I think the chance of a terrorist attack against american athletes in the olympics is somewhere between 90 and 100%. Now I'm not suggesting it'll be the basketball squad or that it will necessarily succeed, but its gonna happen. Now, what I'm wondering is why no one on these boards is at all concerned that we're sending our franchise player into this? is it your faith in the olympics comittee? is it your faith in usa basketball's security tactics? is it because you don't watch the news?

I'm really curious, why this isn't a bigger issue. The only reason stephon is going in the first place is because the majority of the original team knows this to be the case and opted out (please don't even bring up "family commitments" or whatever lip service they give to the press). cells have probably been in place for years. the stadiums aren't finished yet. greece is a country with a history of terrorism and a proximity to the mid east that is terrifying given current conditions. they also haven't had a viable security force since somewhere between the bronze and iron ages.
Considering we live in a country where our National Security Adviser says no one ever thought of flying planes into buildings despite the fact that we suffered a huge number of casualties to kamikaze bombers in WWII: planes filled with explosives that sucide bombers flew into aircraft carriers, cruisers, tankers and destroyers on a regular basis, obliterating two carriers and killing thousands at Midway alone. Despite the fact that the World Trade Center was built to withstand a direct hit by the biggest jets around at the time of the construction (the one's that did hit the towers were bigger, newer ones that the builders couldn't have taken into account). Taking into account that anyone who's seen a WWII movie, or watched the history channel and the builders of the World Trade Center knows that her arguement is total total hooey and insulting to our intelligence, where exactly does your faith come from that we're not going to be watching cnn footage of stephon marbury begging for his life while bad guys hold curved swords over his head.

considering the amount of security that the US team will have, i wonder if i wouldn't feel safer over there or walking down any NYC street.

how you can say i'm overestimating the security that the athletes will have when you don't even know what it will be either doesn't make much sense to me...i might be overestimating it, but you may also be underestimating it...logic would tell me that the US would take all the necessary steps to protect their athletes, especially after what happened w/the Israeli team about 30 years ago & w/the current state of World Affairs.

& your comparison of the Olympics w/a war zone in Iraq is pretty ridiculous if you ask me...not only the US team will have security btw...i'm sure the other nations will ensure the safety of their athletes as well, which will aid in the overall effort at the venues & athletes' living quarters.

I'm sure the governments of the athletes involved as well as local governments arent concerned because everyone knows its just not fair to attack athletes.

Please... this is going to be treated like like our president is over there. Every resource we have will be dedicated to ensuring our athlete's saftey.

so far not one of you has answered the question. just some blind assumptions...you are all so naive...its sad. 5 star hotels? a security guard each? what world do you live in that you think any of that is going to make a difference. You're sure the govts are doing everything they can? what does that mean? it sounds to me that, like you guys, the govts are just hoping nothing will happen. If these guys can kill 17 sailors on the USS Cole, if they can attack and kill people in the pentagon, if they can kill soldiers with impunity, if they can blow up the UN delegation and kill one of Kofi Annan's number 2 guys, if they can launch rockets into a hotel while wolfowitz is there, what would a five star hotel or one security guard each do? Our military is stretched so thin, we're about to call up 57,000 more reserves, so there's going to be no visible military presence to act as a deterrent. Considering Greece is next to Turkey and has been engaged in a civil war with Cyprus for half a century, and considering the site of the Olympics has been known for years, you absolutely have to assume a cell (more likely multiple cells acting independently of each other) is there. its possible they've got guys on work crews, guys who planted explosives a year ago and are waiting to detonate them remotely...anything is possible, whatever, i guess you guys answered my question as to why nobody was talking about it...the same reason nobody seems to care that Osama Bin Laden attacked us but we have almost 200,000 troops in Iraq where he's not and only 20,000 in Afghanistan where he is. You guys are sheep...dumb sheep chewing your cud.

how else can you prevent them or the damage they do if you don't prognosticate on them I'm asking this as an american AND as a knicks fan. losing stephon in a terrorist incident would be like extending allan houston AND drafting lenny bias all at once

as i said, its definitely related to the knicks as we have a potential player to lose. i admit that if there was anything really going on in the world of nba b ball, i'd prefer to talk about that, but i'm so sick of these kobe to the knicks for the mle types of posts, that I thought I'd bring this up. whatever. if the mods want to lock the post, let them. The fact is Osama Bin Laden declared war against americans like six times before 9/11. He gave an interview in Time magazine where he said civillians were valid targets. I read those declarations, I read that interview. Obviously people like you didn't and don't care much for the truth. Thats the only way this administration could hoodwink people into sending ten times (not an exageration) as many troops into Iraq which had nothing to do with it than into Afghanistan where the guy who actually did it still it. You don't care about the truth, so the administration does whatever it wants. The truth is that the athletes are extremely vulnerable. You just want to sit and suggest trades that will never happen and just assume they're being protected...instead of facing up to unpleasant truths.

