FIBA Championships Update

I woke up this morning at 6:30 am to watch Team USA play Germany in the FIBA championships. At halftime, USA was ahead by only one point, but pulled ahead for good in the third quarter behind the play of Chris Bosh, Kirk Hinrich, and Carmelo Anthony. Bosh grabbed countless offensive rebounds (USA went 9 of 31 from behind the arc) and Hinrich completely disrupted any offensive flow for Germany by smothering their point guard on the perimeter.

Let me just that, right now, Anthony is the best basketball player in the world, period. He's had a chip on his shoulder ever since he's been considered lesser of a player than Dwyane Wade and LeBron James, and he's now showing why he was crowned "the people's champ" by SLAM magazine. In the end, USA won that game by 20 points, but if it weren't for Wade and James, they would have won by 40. At least James looked like he was giving a genuine effort and his shots just weren't falling, but Wade appeared as if he didn't even want to be there, and that he was irritated with the Germans for actually playing hard. He missed a break away lay-up that he would have normally dunked and at one point he was attempting to bank in 3-pointers. It was a pathetic performance that fortunately did not cost the Americans, but I do not think that he should get much playing time in the semi's against Greece, because right now there are much more deserving players. There, I said my piece, so let's get on to the headlines for today...

• With a 2-2 tie against Houston, the Chicago Fire ran their unbelievable unbeaten streak to... 4 games. WHOOP DEE DOO.
  
• The Cubs have officially hit rock bottom after getting swept by the Pirates. In games 2 and 3, they gave up late leads, the last of which marked another blown save by Ryan Dempster, this time with his team up by two runs. Both of the games which the Cubs gave away were won by Pittsburgh in 11 innings.
  
• In the previous series, the Cubs were swept by St. Louis. Backup catcher Gary Bennett hit a walk-off single in game two and a walk-off grand slam in game three. It's pathetic. Not much else you can say.
  
• Aramis Ramirez is up to his cop-out ways again, this time saying that it's not important whether or not a player has a slump, because everyone does, but rather it's the timing of the slump which counts the most. Uh, yeah, like when Derek Lee was injured for most of the year and Ramirez was hitting something like .230 instead of helping his team pick up the slack. Now he knows he is in for a payday and, voila, all of a sudden he can't make an out. For once I would like him to be a man and say "I stunk and I take responsibility for my poor play." Way to show your character, Ramirez.
  
• John Mullin explains that, for the Bears, there is still a lot riding on the final preseason game.
  
• After aggravating a right-foot injury, Dusty Dvoracek's season appears to be over. If you remember, I predicted that Dvoracek would have a big year for the Bears and would eventually replace Ian Scott at DT. So at least we know that one Bears fan (me) was disappointed when this was reported.
  
• The Blackhawks and Comcast SportsNet have agreed to put a whopping 5 home games on TV this year. Wow, how generous.
  
• Marlen Garcia reminds Bulls fans how good of an offensive player Andres Nocioni can be, something which he is demonstrating by his unbelievable scoring run in the FIBA Championships. In the quarterfinals, he recorded 21 points against Turkey to help Argentina reach the semi-finals. In seven games at the World Championships in Japan, Nocioni is shooting 51.7 percent from the field and 46.2 percent on three-pointers. He's averaging 12.6 points per game on a team whose leading scorer, Manu Ginobili of the San Antonio Spurs, averages a modest 15.
  
• After splitting a four-game series against Detroit, the White Sox played Minnesota in a three-game set. The Twins took two out of three and climbed into the wild card lead by ½ a game.
  
• The White Sox proceeded to take the first two games from the Devil Rays, and have reclaimed the wild card spot by 1 ½ games. They finish the Tampa series this afternoon.
  

By the way, make sure everyone supports Team USA in the semi-finals (6:30 am). The Americans take on Greece while Argentina goes against Spain (3:30 am). I plan to get up and absorb every minute of it. I'm loving this tournament. ESPN2 will cover both matches.