Amid a broiling atmosphere tonight in which the teams were meeting for the fifth time in two weeks - the first half between Puerto Rico and the retooled Dream Team ended in a benches-clearing fracas of shoves, angry words and plastic cups hurled from the stands - the United States accomplished its primary goal and breathed a sigh of relief.
The players rode the emotion of halftime to a 23-point lead in the third quarter and hung on to beat Puerto Rico, 87-71, in the Tournament of Americas semifinals.
The teams shook hands and hugged after the game as the United States team earned a place in Sunday's gold-medal game against Argentina. But both of those teams automatically qualified for the Olympics, because the top three teams from the Americas region advance.
In the earlier semifinal tonight, the San Antonio Spurs' Manu Ginóbili scored 20 of his 26 points in the first half, leading Argentina to an 88-72 rout of Canada.
Puerto Rico and Canada will play Sunday for the bronze medal and the final berth in the Olympics.
Via New York Times
General Basketball
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From the get-go, he set the tone of the trip. On the first day of the Olympic basketball team's training camp, Allen Iverson donned a red-white-and-blue do-rag and signaled to the basketball-viewing world that international competition was now going to be cool.
Now, Team USA is going to have to be cool without him and finish the job he helped start. Before last night's semifinals at the Olympic qualifying tournament, the United States announced that Iverson would miss the rest of the tournament with a sprained right thumb.
With all this talent, this group of NBA All-Stars should be able to get on without Iverson. But it's hard to over-estimate the impact the guard has made in this tournament. Before getting injured Thursday night, Iverson led Team USA in minutes (22.9) and points (14.3). He also was able to transform what could have been a disruptive reunion with head USA coach Larry Brown into the NBA's summer feel good story.
"Allen's been great," Brown said earlier this week. "He's done absolutely everything we've asked him to do."
Iverson was not available before last night's gold-medal game. Though a CT scan taken earlier in the day was negative, the injury is of some concern because it is a re-occurring problem. Iverson has suffered at total of five injuries to thumbs on both hands during his seven NBA seasons, partly because his style of play is so aggressive.
Via Newsday
Philadelphia 76ers, General Basketball
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It's starting to feel like an NBA playoff series to members of the USA Basketball senior national team.
It's a series they lead 4-0, but one in which tonight's fifth game is all that matters now.
The U.S. team plays host Puerto Rico for the fifth time in 16 days in the semifinals of the FIBA Americas Olympic Qualifying Tournament.
The fact the U.S. team easily has won all four previous games isn't unanimously accepted as a good thing, however, as they continue their mission to rinse off the stink of last summer's sixth-place finish in the World Basketball Championship in Indianapolis.
"It gets scarier, knowing they know your tendencies," Seattle guard Ray Allen said after the U.S. team's 91-65 victory over Puerto Rico on Thursday in the final second-round game.
"You can't let down, thinking you're going to run away from them. It's not guaranteed. We have to go out and play another game."
And then another, when the tournament concludes on Sunday. Four teams have advanced to the medal rounds, with the top three finishers earning a spot in next summer's Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.
Canada (5-3) and Argentina (5-3) meet in the first semifinal tonight, followed by the U.S. (8-0)-Puerto Rico (5-3) game. The winners play for the gold medal Sunday while the losers meet for the bronze medal and the final Olympic berth.
Via Indianapolis Star
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Aug 2003 Archive
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Toronto Globe & Mail | Aug 30, 2003
It's not like Canada hasn't been in this situation before at the Americas Olympic qualifying tournament.
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Denver Post | Aug 29, 2003
Long before the start of Thursday's second-round Olympic qualifying Tournament of the Americas game against the United States, the host Puerto Ricans seemed poised for a massive celebration.
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Philadelphia Daily News | Aug 29, 2003
Tracy McGrady said it would take a miracle.
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Sacramento Bee | Aug 28, 2003
The Kings' Mike Bibby, who learned earlier Wednesday that his paternal grandmother had died of unknown causes, said he was "saddened" but had no immediate plans to withdraw from the team.
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New York Times | Aug 28, 2003
The teams that lacked urgency tonight, one night after their electric meeting, also lacked crispness, as Argentina and the United States wafted through their games as if their heads were awash in the surf.
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Washington Post | Aug 27, 2003
The score will reflect a United States victory over Argentina, a much-sought-after result for a team that was handed its first international loss in more than 10 years by the South American foe at last summer's World Basketball Championships.
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Globe and Mail | Aug 27, 2003
For years now, the National Basketball Association has been the carrot dangling in front of Rowan Barrett's nose, the brass ring that the veteran Canadian national team star has never quite been able to grab.
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Toronto Star | Aug 27, 2003
As the minutes wound down last night, and Steve Nash dribbled out of trouble, hit teammates with great passes and ran his team with aplomb, you knew Jay Triano was smiling to himself.
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Ft. Worth Star-Telegram | Aug 27, 2003
In an effort to best position itself for an Olympic berth, Canada strategically rested Steve Nash for 30 of the 40 minutes of Monday's loss to Team USA.
