Team USA gets a taste of redemption against Greece

By Chris Sheridan
ESPN.com

BEIJING -- Here is what this night of redemption looked like:

• Cold stares deep into the eyes of their opponents, even during warm-ups when the Greeks were running their layup line.

• A hustling Dwyane Wade lunging to save the ball from going out of bounds, then flinging it toward the rim, where Kobe Bryant came flying through the air to flush it through.

• A brand of defense that was all about smarts, quick hands, minimal risk-taking and emphatic shot-blocking.

• Athleticism triumphing over size and physicality, especially on the offensive boards, where the Americans' determination to get their fingers 12 feet up in the air allowed them to keep possessions alive.

This is what it sounded like afterward, coming from the mouth of one of the players who participated in that Greek tragedy two summers ago in Japan and had been waiting over 23 long, long months to exact some revenge:

"It meant a lot to us. We wanted to keep the pressure on them, kind of redeem ourselves," Chris Bosh said. "This was a payback game for us, and we knew people were wondering how we were going to respond."

Team USA gets a taste of redemption against Greece....

James, Bryant to lead US Olympic basketball team

By ANDREW SELIGMAN

CHICAGO (AP) — MVP Kobe Bryant will be heading to his first Olympics, and he'll have LeBron James and Dwyane Wade with him. They will lead a U.S. Olympic basketball team that was announced Monday and hopes to capture the gold medal in Beijing in August after a third-place showing in Athens four years ago. They'll have plenty of help.

Carmelo Anthony and Jason Kidd were among the 12 players placed on the squad. They were joined by Tayshaun Prince, Carlos Boozer, Chris Bosh, Dwight Howard, Chris Paul, Michael Redd and Deron Williams.

"It was a very difficult selection process," said Jerry Colangelo, USA Basketball managing director. "When you have as many outstanding players as we do — to select a group of 12 is going to leave out some outstanding people."

The team was selected without a tryout. It will have a minicamp this week in Las Vegas and reconvene there July 20-25 to train and play an exhibition against Canada before heading overseas. The Americans open Olympic play against China on Aug. 10.

James, Bryant to lead US Olympic basketball team....