signs are good for beijing. bogut, andersen, neilsen all had big games 2nite. holmes will be there, newley, along with other emu's players from last year. with andrew gaze coaching the team by then, should make for a good contest with the US.

Not if the REAL USA team turn up, the Garnett's, Tmac, a truly established Lebron James and Kobe!

Bogut is talented but they said Paul Rodgers was once as well, but his Olympic campaigns haven't been all that crash hot! Mind you this kid does have a contract in the NBA lined up, and with that experience he WILL be one of the best Australian players ever by the time he retires!

Just a quick note, well done Brett Maher, you are playing, well like Brett Maher does, but seems you are not only competing with the other team, but with the coach tools same old favourites. To be honest they aren't very good 'TEAM' players. Nielsen can play, Heal is a great self creator, but the buck stops there, CJ Bruton is a joke at Olympic level, and what the HELL is Tony Ronaldson doing in an olympic jersey? It would be good to see if JR gets a run before the games conclude, I heard somewhere that he can SHOOT!

Maher was awesome in this game. He showed the true professional he really is. I too could not work out why Goorjian did not give him more time in the last quarter. With 3 minutes left to go, he probably could have got another 3x3 pointers in. The result may have been quite different. Cattalini and Rillie also should have got some time in the last quarter when the team was obviously tired out and 2 pairs of fresh legs could have helped.

idiot goorjian how obvious is it to see your boy shane although your love child didnt deserve to play the last qtr, run cj at the point and mahersy and j.smith rather than sav who was lucky to hit one shot. far out, is it that obvious here in Australia that brian cant see his mistakes!!!!!! maybe you should watch the video brain you tool

Even though I will be saying everything everyone else has said, I'm still going to post, because I think the more people who do the better....

Maher, brilliant. Gaze said in the commentary he is shooting 70% from the field and averaging over 10 ppg. BG needs to know this...

One thing for me that absolutely pissed me off was with 27 seconds left and we were down by 10, instead of trying to get a quick bucket and foul, Heal decided he was going to run the high screen so HE COULD SHOOT AGAIN!!!! If any of you saw the last 30 seconds of the Spain - Italy game, Italy were in the same situation and did the exact opposite. They had quick shots and then fouled. Admittedly they didn't win but they still gave the effort.

You know you're in trouble when for the majority of the game it is the SYDNEY BOOMERS, and if it's not them, Saville is in (because Joyce is assistant). I was ready to send a NON-hero message to BG to wake up and get his head out his ass!!!

When Heal was subbed out in the third, we went on another run, he comes back in, shoots DUMB ASS shots, and they are coming with the throw downs...

BG, you suck dogs balls!!!!

Goorjian is a disgrace I found it staggerring that Maher didnt play in the last 7 or 8 minutes. He is our leading shooter in percentages and if he jacked up half the shots that Heal does he would be scoring 20 a game.

He must start against Puerto Rico if we have any chance

I just don't believe it. No one could have made worse subs if they tried. Saville...what a joke.

i honestly think that a lot of people on here are a bit one eyed towards cattalini and maher, and against any thing resembling sydney.
i have no major problems with how brian is coaching, although if i was coach, i would have maher starting, and CJ playing way less minutes, if any. you guys having a go at heal......get off his back, the man is our captain, and has been playing a valiant hand...our best player in my opinion.
dont let your bias cloud your view.

having looked at the stats, it is pretty ridiculous that maher only played 15 minutes....dear me, and saville played 21 or 23 for little rewards....CJ played 20 plus....hopefully mhaer plays 25 plus for rest of tournament.

Now you are starting to see what we "bias" people have been seeing all along!

Charmaine, Are you joking!!!!
Shane Heal is a ball hog! He should stop jacking up ridiculous shots!
CJ Should be the towel boy and Tony Ronaldson should be the floor wiper!

The people who are on this sight are one eyed toward Maher and Cat, that is correct. We are also not dumb, and realise that Cat has played in the Euro League and Maher (from his actual play) is tearing it up! Maher should be playing as many minutes as heal (if not more), and Cat should be playing well infront of Ronaldson!!!!!!!!

Goorjan is a tosser! I could coach better than him! Why the hell don't we all get onto basketball Australia and get a petition together to throw this FOOL out of Athens!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My bags have spontaniously combusted from rage!

Charmaine, do you still think we are one eyed even after you corrected yourself?? Do you still think BG is doing a good job?

So you agree with putting Ronaldson on at the end of the game?
You agree Shane Heal's shot selection was good?
Cattalini and Rillie did not deserve any court time, despite the fact the Cat was the premier 3 man in the NBL and Rillie is still the best shooter (along with Maher) in the NBL?

Onto Heal, you say get off his back... I say if he is the captain, he needs to lead by example and be the first to play team ball, rather than me ball. If he is a leader, he needs to accept his shots weren't dropping and help create shots for others. I reckon the reason why he played like that is cos he wanted to be show the US that he is the man in Aussie ball and keep his scoring average up. The sooner he goes, the better. I've had HEAPS of non-basketball people ask me today what Heal was doing in that game, and these are people who don't know much about the game at all. I'm sure there are lots of other readers / posters getting the same questions.