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New York Post | Aug 27, 2003
The game was on the line yesterday, and Jason Kidd was where he virtually never is in such a situation: on the bench.
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New York Post | Aug 27, 2003
Jermaine O'Neal said he still won't walk with his head up in Indianapolis.
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Vail Daily | Aug 26, 2003
For those of you who have been following the bouncing ball of the Kobe Bryant case, you are likely aware that County Court Judge Frederick Gannett issued his order last week regarding unsealing of the court's file.
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New York Post | Aug 26, 2003
Tracy McGrady was down for last night.
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Washington Post | Aug 26, 2003
In the first four games of the Tournament of the Americas Olympic qualifier, much of the buzz was about how shot-happy 76ers guard Allen Iverson had morphed into a pass-first team player who looked to score when all other options had been exhausted.
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sportsticker | Aug 25, 2003
Dallas Mavericks forward Eduardo Najera of Mexico and forward Peter Gaurasci of Canada got a day off after their rumble in the first half of Canada's 108-72 Group A romp Sunday.
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Rocky Mountain News | Aug 25, 2003
Basketball's biggest gunner has been given a reduced load of ammunition.
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New York Post | Aug 25, 2003
The aim was not to be an All-Star team, just a team in the pure sense of the word.
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Charlotte Observer | Aug 24, 2003
UNC Greensboro professor Dan Rosenbaum is a nationally recognized expert on the NBA's luxury-tax system.
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New York Post | Aug 24, 2003
When it came right down to it, Tim Duncan simply couldn't do it.
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New York Post | Aug 24, 2003
Tracy McGrady, the U.
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Toronto Star | Aug 24, 2003
Vince Carter was being interviewed when he found out Tim Duncan was planning to sit out a game against his Virgin Islands homeland at the Olympic qualification tournament yesterday.
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New York Post | Aug 24, 2003
Years from now, when they're reminiscing about their honeymoon, Kenyon Martin and his wife Heather will take out some photos of the first few days.
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New York Times | Aug 24, 2003
Africa has already produced one of the top centers in Hakeem Olajuwon and one of the elite of his era in Dikembe Mutombo.
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New York Daily News | Aug 24, 2003
So TNT suits hire Doug Collins and don't team him with Marv Albert.
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ESPN | Aug 23, 2003
Despite being a native of the tiny territory, Tim Duncan does not play for the U.
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Rocky Mountain News | Aug 23, 2003
Palm trees.
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Philadelphia Daily News | Aug 23, 2003
With the 76ers, leading the NBA in scoring three times, you're a star.
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Rocky Mountain News | Aug 23, 2003
U.
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Rocky Mountain News | Aug 23, 2003
He once was known as "half-man, half-amazing.
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Denver Post | Aug 22, 2003
The Dominican Republic won the opening tip over the United States men's basketball team Thursday night in the Olympic qualifying Tournament of the Americas.
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New York Post | Aug 21, 2003
Olympic gold and World Championships titles are great but a league title still is the ultimate prize for the NBA player.
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Philadelphia Daily News | Aug 20, 2003
The honeymoon, at least as planned, is over.
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Los Angeles Times | Aug 20, 2003
TNT has paired new NBA commentator Doug Collins with play-by-play announcer Kevin Harlan as a broadcast team.
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Denver Post | Aug 20, 2003
On a typical winter night in Rio de Janeiro, where the thermometer rarely dips below 60 degrees, Brazil's national basketball team trains in the moderately crowded gym of the Tijuca Club, 10 miles north of the world famous Copacabana Beach.
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Toronto Star | Aug 20, 2003
The journey is long and fraught with peril and the last thing Jay Triano wants is his Canadian men's basketball team thinking about the final prize.
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Atlanta Journal-Constitution | Aug 20, 2003
The last time NBA players wore "USA" across their chests, in the 2002 World Championships of Basketball in Indianapolis, it was a star-strangled gagger.
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usabasketball.com | Aug 19, 2003
USA Basketball announced Tuesday that New Jersey Nets forward Kenyon Martin has been added to the 2003 USA Basketball Men's Senior National Team replacing two-time Olympian Karl Malone (Los Angeles Lakers).
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Globe and Mail | Aug 19, 2003
Canada and the United States are going into the Americas Olympic qualification basketball tournament, which will begin in Puerto Rico tomorrow, with something to prove.
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New York Times | Aug 18, 2003
It was their first game together, so they were feeling each other out.
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New York Post | Aug 18, 2003
Nick Collison swears he never dissed the Knicks, made fun of New York or alleged that Willis Reed was faking that Game 7 injury.
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New York Post | Aug 18, 2003
Maybe the U.
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Ft. Worth Star-Telegram | Aug 17, 2003
Don't bring up the World Championships to Jermaine O'Neal.
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Indianapolis Star | Aug 17, 2003
Isiah Thomas was a member of the 1980 Olympic basketball team that didn't compete in Moscow because of the United States-led boycott.
