I am not a fan of Godzillia Movies but the game tonight between Canada and the United States will look like one. The Canada Basketball Program on the junior level is actually having some success. The Junior Men’s Team won a Bronze in a recent tournament. But everyone is talking about the future of Leo Rautins and the recent failure of the Senior Men’s Team. Sam Dalembert being given the boot during the recent tournament in Greece. It has just not been a good time.
So this is far from the ideal time to be taking on the United States. The fact that Lebron James will likely not play will have little impact on the outcome. This will be the first game for Kobe Bryant and Chris Bosh and a cast of All-Stars that make up the American Roster. There is a real sense that this Team U.S.A is going to take their country back to that gold medal level that was taken for granted from 1992-2000. Since that time the whole idea of “Dream Team” died. The defending Olympic Champions are from Argentina, the defending World Champions are from Spain, they both will be main road blocks to a U.S gold in Men’s Basketball.
The one thing that is clear, you really don’t want to be a Canadian on this night. No Sam Dalembert to help, Steve Nash is busy buying an MLS Franchise for Vancouver, Joel Anthony is the lone NBAer on the roster against a NBA All Star Squad. It just isn’t fair. Maybe Canada could rent Andrea Bargnani from Italy for a game? Anything to avoid this beat down.
For those interested in watching the Godzilla movie/Basketball game. It is live on ESPN in the U.S at 8pm. The Score based on it’s WWE Smackdown contract will be showing the game here in Canada on tape delay at 10 pm. I am not going to write a re-cap of this but will share some thoughts tomorrow on it.
Garbo and Delfino Together Again
The Dino Nation Blog got this one right. Paco Del Pino our unofficial Euro Correspondent said this was on the table and he was right. Jorge Garbajosa signs in Russia with Khimki. The deal is said to be for 2 years @ 3.5 million and that is tax free. So Garbo is going to be back together with another Ex-Raptor in Carlos Delfino. Both will be in action for their respective countries at the upcoming Olympic Games in China. Garbajosa has been back in action in recently in games for Spain to get ready for Olympics in Mid-August. The Spanish team has been happy with his progress to this point. Garbo was a good guy in his time with the Raptors. A series of unfortunate circumstances in his time here lead to him no longer being able to be part of the mix. However most fans I think will be happy to see that Garbo is back playing ball and still able to make a living at it. There was questions after his injury in Boston if that was going to be the case. So good for Garbo. Here is what he had to say about it:
Garbajosa Quote (Reuters)”I’ve gone for the Russian offer because they were so insistent and because they have a very ambitious project, although I’m not going to deny that the financial offer also had something to do with it,”
Spain Remain Perfecto
Speaking of Spain they continue to look impressive getting ready to head to China. They moved to 4-0 in their warm-up schedule heading towards China. Spain was to much for Lithuania as they get the big win 91-66. Here are some of the key stat lines below:
Spain: Rudy Fernandez (16 pts, 4 rebs)
Lithuania: Mindaugas Lukauskis (15 pts, 6 rebs)
Spain:Paul Gasol (8 pts, 3 rebs)
Spain:Marc Gasol (11 pts, 5 rebs)
Spain:Ricky Rubio (8 pts, 3 rebs, 4 steals)
Spain:Jose Calderon Min: 21:46 FG: 0/4 FT: 4/5 (4 pts, 4 rebs, 2 steals)
Nathan Jawai Thanks From Dino Blogger
WOW!!! When I wrote the feature searching for Nathan Jawai. I was hopeful it would do well. I was even SHOCKED by how much by just how much it did. Long time readers will remember when this blog got featured on Raptor’s Website as part of webshot section. That lead to the largest day in this blog’s history. Well yesterday Nathan Jawai’s story became the second largest blog I have ever done in less than 24 hours. It also took what had been a successful month and made it historic as the largest month in this Blog’s History.
I am really happy about that not just for myself and this blog. But for Nathan himself as he has a tremendous story. I was proud to have the chance to tell it to so many Raptor Fans. In fact continue to tell as the numbers of readers of yesterday’s feature continue to rise.
So when any of these big events happen I try to send out a hello to any new readers that might have just found the Dino Nation Blog. I try to make this feel like a community and family so welcome to you. Just like Raptor fans will welcome Nathan Jawai, I welcome you here. I always like to hear from readers and you can contact me @ dinonationblogger@hotmail.com
Thanks to all that helped make this Jawai story happen and thanks to all that sent regards in how much they enjoyed it.
Tags: Chris Bosh, Jose Calderon, Jorge Garbajosa, Steve Nash, Team Canada Basketball, Team U.S.A, Nathan Jawai, Pau Gasol, Marc Gasol, Ricky Rubio
