Brace Hemmelgarn-US PRESSWIRE
In case you missed it, the USA Olympics basketball team beat the crap out of the Spaniards by a score of 100-78 in the team’s final exhibition game before the Olympics begin on July 27.
Before, there was a lot of back-and-forth talk between the Americans and the Spaniards. Spain is the only team that’s been given much of a chance against the vaunted American squad — despite the fact that USA is missing some key players — and quite a few Spaniards believed as much.
And though the game technically was an exhibition game, the atmosphere and the interviews made us forget that the game didn’t mean much of anything.
Such a sentiment is validated in a little friendly trash talk between Minnesota Timberwolves teammates Kevin Love of the US and Ricky Rubio from Spain. Here’s what Ricky Rubio said before the game:
@kevinlove are u ready to lose against Spain tonight?
— Ricky Rubio (@rickyrubio9) July 24, 2012
Obviously, Spain lost, and badly. So Kevin Love, who I firmly believe would’ve been a sports blogger if he wasn’t great at basketball, had a retort:
. @rickyrubio9 how’d that work out for you buddy?
— Kevin Love (@kevinlove) July 24, 2012
You have to love the budding rivalry between the two nations, especially with the international game picking up after the US dominated the sport of basketball since the beginning of time, and even some time before then.
You also have to love how Kevin Love immediately took to Twitter to remind his friend and teammate that there’s a reason Rubio is playing in the NBA and not in some Spanish league.
Rubio didn’t play, mind you, and neither did Marc Gasol — starting center for the Memphis Grizzlies and a consensus top-five center in the NBA — as both sat out with injuries (although Rubio will not be participating at all this summer where Marc may be back in time to play the US once more). So the bragging shouldn’t be so drawn out, because the Spanish team is a little depleted.
(So are the Americans, since Andrew Bynum, Dwight Howard, and Dwyane Wade aren’t involved, but we’ll let the Spaniards have this one.)
If you’re a basketball fan, though, you’d rather have a friendly rivalry internationally than just watching the Americans steamroll everybody.
I’m sure Ricky Rubio would prefer that, too.
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