I think that Cat might be a bit undersized at the Olympics, but surely he's no worse than Saville. He's definitely more aggressive and has more range.

I can understand leaving Rillie on the bench most of the time because he's fairly fresh to the scene.

BUT there is no excuse for leaving Maher on the bench so much. There is no excuse for not benching Heal for throwing up long bombs. When it comes to calling the subs, I think that most readers of this forum could do as well as Goorjian or better.

We were on track to win that game and with more sensible play could've done exactly that.

Issac, your post is 100% on the money. We were on track to win that game and with more sensible play could've done exactly that.

When you compare Saville and Cat, it is easy to see who has more range and aggression... Perhaps Gorj and the umpires are drinking to much of that Athens water cause if that was a foul on CJ early in the game, then i can see why Gorj can't find the Cat anywhere in the stadium.

MW, Northerner, J Bags, Isaac...my hat goes off to you guys.

Charmaine, when are you going to wake up and see this farce for what it is?

I can't watch this tournament anymore, it's too depressing.
We should have won this game!

Instead, Heal jacks from the carpark, causes turnovers and the USA hit some fastbreaks to turn the game upside. There was no coming back with Heal still on the floor and the USA smelling our desperation.

It is so disheartening that this is happening.
BG and Heal lost this game, the USA didn't win it.

BG's cred is slipping fast - was he not that good to start with, or has he another agenda? I thought he was better than these poor displays.

I'm so sick of all this, you know the BOOMERS are good but again underachieve. And I stick by my guns that it is again caused by non TEAM ball from Heal and the coach letting him loose and not reprimanding him.

Heal has to go, and BG has to be the one to push him if he's to get any cred back.

Spot on Wak

Its an old saying but it is so true..A team of Champions will lose to a Champion Team (or something like that) and we see it proved over and over again

We have the players to do it but need them to be playing TEAM ball. Unfortunately a couple of players feel they need to do everything on their own. Why?

If Heal used his experience and skills to help make others on the team better then we would be on the right path. id love to see him as our point guard actually racking up some assists, but unfortunately scoring is all that gets your name in the paper so I cant see that happeneing

Pity as winning gets the TEAM in the paper too but sometimes that doesnt seem to be enough

On that Note how many assists were dished out to our friend Shane lastnight??

And over the tournement?

bags is a curious fellow!

I do believe the definition of an assist is when the ball is passed to a shooter who MAKES the shot...so based on that fact, I'm guessing zero!

I have just been reminded that Heal is Goorjians boss. It is so clear to me know...

soemone shoot heal. someone do it soon before he loses another game. can anyone say shane is a choke artist? lets all say it together. SHANE IS A CHOKE ARTIST. oor you can say SHANE IS A JOKE. bruton wasnt playn bad though people. he made some good shots, played a good game. but maher should have been given more minutes that game so he could settle in. bring back PHIL, atleast he had enough balls to tell people they wasnt good enough to play a certain game and so on.
atleast shane can go away saying. i saw LEBRON choke 2 3s.

On the subject of Lebron, could anyone see the value in the money Nike is paying this player?

yea, hes marketable. hes got hype. in other words, hes the new jordan. all hype and media. (jordan aint the best)

Jordan aint the best??

No, he isnt now. In his prime, he was the best, and it will be a long, long time before anyone catches up with him.

Jordan had it all, the ultimate jumper, the dunk, the ability to create a shot out of nothing at all, not to mention the ability to create shots for team mates.

Sure, he wasnt the worlds best defender, but he did a better job than a lot of others.

Off court he was a gentleman, gterated people with respect and dignity. I never thought that much of him till I read Rebound, one of his biographies (which focussed a lot on his 1st retirement and moving on to play baseball).

If you have never read it, I certainly recommend it.

he aint the best. he came back to brake records. media gave him the spotlight, which made him look better than he was. he was original, most of his stuff was taken straight from DR J. DR J, WILT CHAMBERLAIN, MAGIC JOHNSON, OSCAR ROBERTSON. these guys are the best. hell scottie pippen was a more well rounded player than Jordan. Jordan had a way too bigger ego to be called the best. off court he may have done alot, but nothing compared to WILT. hell WILT was asked to come back and play when he was 50.
look at KG now, he without a doubt by the end of his career, will be called the greatest, he can play anywhere, and do anything.

Everything that had to be said has been posted.

Damn, I've lost all respect for BG now. Can't wait to give him hell this season.

Damn straight DC.

And to the others, I counted 3 LeBron airballs. I loved that quote at the end of the game "when he learns to shoot a jumpshot, he will be THE next Jordan" - isn't that what they teach us in U12s?

He purely doesnt like south australians....since the 36ers beat his team what 4 or 5 times in NBL prelim or grand finals he just cant hack that some of them have game!
If Maher was like NBA superstar, he still woudlnt get on the court under Goorjian!