Quick Hits 6/23

NBA

Kudos to Jerry Colangelo and his crew on their picks for this year's USA basketball squad.

Jason Kidd, Dwyane Wade, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard, Chris Bosh, Carlos Boozer, Deron Williams, Chris Paul, Michael Redd and Tayshaun Prince have been named to the team.

The only one of those guys who I don't agree with is Jason Kidd, whose best days are far behind him. He could have been replaced with another big man. Besides that, they have a lot of unselfish players and perhaps Kobe will play unselfishly in this setting. Most of them are at least average at defense and most of the wing players, except for Kidd, can shoot with consistency.

I'd be really surprised if they don't come home with the gold this year, unless of course, the weather in Beijing takes them down.

MLB

Not much to say here, but I've watched a lot of the Tampa Bay Rays this year and I have to say I like what I see. They have one of the best, young rosters and are definitely for real.

As it's the only game in town, I'll have more baseball thoughts (finally) throughout the summer.

WNBA

This might be the first and last WNBA post on the blog. Honestly, I'm a big fan of the women's game. My senior project was about the Drexel Women's basketball team.

However, the hype about Candace Parker's dunk and the reaction is part of the reason why the game will never get the same respect. They are in perpetual comparison to the men's game, which regularly features dunks. If they want their game to get a similar level of respect, they need to present themselves as a separate product. And when someone does dunk, act like its happened before, because its happened before.