Typical American attitude, oh how much i wanted to see spain beat the dream team!

So much for the so called Redeem Team.
They'll never redeem themselves until they discover how to win without making their opponent eac a shit sandwich.

Seems like an inferiority complex manifesting itself... Much like people who harp on about medal counts per capita etc - yep that`s far too many of my (our) countrymen i`m afraid... By the way congratulations Great Britain - might shut up some of the jingoists!!! Or just make them worse???...

But yeah - i always thought she might be a bit dim... just confirms it...

Johnny, did you see the transcript of the speech by the Pom at the closing ceremony, about wiff-waff on dinner tables? I think they're already getting ahead of themselves!

I'm pretty sure we finished seventh in the per capita count (as opposed to six in the normal version) anyway so I don't think we should be talking that one up. Especially seeing as New Zealand beat us!

Dont know how you can be so suprised that New Zealand bet Australia on the medal per capita. New Zealand has 4 million people(The size of Victoria or smaller), and they still won 9 medals. Good effort.

Just watched the video.. totally disagree though, perhaps if the Opals weren't so bent over with seeing Leslies gold medals (although can you blame them, given they were gold and not silver)and concentrated and focused more on how they were going to beat the US, then perhaps they would have made more of a game.

As an Australian basketball fan, I don't have any problem with what Leslie did. Yes, the Americans are full of pride and such ego at times in a sport they have dominated for so long, but it was likely to be Leslie's last games and perhaps they were there to inspire her team. Yes, she could have been more discreet about them but it is not for the Opals to question. If those medals were not there for to inspire her teamates, mark her last games or satisfy personal/team achievement then perhaps the gold medals were there to somewhat play mindgames with the Aussies and put them off their game. If that was the case, it worked.

The Opals as much as I love watching the girls and they sure did us proud even with silver, sound like they are making excuses and being spoiltsports because they didn't win. That is very unsportsmanlike. The Aussie cricketers are always labelled as arrogant, sledgers, bigheads 9and at times I do agree) but until someone learn how to take them on, it seems like such a cop-out for losing opposite teams to blame their loss or highlight their disaggreeance or misfortune on petty things that happened before or after the game. Just get over and learn from it!

Next you will all be complaining about former players, coaches etc that wear their championship rings.

Good luck to Lisa, If she hadn't worked so hard over so many years to achieve 4 gold medals, she wouldn't have 4 gold medals to brag about. She has earnt them, let her enjoy them. I see no problem with what she did. If any of the Opals are stunned by this, then they have an inferiority complex and should get over it. Why not just say "USA played very well on the day and we did our best. We are disappointed on missing out on gold, but they were too good."

I still hate most american basketballers

So should Michael Phelps be allowed to wear all 13 or so gold medals he has won when he receives his 14th? Of course not! There is a time and a place to wear all the medals you win but it is not on the dais during a medal ceremony. Very poor form.

The US Basketballers are extremely fun and entertaining to watch.. to me personally the more arragont you are when your good, the more exciting it is to watch the team walk the walk..

Both their mens and women teams actually back it up when they want to (for example this year's olympics when the men picked their actual near best National side and then disposed of all opposition like they were NBA D-League players)

I personally have no problem, it would be an issue if they didnt own the basketball world. (and i am an aussie through and through)

Onya Lisa, you deserved those medals and the team backed it up on the day. Would anyone have had a problem if the Opals that played in the Gold medal winning team at the World Championships in 2006 wore or displayed their medals before the start of the game to inspire each other in Olympic glory?

If Michael Phelps wears 14 medals around his neck at the next Olympics, yes he may be deemed as arrogant, egotistical, bigheaded etc etc but if it inspires him and if he can back up his performance on the day who cares? In the prelim AFL final last year, Tredrea and Cornes were singled out for bowing and making stupid gestures to the crowd and rubbing it in North melb face. Everyone except for the Power players/fans were so fumed ansd fired up that they were inspired by this and went out and belted their arses a week later in the GF.

It is a different matter to Lisa. It was her last olympics and I also believe she wore these to inspire her team and her country. Leave it at that.

I disagree with a few posters here, but everyone is entitled to have an opinion.
Surely there is a right time & place to wear her medals... & I don't think the medal dais after the game is the right time. It's fine to bring them to inspire her teammates before the game, & I understand that it's her last game for the USA... but to wear them on the dais whilst receiving her latest gold is just pure arrogance & disrespectful to every other opponent on the dais.

That's just my opinion!

To "fairplay" & "cat32"... I've just re-read your comments.
Lisa Leslie did not wear the medals before the game to inspire her teammates, she wore them all after the game on the medal dais... so I don't see how that had any effct on the Opals play in that game (or to play mind games as "fairplay" put it).

SKUX101 - what about Lithuania's basketball team, considering they're a country of 3.5m!

Lisa Leslie - hair extensions. Enough said

bonehead

Lisa Leslie = The Karl Malone of womens basketball...

There's a video of her on youtbe showing how "classy" she really is (and it's not like it's a private video - it was made for AP)... Seriously -how ####ing old are you??? Five???

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ohBYtKcKeE

Linky no worky...

she's hot ....

Going back to per capita results....saw somewhere on the net, that someone did a table with weighted points for the medals (gold=3, silver=2, bronze=1), then divided it by population, it worked out like this:
1st - Jamaica, 2nd - Bahamas, 3rd - Iceland, 4th - Slovenia, 5th - Norway, 6th - Australia.

So we didn't really win the per capita thing either....but responding to an earlier post, NZ finished 9th on that table. Britain - 22nd.

If you want to rig it in our favour. We are the best Country per capita for nations with a population greater than 5 million.

lethal5, where do you suggest is the right time and place to wear the medals? They are not exactly a fashion statement and probably wouldn't go with most of your wardrobe if you wanted to wear it as an accessory. I would have thought the only thing you could do with them is to put them on display in a display cabinet.

Maybe Lisa was just prompting Jacko to open her mouth a bit wider so she could change her feet. Just trying to channel Lisa. Hang on, I've got something:

"Let me think..... a good time to display maaa bling hmmm. Well supposin maaa nemisis cum out and Talk'd up "beatin on us n all" a'for da games, A damn fine time might be.......

Right after we whipped their lilly asses with nary a scratch to our fine bods; yeah that would be the time, right after we got naasty on 'em."