This is a stupid thread. We should not be talking about what will happen 'IF' our players get injuerd or killed in an attack or what are the chances of them being attacked.

Listen Chico, please don't lecture me on what I do and do not care about. I've read the same books you've read, take the same history and current affairs classes in college that you do, and read the paper. I know all about bin Laden and him declaring war and what not. You seem to just be missing the point again and again.

IT DOESNT MATTER IF WE DISCUSS IT, because it has no relevance to anything. What do the Knicks do if Marbury gets killed? The Bulls had to answer that question when Jay Williams got in an accident and ended his career, you move on. The Celts did with Lenny Bias, the Sopranos did when the grandma died, etc. What do you want me to say? They ask for Marbury back, I mean, this is the stupidest thing around. What do you do if Marbury dies? I don't know ****head, what do you do, revive him?

I agree that it's a bad situation in the world, and I'm in the same boat as you when I log on each day and see three new clowns saying that Kobe for the MLE is a legit possiblity, it's not. Obviously you just saw Fahrenheit 9/11, since you're spewing everything that was in that movie, so congratulations, I'm glad you're angry at Bush and "the administration." I feel like Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting when he shows up that Harvard kid because he just spews stuff he reads in books.

Unless you have some inside info that you know there's some hit arranged on Marbury or whatever, then let's not discuss this (gov't. censors have probably already red-flagged this discussion and are sending agents armed with Patriot Act warrants to search our homes).

It's not a big issue because it can't be discussed. If something happens, something happens, and if anything I like Marbury even more as a fan for risking himself to go help the country win a gold medal. If it's not safe, they should just shut the Olympics down. If legit analysts and not some hack named "Chico" thought there was a threat, I'm sure it'd be dealt with.

Thinking outside the box (unlike you), I think the "administration" will do everything in their power to make sure nothing happens, because I'm sure they'd love to stay in power and it'd look god-awful if a month before the election 12 high profile athletes were killed by terrorists. That alone should give Bush and his cronies even more of the incentive to make sure security is suped up and to make sure they return home safely.

What happens if Marbury goes back to Coney and gets accidentally hit in a drive by. Why don't we discuss that? What happens if Sweetney buys a motorcycle, crashes it, and loses his limbs? Those actually have a better chance of happening than a terrorist attack, so let's discuss those too, chump.

I posted a reply to your Magic/Rockets thread. I don't think there were many replies to the topic b/c it was probably already discussed when the rumor broke a few weeks ago.

I agree with you Chico, there's a legit chance for terrorism at ANY TIME, ANYWHERE. Ray Allen pulled out because he was getting married or his wife was pregnant, and a few others because of injuries. If some were scared of terrorism, some were scared of terrorism, but I think at least some of the pullouts were legit reasons.

Oh well, whatever happens happens, I can only hope for the best; there's nothing more I can do.

Chico,

Stop calling everybody out pretending your the only one who gives two shAts and a Phuch!

Whats to talk about? Should we not send our american team? Quite frankly, I could care less about olympic hoop. This team is more competitive anyway.

I worry about the archers, weight lifters, the x-country runners, and the divers. The less glam sports whom athletes train their lives for this shot of glory. Not the tennis, track and hoop players not able to relax and have more babies.

But you want to talk about hoop?

you know, this team is perhaps more patriotic than others because they are risking somthing and playing for more pride than other teams.

But please, stop whining about not getting attention. Your in the face manor of calling others morons to elevate your intellect is old.

This is recreation, a break from the daily grind.

Who knows, I may be in service right now monitoring our enemy via satilite? Sitting on missile silos, flying in an awac, or across the street from you.

So you think we should try to get Raheem?