FanHouse Team USA

I started this post with the intent to congratulate Andrei Kirilenko and his wife Masha on the birth of their second child -- and well, I still do, congrats, Russians -- but something else also caught my little brown-eyed retinas a bit further down the page. From Phil Miller at the Salt Lake Tribune:

Carlos Boozer's summer is now officially spoken for. Boozer has been contacted by Jerry Colangelo, USA Basketball's managing director, and has committed to play for the national team in its Olympic qualifying tournament this August in Las Vegas.

"He said, 'We want you there,' and I told him I'd be thrilled to play," said Boozer, who won a bronze medal with the Americans at the Athens Olympics in 2004. USA Basketball has not announced his addition to the team yet, but Boozer said that should come shortly.

To automatically qualify for the Beijing Games, the U.S. must finish first or second in a 10-team tournament made up of Western Hemisphere teams, with the gold-medal game in the Thomas & Mack Center on Sept. 2.

Ah, see, now we're talking, Papa Colangelo.

One of the major problems with last year's bronze-winning squad, besides not having an available Kobe and Billups backcourt, was the inconsistent play Team USA got from their big men. I mean, sure, Bosh had a few solid games, but other than that, Brand, Dwight and Brad Miller all struggled to hit the glass and find any sort of touch around the net. Boozer, a bronze medal winner at the '04 Olympics, should be able to help step in and solidify the team's inside presence immediately.

So, to quickly recap what we know about Team USA's summer roster: Boozer in; Wade probably out, LeBron maybe; and Ron Artest . . . well, no comment.

With Gilbert Arenas' promise to score 50 against the Trailblazers and head coach Nate McMillan, it's been asked a couple of times what Arenas would do if he played Duke. Duke, of course, employs Mike Krzyzewski, head coach of the Olympic team, from which Gilbert Arenas was cut. Well, Gilbert answered on his blog:

D'Antoni said that after I scored 54 on them and made my prediction to score 50 on the Blazers that he'd like to see what I'm going to do against Duke.

I thought it was funny because if I have the chance to go back to college, I'll give up one NBA season to play against Duke.

One college game...that's five fouls, right?...40-minute game...at Duke, they got soft rims...I'd probably score 84 or 85.

I wouldn't pass the ball.

I wouldn't even think about passing it. It would be like a NBA Live or an NBA 2K7 game, you just shoot with one person.

If Paulus was guarding him, 85 is probably a conservative estimate.

Still, and I hate to speak negatively about the blogosphere's favorite son, but I find all of this just a little bit annoying. And I don't know how serious he is about it, if he really hates Coach K, D'Antoni and McMillan, or if he's just sort of playing around, but ... I wish he'd let this one go.

It's not like being cut from that Olympic team is some kind of terrible slight. It was 16 of the best basketball players in the world, and a few of them had to be cut ... and I'm sorry you were one of them, Gil, I really am, but ... the team needed an extra forward and some guys who don't need to take a ton of shots. The numbers didn't work out for you. It's not like Krzyzewski, D'Antoni, or McMillan punched you in the face and told you that you sucked. The numbers just didn't work for you. Sorry.

Granted, at the same time, I understand that Gilbert's career -- hell, probably his entire life -- is built on turning perceived slights into motivation, and I don't begrudge him that. It works for him. But that doesn't mean it isn't just a little bit petty.