http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer04/trackandfield/news/story?id=1871108

i'm sure you heard about this guy... that's one messed up idiot... does he have any mental problems or something?

that said, i think the brazilian marathon runner had incredible reserve to say he could've won the gold, but wasn't too sure, and then admitted whatever happened, he was happy to get his bronze medal.

it was fun to keep up w/olympics... it's been a while since i've really done that... i do seem to have a sorta bad feeling about the olympic spirit though... it's sorta like... during the summer olympics... all of a sudden, EVERYONE'S a beach vball fan, or EVERYONE'S a gymnastics fan, or the like. why aren't you keeping up w/the avp during the summer then? don't tell me it has to do w/cable; i know they broadcast it on nbc. it's even funnier w/men during the winter olympics, cause all of a sudden, they all act like they're figure skating experts. the bandwagon feeling doesn't sit too well w/me... i like swimming, but it irks me that all of a sudden every 4 years i am SUDDENLY a swimming viewer, and the only name you could get me to cough up this year was "michael phelps," that's it.

gymnastics was eff'd up; make a judging mistake, then ask paul hamm to fork over the gold medal, instead of giving the koreans a gold to share? great... that looks REAL good... for the judges.

best moment was probably mike phelps giving up his spot on the relay team so his teammate could win a gold medal...

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer04/gen/columns/story?id=1870276

and finally,

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer04/basketball/columns/story?id=1870490

"If you don't get it done the way you expected to," Iverson said, "I think it's important that you get it done the best way you can. It's important that we come out and fight, and get the people proud of us back home."

yeap... so in the end, ai looks like one of the best guys on the us bball team, despite only winning bronze; proud to be an american, just happy to be there, giving what was given him all he got and trying to help the others... and i hate to admit it, but yes, brown made himself look like a mere shell of the man who led the pistons to a championship... instead of encouraging his players and giving them dues when it was due, he only mumbled some gratitude when they won, but berated everyone responsible for setting up the team when they lost.

"Iverson was the co-captain of the United States Olympic team and understood the selfish and self-defeating consequences for constantly tearing this team down, the way Brown did, instead of trying to find a way to make this work. Everyone else had done enough analyzing of the flaws in the USA Basketball system, but there was a responsibility the coach and the captains had to deliver direction to this impossibly young team. What good did it do for the players to constantly hear Brown telling the world they didn't have enough time to prepare for the games, except to give those fragile psyches excuses for losing?
'We had to understand from the first day that was the amount of time we had to prepare,' Iverson said. 'Was it enough of time? I don't know. But we knew we had to get it done in that time.
'And that's not any excuse we could use.'"

Stern: "It's not about who didn't come. You take your team to the gym and you play with what you got and then you either win or lose. This whining and this carping is not fair to [those] who are representing their country admirably and well."

get the memo, organizers for team usa, next time:
-choose ppl and make it mandatory for them to go; preferably choose a BALANCED team
-nba officials during the olympic games couldn't hurt; it blew my mind that the officials during the bball games were so crap; marbury practically raked an argentinan's eye trying to commit a foul, and officials don't call it until 5 secs later when he's on the floor. then beforehand, marbury went and1 right over an argentinan, and NO CALL. wtf? i'm sure there's more incidents. i'm not saying there should be nba rules during the olympics, but the officiating quite frankly sucked. duncan got limited so much because he didn't know what was allowed and a foul.