O.C. Register: Kobe Bryant has won games and NBA titles and fans along the way.
He has a lucrative contract, money-spinning endorsements and moves envied by players around the world.
Now Bryant is going after the one thing he doesn’t own, something that could earn him, and the other 11 members of the U.S. National basketball team, the respect it lost four years ago – an Olympic gold medal.
The United States, a perennial powerhouse in international basketball, lost its swagger four years ago, when the Americans finished preliminary play at 3-2 and then were forced to settle for a bronze medal after losing to Argentina in the semifinals.
Bryant and the others say this Olympiad will be different when the team plays in Beijing.
“What we have is a determination to win,” Bryant said after the first day of practice at Valley High. “We have guys who work extremely hard, play hard, play well together and go out there and do what we do best.”
Bryant has put aside the Lakers’ loss to Boston in the NBA Finals and re-ignited his passion for the sport he dominated this past season. He said he is looking forward to the competition and pressure the United States faces heading into the Olympics.
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Here are the groupings for the Olympics.
GROUP A: Argentina, Australia, Croatia, Iran, Lithuania, Russia
GROUP B: Angola, China, Germany, Greece, Spain, USA
Seems like the Group the US is in, is the Harder group with Spain and Greece. The team should still go undefeated in round robin play.
We will get to see, Sun Yue play, which is good. We will also get to see Pau, Dirk and Yao. Should be a fun tournament to watch.
Argentina is probably the 2nd best team if Manu is healthy. A gold medal match between Argentina in the US is in store.
Who arranged the groupings? Seems like Argentina is getting an escalator trip to the gold medal game
for some reason, i don’t believe it.
Wow Argentina has such an easier route
Is Manu playing?
Wow. Group B seems stacked…
Of course Kobe would say that since he didn’t win a title this year. Kobe FYI your judged by how many NBA championships you win not by how many gold medals you have…..
well i’d like to think that NBA title’s are just as important to him! i would love for the new’s papers to say KOBE BRYANT LEADS THE US BACK TO THE GOLD!!!
Hey MOZ if you are not a Kobe Fan dont post on this website. Who cares about many NBA Championship if your country sucks. So shut the f**k up or go do something important in your life.
wow wow wow wow.. gold medals are very important and maybe he says its more important since to only get 1 or 2 shots at it.. the nba ships kobe knows he gonna have a shot at that for next 4 or 5 yrs to come..but still he should not say that makes it seem like he didnt care for the finals.. ad it kinda showed he was not same kobe… just sayin both are important..
lakers52 you stfu, hes a laker fan, not a kobe fan, hes fan cause the lakers are his tram, not cause the team has the best player in the league, unlike the many pplz who post here
I thought this was Laker Nation not Kobe Nation…..I guess the truth hurts…..
Damn, well you better hope they win the gold medal or else Kobe will demand to be traded to the Italian national team.
FO REALS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GET THE GOLD BABY!!!! USA ALL THE WAY!!!!!!!!
Kobe admits on video USA is the underdog.
Where is the confidence on the player that is supposed to help the most get the gold???
Check out the link:
http://www.stack.com
http://youtube.com/watch?v=2z3vnqVud68
consider it done! but i just heard some bad news about Le’Bron, aparently he sprained his ankle.None the less i still think we can get it done!!!
KOBE IS BEING PATRIOTIC AS HE SHOULD BE…YES, WINNING NBA CHAMPIONSHIPS IS HOW YOUR CAREER IS DEFINED,BUT REPRESENTING YOU COUNTRY AND BRINGING HOME THE GOLD IS AWESOME TOO!!!