Five-ring circus: The Thread of the XXXIII Olympiad

The days of a full broadcast delegation going overseas for the Olympics are done like dinner. In four years, there will be NBC beancounters questioning whether so many people really need to fly out to LA and rack up hotel bills.

 

South Sudan leading the US men's rings team by 15 midway through the second quarter in one of their pre-Olympic tune ups in London.

 

If we were playing all of Sudan, would they be up by twice as much?

 

In the TV blurb for our weekend edition I said "Some teams in the Olympics will give the U.S. some trouble. South Sudan won't be one of them."
Whoops.

 

I know you're just joking, but it'd likely be this same group of players.

Weird side effect of their gruesome civil war: many of the South Sudanese players grew up elsewhere - including the US and Australia - as refugees and that's where they picked up the game.

Up 14 at the half.

 

Looks like the Americans have decided to start playing. Down 14 at the half, up five heading to the fourth quarter.
Still, no matter how it turns out it'll feel like a loss.

 

PLAUSIBLY LIVE!!!!

 

Damn. That "hammer of Thor" lede was all cued up. Another reason LeBron is a colossal douche.

 

We looked very vulnerable on defending the high pick and roll, especially with Embiid out there.

 

The United States should just fucking quit Olympic basketball.

Not go back to college/"amateur" players; you'd lose 90 percent of the time by double digit margins.

But obviously NBA players cannot and will not play a style which utilizes the talent, so just fuckin' forget it.

 

We have won gold 4 straight Olympics.