Rick Brunson .com - Ain't no thang!


	Brunson Still Waiting By Phone September 6th, 2003
One week ago today Team USA defeated Puerto Rico 87-71 in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament semi-finals. The win guaranteed the American team entry into the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. Rick Brunson .com was surprised to learn that USA Basketball executives still haven't contacted Rick Brunson about the possibility of playing for Team USA on those Olympics. While the Olympic tournament is almost a year away this possible snubbing of an NBA Legend sets a tone of intrigue not seen since Michael Jordan screwed Isiah Thomas out of a spot on the original USA Dream Team in 1992. There is a problem though as it raises the question: Why would anybody hate Rick Brunson? After all his qualifications for the Olympic team are impeccable. As a team that is sure to be loaded with talent Team USA needs a few less egomaniacs and guys willing to sit on the bench for whole games at a time. There might also be times when new basketball powers such as Yugoslavia and Argentina are giving Team USA a tougher game and what might put the team over the top is a good butt-slap to wake them up. Rick Brunson .com asks those USA Basketball executives: Who slaps butt better than Rick Brunson?
		The gossip that some fellow NBA star is freezing Brunson out of the spot on Team USA's roster must be addressed. Who could it be? In one of Brunson's stops around the NBA (Orlando, New York, Portland, New York, Miami, Boston, New York, Portland, Chicago, Toronto) it is possible that one of his teammates felt that Brunson just did not slap his butt hard enough. This perceived slight might be the fuel of this petty feud that would deny the whole world the sight of Rick Brunson sitting his way to Olympic Gold. Another possibility is that some other NBA player has something to gain by denying Brunson a spot on Team USA. Benchsitters around the league would suddenly have hope if Brunson was out of the Olympic picture. The key suspects in this conspiracy would have to be Damon Jones, Pepe Sanchez, Tony Massenburg and, shockingly, Brunson's former "Dream Backcourt" teammate Fred "The Mayor" Hoiberg.

The most optimistic scenario involved in this mystery is that Team USA officials are calling everyone who won't be playing in the Olympics first to let them down easy. Thus it might be over a month until they get around to calling Brunson. In this age of coddled athletes that's the way things must be done so no one goes home crying or waves a gun around. We here at Rick Brunson .com wistfully recall the days when the coach would just read everyone's name off a list on his clipboard. If you didn't hear your name you weren't on the team. That's the way Team USA should be handling it instead of letting poor Rick twist in the wind like this. Rick Brunson .com was about to call Rick himself to ask for comment on this story but we realized that if we were on the phone with him and Team USA called they might get a busy signal and just try somebody else. Certainly we don't want to be the ones to blame for this scandal.