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Message: [QUOTE="CocoHusky, post: 2357751, member: 5823"] One of the reasons this story will not go away is because it was very poorly handled by all parties concerned. The basis of the decision should have been entirely basketball or basketball related and simple: I.e. USA basketball though that for this team EDD or Stewie or Catch was a better fit. End of story! Lacking a simple basketball explanation, the tin foil brigade resorted to innuendo against Geno, and of course many people correctly leapt to Geno’s defense. In defense of Geno non-basketball and personality based explanation emerged. Specific missteps: [B]USA basketball[/B] surprised Candace and the world with the announcement. Candace was back in California when she received a phone call from Carol Callahan announcing the news. [URL='https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/wnba/2016/04/26/candace-parker-disappointed-will-not-be-on-us-hoops-roster/83548214/'][U]https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/wnba/2016/04/26/candace-parker-disappointed-will-not-be-on-us-hoops-roster/83548214/[/U][/URL] For a player of Candace’s stature that is wrong because this being the age of social media the news was already out- [B]on ESPN[/B]. Contrast that with when Skylar Diggins was cut from the World Championship team Geno and Carol Callahan met with her to deliver the news in real time [B]in France[/B]. [URL='http://olympics.nbcsports.com/2015/02/19/skylar-diggins-olympics-basketball-2016-rio/'][U]http://olympics.nbcsports.com/2015/02/19/skylar-diggins-olympics-basketball-2016-rio/[/U][/URL] In a subsequent interview [B]Carol Callahan[/B] gave what was a perfectly simple and good basketball explanation for the decision citing the “[I]Depth of the US team at the 3 & 4 positions[/I]?” Translation: USA basketball selected who they thought were better players. The trouble with this explanation is that it came 6 full days after the announcement and fell largely on deaf ears because by that time everyone (including me) was either fully entrenched in their respective conspiracy theories or defending Geno. [B]Candace i[/B]nitial handled both the news and the first interview with USA Today well, concluding with [I]"I'm older and more mature and feel like I take things as they come. They made their decision and I have to respect it."[/I] Then someone got to Candace gassed her up and suddenly there was the re-tweet of her dunking on UCONN from almost a decade ago. The re-tweet simultaneously fueled two already raging fires. 1) Geno made this happed 2) USA basketball has too many UCONN players. [B]The Media. [/B]Most of the reputable newspapers questioned the decision to exclude Candace form the Olympic team. Almost ALL national newspapers stated that this was a USA basketball decision. A few rags based in the state of Tennessee were the papers stating that the decision was Geno’s, wrong and in retaliation against the University of TN. For rags based in TN, Geno is the devil so all would have been better off considering the source before reacting. Since many didn’t consider the source, Social media took it from there, recall that Candace’s dunking on UCONN was a re-tweet meaning someone sent it to her. To the best off my knowledge no single paper put a direct and specific question to either Geno or Carol regarding the decision. That Ramona Shelburne can get clicks off an event that happened more than 18 Months ago makes her pretty smart in my opinion. [B]Geno. [/B]I honestly don’t think Geno cares about the decision and the controversy surrounding it, but I also believe that this is an instance where being glib does not work out well for him. He might have been better served addressing this one directly.[B] [/B]Almost three months after the Olympic team had been selected Geno was interviewed by Hartford Courant about the Olympic team. In that interview Geno made two statements that added fuel to the fire. These are statement Geno has made before about his UCONN & Olympic teams but this was at the apex of the controversy and IMO he would have been better repeating what he said a few weeks earlier, which was: "[I]The committee had to make some very hard decisions.[/I] " [I]"It's a lot like a great orchestra," Auriemma said. "Everybody is playing their particular instrument and may be the best in the world at that. But that doesn't mean that you get to do your own thing because all of a sudden it's not an orchestra anymore. It's just a bunch of individuals trying to show how good they are. [B]Everybody on this team, the reason they're on this team is because they understand that.[/B][/I] [I]"They are really, really good at sizing up the situation and saying, what does this team need from me?" Auriemma said. "Not like, this is what I do on my team so this is what I'm going to do here. No, [it's], what does this team need from me and how do I complement everyone else. And we're very, very fortunate that the players that we have really, really think that, feel it, buy into it, and live it every day." [/I] [I][URL='http://www.courant.com/sports/uconn-womens-basketball/hc-usa-women-basketball-0722-20160721-story.html'][U]http://www.courant.com/sports/uconn-womens-basketball/hc-usa-women-basketball-0722-20160721-story.html[/U][/URL][/I] [B]Us. [/B] Here I’m including myself & many BY-ers. We used the BY to defend Geno against accusations that were written elsewhere. The accusers would not be brave enough to post here. We came up with explanations for this decision that were personality based and repeated then often. If you are looking for basketball explanation for why Candace was left off the Olympic team Carol Callahan provided one, as did [USER=343]@meyers7[/USER]: [I]“I really can't see where Parker would fit in on this team. I like Parker, I think she's a great player. But after watching what they want to do with this team, I don't really see where she would have fit in. I think the committee might have gotten this one right, against my judgement.” [/I] [B]Me. [/B]The personality based explanations, especially those that attempted to diminish Candace as a player or person really irked me because they are so very lazy. Equally lazy is the specific linkage of this decision exclusively to Geno. This is USA basketball vs. the rest of the world we are talking about. If you are looking for a non-basketball (personality) explanation for the decision, just jump on one of the many that have already been proposed or come up with your own. Either way I’ll be here to refute. [/QUOTE]

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