United States Player Blogs From Brazil

We've been having a really great time. We have agreat group that likes to joke around, make fun of each other, and get on each other. Don't miss pronounce a word or you'll be trouble. You'll be hearing about it for the next couple of days. Tina, the other day, said she "Tex Mex'd" somebody. Diana said that the game has "evo-luted." A lot of good times around here. When it's time to have fun we do, and when it's time to be business-like, we are.

Diana and I are big quoters. We'll quote everything from Jamie Foxx to Chappelle's Show to South Park. South Park's a big one. We like to have a good time. We play off each other and everybody kind of joins in. A lot of it comes from boredom in Russia last year. It was a lot of South Park and a lot of Chappelle's Show. There were no DVDs; we had to find them on YouTube. Not much to do when you're in Kazan, Russia.

You can go down the line with everybody on this team and talk about how amazing it is to play with them. Obviously, I've never played with Candace before. She's just so talented. She's going to be such a great player. She's so athletic, so talented. Playing with Catch is awesome, the way she hustles and gives her team extra possessions all the time. Watching her is amazing, the things she does. Tina, the way she can shoot, the way she creates. I could seriously, literally, go down the line with every one.

Every time you go on the floor you know you're playing with the best players in America, if not the world, and you have to live up to that. If you're on the floor with Diana Taurasi or Tina Thompson and they kick it out, you better make that three, you know? It puts a little bit of presure on you, but it's fun. I think we all bring the best out of each other and play well off each other and it's showing.

Having Dawn Staley here is great. Just like when she was a player, it's not that much different for me. She's still in my ear about some things, especially when we were down in North Carolina training. She'll tell me, "Hey, you should probably pull the team together now." Or "You need to be more vocal," or "You need do this, or you need to do that." It's good to have her as an assistant. It's good to have a point guard as an assistant, but especially Dawn Staley.

I think we're excited for the one and done aspect of these next few days. The Lithuania game, we didn't exactly start out the way we wanted to, but, you know, it's the medal round. No team is going to lay over and die. Each team is going to give it their best shot. So, to be abe to take their best shot and win by 48, we're feeling good about that, but at the same time, the Russian team is very good, very talented, and I'm sure they want revenge from their opening round loss to us. And, generally speaking, they usually play better in the medal rounds. This is a team that wants to beat us. They'd be okay with finishing last as long as they beat us. That's all they want to do. So we just have to follow our game plan, do what our coaches tell us and play our game.

I've played against a lot of these Russians before because a lot of them were my teammates in the off-season. The first time, we played them, Diana and I added some stuff to the scouting reports. You play with people long enough and you pick up what they like to do and don't like to do. I don't feel bad about it at all because I'm sure they were doing the same to us.

Coming to Brazil has been a good experience for me. It's my first time in South America. People here are really nice. Being on this team is something I have dreamed of since I was little, so I sometimes have to pinch myself to realize that I'm playing alongside Tina Thompson or Sheryl Swoopes, you know? I'm really enjoying this. They're really helping me out a lot and showing me the ropes.

The coach has stressed my role as defense and rebounding, and that's something that I definitely need to work on so I've taken that as a challenge. Hopefully when I got back to Tennessee I can bring a little more energy. I think I'm gong to have an advantage going back to college after playing with these women here, learning different tricks and things like that.

The most fun times with this team have been outside basketball. Going out to dinner, going to the movies, goofing off, things like that. We are all really close and I think this is a really special team.

I think the funniest experience for me so far is that I have study hall while I'm here, because I'm stilll in school. Tamika Catchings is like the monitor of study hall, so she'll bust into my hotel room and say "Are you studying?" She's not really the monitor, she just made herself the monitor. I'm majoring in psychology and sports management with a minor in business. While I'm over here, I'm studying child studies, psychology, and sports managment classes.

As the tournament draws to a close, we know what we did before doesn't matter. It's win and advance now. Single elimination, and if you don't win, you go home. You have to take care of business. This is what you played for, all the practices and pool round games. It's fun to finally get to the medal round.

