It's Official: Wade to Play in Olympics

Surprise! Shocker! Amazing! I couldn't believe my eyes when I read it!...

are things that won't be written seriously in this blog. This bit of news has been suspected for at least a week, but today it became official as Team USA basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo revealed the 12 man roster for the Beijing Olympics beginning in August. It's going to be nice to see Flash play for the first time in seemingly forever. He needs the to get his sea legs going in anticipation of the 2008-2009 season.

I'm geeked to see Wade play with guys like Chris Paul, Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard, Carlos Boozer, Deron Williams, Michael Redd, Tayshaun Prince (who receives a temporary reprieve from my unmitigated hatred of him and his Pistons for the duration of the Olympics), and Jason Kidd.

I think this is the year that USA Basketball returns to dominance in international play. Besides Kidd, everyone on this team is in their prime. The talent is probably the best that's been assembled on an Olympic roster since 2000. Just say that the team contains Wade, Paul, Bryant, James, Anthony, and Howard, and visions of gold can't help but dance in your head. Most importantly, however, it is a hungry group who hasn't tasted meaningful success in international competition in nearly a decade. Look up and down the roster it is rife with players that are fiercely competitive almost to a fault. We'll see if they can mesh their talents appropriately and adjust to the vastly different international style of play to bring home the Gold this summer.