It's a good day in Houston (Cowboys stunk up the joint in DC, too).
I've just gotten a chance to watch the USA-Turkey game. Two things stood out - Durant can't be stopped. If a defender is tall enough, he's not fast enough to guard Durant. If he's fast enough, he's not tall enough. And if he's both? Durant still scores. He's could end up one of the best scorers of all time, and his D isn't awful (ask Ricky Rubio and Rudy Fernandez).
Here's something else I like about Durant. He cares. He wants to be there, representing the USA. The rest of the team wanted to be there too. I understand if a player doesn't want to go, but I'm glad that the (mostly very young) guys who DID want to go won the tourney in convincing fashion. The USA simply wore down opponents with athleticism, speed and a heaping helping of Kevin Durant.
More gushing praise of Durant after the jump.
Is Kevin Durant and a speedy, athletic, undersized and motivated unit enough to beat the best national teams in the world, even on their home courts? Yes, evidently, it is. Remember before and during the tourney, Team USA beat Spain in Spain, Greece in Greece, and now Turkey in Istanbul. Anyone who says Team USA is can't handle the pressure of big time international basketball, guess again.
The US team adapted to every opponent, and only the athletic and large Brazilian team really posed a threat. A threat which Luis Scola and Argentina kindly eliminated before we faced them again. Sometimes it goes that way, but often it goes that way because a team has the best path in the tournament, thanks to not losing any games, which the USA managed.
Now the USA won't have to qualify for the London Olympics. Not that we wouldn't have, but it can avoid a lot of meaningless games if we choose that.
This (very young) iteration of Team USA can ride into the sunset having never tasted defeat. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Super Duper NBA stars.
In other news...
And Lo, as was foretold, Terrell Davis would come again. And he would smite the mighty, the proud would he vanquish, and the undersized frontline would he destroy.
Or, Peyton Manning goes for 400+ plus yards, Schaub goes for about 100 and the Colts lose going away. This was the best win in Texans history. The Texans put the wood to the AFC champs, and a team we'd only beaten once in the whole history of the franchise. Both lines dominated the game, and sacked Peyton twice and put him down 10 times. Only Manning and his receiving corps could have made it close with an endless succession of 4 yard slants. The Texans fought off their tendency to self destruct, and Arian Foster looked to be, like Terrell Davis before him, the perfect back for the Kubiak/Denver system.