Very Late USA Basketball Post and Delonte West Likes Chicken

USA Basketball held its annual camp in Las Vegas at the end of July, so this post is a long time coming. But someone hilariously wants my opinion, or is pretending to want my opinion, on who should make the US basketball Olympic roster in 2012 in London. To say the 2010 "Redeem Team" roster from Beijing is loaded is like saying that Taco Bell has reasonable prices on burritos and other Mexican delicacies. Understatement of the year. There will likely only be a handful of openings for 2010 World Basketball Championships and the 2012 Olympics will all the anticipated holdovers from the previous squad. Here is the list of players auditioning in front of Coach K in Las Vegas

LaMarcus Aldridge
Trevor Ariza
D.J. Augustin
Jerryd Bayless
Ronnie Brewer
Glen Davis
Kevin Durant
Rudy Gay
Danny Granger
Jeff Green
Blake Griffin
Devin Harris
Andre Iguodala
Kyle Korver
David Lee
Brook Lopez
Kevin Love
O.J. Mayo
Paul Millsap
Greg Oden
Derrick Rose
Brandon Roy
Josh Smith
Russell Westbrook
Thaddeus Young

Its amusing to think that the likes of Kevin Durant, Brandon Roy, Danny Granger, and Derrick Rose could be lucky to make the roster. While alternates are chosen in the event of injury or other circumstances, the final roster for both tournaments will be 12 players deep. Many of the top players may opt to skip the WBC in 2010, so I'll project a 2012 Olympic Roster, first giving the locks to make the squad, and then fill in the remaining spots with players that have the best shot of making the squad. This is all assuming, of course, that these players want to play in the Olympics...

Locks

1) Kobe Bryant: not only is he the greatest basketball player on the face of the planet, but was the best 1 on 1 defender on the court for the gold medalists in Beijing. Many are projecting he won't want to go through another qualifying and olympics now that he's won his gold medal, but if he wants to play, he clearly will be on the squad. And I can't leave Kobe off this list.

2) Lebron James: the second greatest basketball player on the face of the planet is obviously on the squad as well. What would the Olympics be without more Kobe and Lebron olympic themed puppet commercials? Maybe if Yao is out of his wheelchair and walking up and down the court by then they can make a big bird sized Yao puppet to play with Lebron and Kobe.

3) Dwyane Wade: he was probably the best player on the court throughout Beijing, single-handedly beating Spain in the gold medal game. As good as Flash is, if he doesn't wear his US Flag eye bandaid, his lock status is in jeopardy.

4) Dwight Howard: If he can learn to shoot a free-throw by 2012, the US might win every game by 75 points. If not, then skinny Euros like Pau Gasol and Andrea Bargnani might give Dwight the Anderson Varejao treatment and flop and slap Howard to death, force him to shoot free throws, really piss him off in the process, and the US will probably win the games by an average of 25. Either way, Superman is a lock.

5) Chris Paul: Jason Kidd is out, at least I hope, for the next Olympics, meaning CP3 is in as the starting point guard of the 2012 squad. Even though Mr. Slimball himself Ricky Rubio was able to go toe-to-toe with him in the gold medal game, as a starter, Paul should dominate a game, much like Kidd did in his prime, without scoring a single point. In the always entertaining qualifying games against countries like Angola and Botwsana, don't be surprised to see Paul pull off 20 steals in one game.

6) Carmelo Anthony: As much as I really hate Carmelo "missed layup" Anthony and think he is the most overrated player in the NBA and as much as I think he was the worst player on the floor much of the time for the last olympic squad and as funny as it is that his wife is LaLa from MTV, he's still a lock. Why? Because USA Basketball has invested so much time into developing him as a memeber of the grassroots campaign to build US Basketball back up to what it once was. Carmelo, remember, was one of the leading scorers for the dissapointing 2004 team in Athens. And he's better than 99% of the players the US will be facing in the Olympics. Frankly, I think his teammate Chaunce B-b-b-b-billups would be more useful on the team, but Melos not going anywhere.

6 locks, 6 spots left....

7) Deron Williams: Williams is a tank, and I'm a huge fan of his. The squad needs at least two, if not three point guards, and Williams is a perfect backup to Chris Paul and is big enough to play alongside of him in the backcourt. I even considered him for lock status, but thought against it because of the other talented point guards that will be pushing to be Paul's backup.

8) Chris Bosh: I think Chris "praying mantis" Bosh has his work cut out for him in holding onto his roster spot, but he was such an effective and reliable player for Coach K in Beijing that, barring injury or an application for Canadian citizenship, Bosh will be on this team again. I thought about putting Amare Stoudamire, who most people seem to have forgotten, in this backup big slot, and there are plenty of young and athletic bigs who are ready to take Bosh's spot, so he better step his game up and not worry so much about tacky, yet hilarious self-promotions.

9) Kevin Durant: He's clearly gotten the better of Greg "The Geico Caveman" Oden in their brief NBA careers so far, and Durant has a infinitely better shot at this point of making the Olympic roster. He's one of the brightest stars in the game, playing on a rising team, and he seems to improve every year. It would be nice if he could bench press more than a 12 year old girl and weighed more than 150, but when you can throw in pull up 25 footers with your eyes closed, it doesn't make much of a difference. He could be a exciting scorer off the bench for the olympic team, and with improved defense is on his way to a roster spot.

10) Al Jefferson: I really wanted to reach with this one take Andrew Bynum instead, but Big Al is a beast and by 2012 will easily be one of the best power forward/centers in the western conference (if he isn't already). He's not on the invite list for Vegas, probably because he is recovvering from knee surgery, but in three years a front line of Dwight/Big Al/and Bosh (or Amare or Greg Oden) will be scary.

11) Rodney Stuckey: This might be out of left field for some people, but quietly Stuckey has become one of the brightest young stars in the NBA. And by 2012, who knows how good this guys going to be. He is the Pistons' horse now so by 2012 he should be putting up some really good numbers. He's a lot like Deron Williams in that he can be both a point guard and an off-guard, so he should add depth and versatility to the bench...as if it needs it.

12) Joe Johnson: Every team needs its shooter, and as much as my heart wanted to put Jason Kapono or Kyle Korver in this spot, my head tells me to go with Joe Johnson, who will take Michael Redd's role as the sniper off the bench. Unlike Redd, who runs like hes 40 years old and can't do anything exept shoot 3s, Joe Johnson is not only an exceptional long range threat, but he can shoot off the dribble and passes surprisingly well.

So here's the roster breakdown...

Guards: Paul, DWilliams, Stuckey, Wade

Wings/Forwards: Kobe, Lebron, Durant, JJohnson, Melo

Centers: Dwight, Bosh, Jefferson

Finally, I found this video this morning that made me laugh. Delonte West and his buddy apparently get hungry and drive through KFC for some chicken. The chicken isn't fried yet or something so while waiting for his food, Delonte decides to freestyle about Kentucky Fried Chicken. Apparently a huge admirer of Colonel Sanders, Delonte and his friend rap for 8 minutes about the man's famous poultry. They also delve into other interesting topics like rasberry iced tea, barbeque sauce (they really like barbeque sauce at around 4:48, look for it) and hats. At the end of the video, they stop rapping and we get to meet Delonte's cousin who works at KFC and hooks him up with an astonishingly large amount of chicken. Either these guys are high as a kite or they simply love chicken.