Fast Break
soccer
U.S. women: ‘Bring it on’
The U.S. women’s soccer team drew the most difficult first-round group Sunday for this year’s Women’s World Cup, which will be played Sept. 10-30 in China.
The United States, which finished third at the 2003 World Cup, will face 2003 runner-up Sweden as well as African champion Nigeria and North Korea in Group B.
“I say, ‘Bring it on,’ ” U.S. forward Kristine Lilly, in Wuhan, China, for Sunday’s draw, was quoted as saying on U.S. Soccer’s Web site. “I’m looking forward to it. People say, ‘You guys got the hardest group,’ and this or that. But the World Cup is hard. So whether we face them early on in group play, or later on once we get out of group play, you’re going to have to play the best.”
BASKETBALL
Young Jordan plays in dad’s game
After watching his father have some memorable performances at Madison Square Garden, Michael Jordan’s son now understands what playing there is all about.
Jeffrey Jordan scored nine points but his team came up short in a 127-119 loss to the Jordan Yellow team in the Jordan Brand All-American Classic Saturday night.
“Definitely, definitely,” the younger Jordan said about finally comprehending what it really meant to play in the same arena where his dad once did. “Everybody felt the atmosphere just because we saw who was on the sideline. Everybody felt the great atmosphere of The Garden.”
Even Spike Lee got into it with the younger Jordan at times. “He was talking to me but it was all positive. Shoot the ball and all that stuff.”
Surely not as highly recruited as many of his peers in the game, many believe that Jordan got a chance to play because of his last name.
“I thought he played well and represented himself well,” said Steve Smith, the Oak Hill Academy coach who led the Royal team. “It’s hard to be Michael Jordan’s son. A lot of people said, hey he shouldn’t be in the game. I thought he competed and played well and showed what he could do.”
BASKETBALL
Tanking it for Oden?
Lottery teams angling for better position in the Greg Oden sweepstakes weren’t the only ones tanking during the NBA’s regular season.
Perhaps because of some of those we-win-by-losing performances, fans turned off down the stretch, with ratings for TNT’s NBA telecasts dropping 22 percent from last season among men 18 to 49 and ABC’s sliding 12% in the same demographic.
TNT studio analyst Charles Barkley offered his explanation for the poor ratings.
“For some reason TNT felt like we had an obligation to show the Sacramento Kings every two weeks,” Barkley told the San Diego Union-Tribune. “Everybody wants to say all these teams are great. That’s not true. A lot of these teams stink.”