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Washington Post | Aug 17, 2003
A decade after the United States displayed its dominance over the international basketball world with the 1992 Olympic Dream Team, a B-list of NBA players was roughed up by foreign talent at the 2002 World Basketball Championship.
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New York Times | Aug 17, 2003
Karl Malone needed confirmation.
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Globe and Mail | Aug 16, 2003
With the city struggling to regain its footing after the massive power failure, the exhibition basketball game between the national teams of the United States and Puerto Rico scheduled for last night at Madison Square Garden was postponed.
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Indianapolis Star Writer Mark Montieth | Aug 16, 2003
The blackout that thrust a section of the country into darkness Thursday night left some people in Manhattan temporarily homeless and everyone inconvenienced.
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Indianapolis Star Writer Mark Montieth | Aug 16, 2003
At the moment the power went out Thursday afternoon, I was in a glass elevator, about 30 floors up in the lobby of the Marriott Marquis in the heart of Times Square.
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Los Angeles Times | Aug 15, 2003
The funeral for Karl Malone's mother, Shirley Jackson Malone, who died Wednesday morning of a massive heart attack, will be held Tuesday morning in El Dorado, Ark.
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Newsday | Aug 15, 2003
Who could have predicted that Allen Iverson would become the media darling of Team USA? Who in the world could have imagined that the NBA's premier bad guy would transform himself into a poster boy for patriotism, complete with a red, white and blue 'do-rag pulled over his cornrows?
Well, if there's anything NBA fans have learned this summer, it's that a player's image and his reality aren't always the same.
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Globe and Mail | Aug 15, 2003
The gentle relay from Tracy McGrady was cradled in the palm of Vince Carter's right hand while he soared toward the basket during a scrimmage here yesterday against Puerto Rico.
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Indianapolis Star | Aug 15, 2003
The price of gold rises every summer for U.
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Associated Press | Aug 14, 2003
Fans who want to watch the U.
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New York Daily News | Aug 14, 2003
Allen Iverson was battling a full-court press worse than anything he had seen since his Philadelphia 76ers were ousted from the NBA playoffs by the Detroit Pistons back in May.
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Philadelphia Daily News | Aug 14, 2003
Even a year later, a look of bewilderment danced in the eyes of Elton Brand when he was asked exactly what happened.
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Associated Press | Aug 13, 2003
Karl Malone left the U.
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New York Post | Aug 13, 2003
Twelve NBA superduperstars on one floor and not a Nick Van Exel among them.
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The Globe and Mail | Aug 13, 2003
His 5 o'clock shadow was more like half past midnight and his trademark fly-away hair was especially unruly, plastered against his forehead as if he had just walked through a car wash.
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Newark Star-Ledger | Aug 12, 2003
No matter that Kobe Bryant's trial -- if there is one -- is months away.
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New York Post | Aug 12, 2003
They call him The Answer, but yesterday Allen Iverson tried to sidestep one issue: his take on the Kobe Bryant situation.
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New York Post | Aug 12, 2003
Team USA gathered with coach Larry Brown before practice at John Jay College yesterday, sprawling on the floor to listen.
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Seattle Post-Intelligencer | Aug 12, 2003
If this basketball thing doesn't work out, Nick Collison could always consider a career in the Foreign Service.
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New York Times | Aug 12, 2003
After six seasons of pushing and prodding, it was, of course, the only way for Larry Brown to greet Allen Iverson.
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New York Times | Aug 12, 2003
There is little apparent logic in selling, through pay-per-view, the type of event that barely registered on Nielsen meters on broadcast and cable television.
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Associated Press | Aug 12, 2003
Micheal Ray Richardson can't keep the sweat from dripping into his eyes as basketballs bounce all around.
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Philadelphia Daily News | Aug 11, 2003
This time it was all peaches and cream.
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New York Times | Aug 10, 2003
The United States will win the highlight contest going away, what with Tracy McGrady capable of catching and dunking his own alley-oop passes off the backboard, Jason Kidd distributing no-look passes among a group of salivating All-Star teammates and Vince Carter scanning the floor for another 7-foot foreigner like Frédéric Weis to hurdle.
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Boston Herald | Aug 10, 2003
Rarely has the NBA been more destabilized by front office turnover than this summer.
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San Antonio Express-News | Aug 8, 2003
He'll be the first to admit he's certainly no Michael Jordan or Tim Duncan.
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Philadelphia Inquirer | Aug 4, 2003
Basketball Hall of Famer Tom Gola, a name synonymous with greatness for generations of Philadelphia sports fans, was in a coma last night and fighting for his life from injuries suffered in a fall July 25.
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Indianapolis Star | Aug 3, 2003
Indiana Pacers CEO Donnie Walsh doesn't apologize for his cautious approach to spending as the NBA was preparing to implement its luxury tax this past season.
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Akron Beacon-Journal | Aug 1, 2003
A man recently walked into the NBA Store on Fifth Avenue and headed directly to the basement level where the LeBron James No.
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