Playing the Dean card
Spain coach Mario Pesquera first yelled and jabbed a finger at U.S. basketball coach Larry Brown after this morning's 102-94 American victory, then went berserk in the postgame news conference about a timeout Brown was awarded with 23 seconds left and the U.S. up 11 points.
"Dean Smith would have never done anything like that," Pesquera said of Brown's esteemed college coach. He also cracked that the game was played under NBA rules, not under FIBA rules.
Well, actually ...
The timeout fiasco resulted from moronic international rules, not NBA rules, rules that Pesquera and the Spain-cheering crowd should be fairly familiar with.
The U.S. head coach registered a timeout request at the scorer's table, as per FIBA rules, meaning they'd get it at the next dead ball. Spain had just cut a big lead down to five with about a minute left when Brown asked for the timeout. Two U.S. three-pointers later, the next deadball situation finally came and the U.S. was given the timeout despite trying to wave off the request.
And the Spanish coach pounced, launching into the Ugly (Anti-)American display of the day.