The Stars, Aligned
LAS VEGAS, July 24 -- The U.S. Olympic men's basketball team convened for a meeting here earlier this week that concluded with Managing Director Jerry Colangelo, Coach Mike Krzyzewski, Kobe Bryant and a handful of players all speaking about what it meant to represent their country and the chance to win a gold medal in Beijing. Then LeBron James stood up, scanned the room of multimillionaire, superstar athletes, and made an impassioned plea for teammates not to take this opportunity for granted.
'When we're with our teams, we complain, 'I wish I had Chris Paul in the back court.' Or: 'I wish I had Dwight Howard. I want this guy, I want that guy' -- because we all want to win,' James told them. 'Well, everyone is in the room. Everyone is here. There's no excuses. Now we have to get the job done.'