry) had to takeover and win the game narrowly for us.
5 Likes
It’s hilarious to me that the experts kept saying “USA easy path, maybe tested in gold medal game” as if Jokic wasn’t going to be standing in their way.
Also Sydney dominating the 400 hurdles was incredible.
6 Likes
When Curry put USA up by 4 with free throws and 6 seconds left, all I could think was that UVA would find a way to lose in that scenario.
6 Likes
I mean I don’t think Jokic was hugely impactful beyond the norm- just a lot of hot shooting from Serbia. They play like they do against Australia and we cover the fifteen point spread
2 Likes
Agree with @norfolk_hoo Joker was joker but Serbia was 15/30 from deep through 3. And 0/9 in the 4th. That’s your game.
Oh and theres no way to shut out a KD. Bron, Steph combo
3 Likes
12 Likes
UVA gets to add another medal to the count as a former Hoo gets a call up to the active roster.
Also, Dutch last names are hilarious, especially if you have the mind of a middle schooler.
3 Likes
Debate Jordan over Lebron all you want but claiming that the international quality is the same in 2024 as it was in 1994 is just foolish.
4 Likes
On a different note - table tennis. Watched one of the semi-finalist matches. Watched about 25 points before I convinced myself these guys weren’t bouncing their serves off their heads.
Obviously I haven’t watched high level table tennis lately, but that weird thing they do on the serve is just crazy. I presume the plan is to use their head to hide the ball from the opponent until it has been hit.
So, question for all you experts out there (and I know there are many), is that the point of doing it that way? And, if so, why did the path, speed, etc. look identical for each serve throughout those 5 games? Are there variations that they just never used?
7 Likes
Believe it or not I have “hit” against former US Olympic table tennis pro. She grew up in China and said she trained 8 hours daily from age whatever. She said she knows where the ball will be based on the sound when it hits the table.
Thats next level shit and I have no answer for your question
8 Likes
I was curious myself, and I think disguising the serve is definitely a big part of the strategy. Another thing that I saw online discussion on is that there’s a lot more spin happening than is obvious on TV. Like in this video of a solid amateur table tennis player trying to return a top pro’s serves:
1 Like
That was interesting. That guy was showing a lot of different shots, location and spin. What I saw looked like the exact same shot done by both players the entire match. Do you agree with that? In addition, the serve looked pretty harmless. Appeared the server’s goal was to hit a serve his opponent couldn’t pound for a winner, only get back in play so the server could pound it for a winner.
2 Likes