If you had Team USA going to the semifinals in your 2012 Summer Olympics men's basketball pool, congratulations! You are a very smart person who deserves to feel a great deal of pride over your knowledge of international basketball.
The United States smoked Australia 119-86 on Wednesday in the quarterfinals to set up a matchup with Argentina, the team who knocked out Team USA during the semifinals of the 2004 Athens Olympics. The U.S. took a 14-point lead into the fourth quarter before quickly turning the game into a rout by outscoring the Aussies 35-16 in the final frame. Kobe Bryant will draw most of the headlines for hitting four consecutive three pointers during one stretch in the fourth quarter, but LeBron James' all-around performance was even more impressive. The world's best player finished with a triple-double -- 11 points, 14 rebounds, 12 assists -- in the victory.
After the game, the Tribune's K.C. Johnson asked Bryant about the performance of James. Kobe was quick to cite former Bulls star Scottie Pippen. Did he diss LeBron in the process?
Kobe on LeBron's triple double: "I’ve been watching the Dream Team in 92 and Pippen was close to getting a triple double almost every game."
— K.C Johnson (@KCJHoop) August 9, 2012
As someone tweeted at Johnson, Pippen apparently never grabbed more than four rebounds in a game for the Dream Team in 1992. That's some convenient revisionist on the spot by Kobe.