With only 19 days to go, the Olympic buzz fills the air. In women’s basketball, it is a chance for us to redeem ourselves from the 2004 Olympic letdown and the recent disappointment in last world championships. After our consecutive gold medal run, what happened? It is suggested, and I agree that the rest of the world has “caught up to us” and some have even surpassed us in terms of strength. Australia and Russia proved this in the previous mentioned international competitions.

Our chances, in my opinion, are good. Unfortunately, I can not say that we will win gold, like Nancy Lieberman had recently said this past week on ESPN, however, I think that we have a decent chance. Yes, we have a lot of veterans, and some solid youth talent, but it is hard to say how that will mesh together come the Olympics. The fact of the matter, is that many of the other teams have been together for years and even more importantly have practiced together for this entire summer. Players like Penny Taylor, valued her Olympic team over playing a single game in the WNBA this past summer- talk about pride.

I hope that the fact that we were not smart enough to put Becky Hammon on the roster last year will not basically “bite us in the ***”, but that is yet to be seen. Do not worry, I will not get started on that subject again, since I have already written an entire article about Becky. Two other players that I feel deserved to be on the team would definately be Deanna Nolan and Katie Douglas. Deanna Nolen is probably the most athletic and skilled player I have seen in the WNBA- incredible. Katie has also reached a phenomenal level in the Euroleague and the WNBA over the past 2 years. However, it is like some players have “tenure” and can not be removed from the roster.

On the men’s side, there is the same pressure to get back to those winning ways. We might as well call the the 2008 Olympics “the year of redemption for U.S.A. basketball.” It will be exciting to watch these games and see who has what it takes to bring home gold.