Making the transition from the WNBA to the USA team is kind of surreal. You're so focused and into the playoffs and the Finals, and basically taking care of business, and it's just like, that high of finally doing it, winning the WNBA title, and you're worn out, physically and mentally, and you get to enjoy one night, basically, and the next day you go home and you're kind of like "Did that really happen?" Then we immediately flew to Brazil , Cheryl (Ford) and myself - it's just a week ago but it seems like forever ago.

But, I'm excited to be here. It's the chance to once again keep our throne. We are here to do whatever part we can. It's hard because we weren't with the team training, but we just plug in wherever we can and bring energy and cheer everyone on and do our part.

The vibe of this team is fun. The old and the new together produces a lot of energy. Playing with Candace Parker is amazing. She's a talent. A sweet kid who?'s only going to get better. She obviously has some major, major skills. She's fun to watch and fun to play with on the floor. To see what she does, being as tall as she is, and being able to handle the ball and shoot the ball, and her awareness out there on the floor is fun. She's something really special.

Tomorrow's game against Lithuania is exciting. You win or you go home - that's it. As a competitor, you want all the chips out there, so you can take it or not. You have to go out there with a sense of urgency to not leave anything at home, bring it, because if you don't, you are going to go home. You don't ever want to leave here thinking 'shoulda, coulda, woulda.' So I'm excited and I know everybody on this team is ready and mentally and physically ready to roll.

Having my son Dyllan and my mother with me in Brazil has been great. It makes the experience that much easier, I have less to worry about. Dyllan travels with me everywhere I go and having him here is great. The team loves him. They all enjoy him and take him out of my hands without me even asking.

So we're playing well so far. The team chemistry is great. Not only are we playing well together, but we enjoy being around each other. We're getting a little taste of Brazilia. I love black beans and rice, so I've been eating that every day. That and McDonald's. I'm just really happy with this team. Definitely ready for the medal rounds.

I haven't gotten to see much in Brazil because we've been playing almost every day. We've only had one off day, and didn't do much because we just rested up because the next day we had another game, and two games after that. We walked around the area we're staying in a little, but mostly it's all work.
On the bus and at shoot around, it's all laughs. Diana and Sue are the comedians. They've seen every Dave Chappelle and Adam Sandler movie, whatever comedian is out there, they've seen it, and they're always doing their renditions of what they saw, so we're laughing all the time. This team gets along really well. We're laughing and joking around everyday, all day. I think that's helped our "on court," the fact that we get along so well "off court."

The only player I've never played with before is Candace Parker. It's awesome to see her grew over the last two weeks. You're not around so many players who pick up things and absorb things as easily and as quickly as she has; she takes whatever constructive criticisms we have for her in stride and learns from them, quickly. It's great. We tell her something on the sidelines and then she goes back into the game and three or four minutes later, she's applying that. There's not many students of the game. I definitely consider myself a student of the game and it's good to see that in her, especially because she has so much potential. Since I've been a part of USA Basketball, back in 1993 or '94, I've never seen a 19 year old become a part of the team's core before. She's the first in my era. Everything that we've asked of her, she's risen to the occasion every time. The only thing she hasn't done yet is gotten a breakaway dunk. She had one the other day but she kind of "oops'd it," but I'm happy to see her fitting in and growing.

Going into tomorrow's elimination game, we're feeling great. We've approached every single game like an elimination game, even though it wasn't, so we're definitely prepared mentally. Our game the other day against the Czech Republic was a perfect tune-up for us, because it was a close game throughout. Our defense had to rise to the occasion, and we did that, so tomorrow will be another one of those challenges, and this team is ready. It's starting to mean something. Each game we win from here on, we know we'll get some hardware after that, so I'm really excited and I know that the team is too and that we'll be ready.

My sister Taj is in Brazil with me, and her 13 month old son, Cannon. They went to one of the markets earlier in the week and bought some magnets and key chains. I asked her to get me something that will remind me of Brazil, so she got me a few bracelets. But other than that, they kind of walked around the hotel area. She's hoping, now that we're in the city of Sao Paulo, to get out a bit more.

My little nephew Cannon is 13 months and he's going to be the little world traveller. He came to Korea with me, now to Brazil, and he's going to back to Korea with me, so he's got some miles racked up. We got him a little mileage plus card. He'll probably use them for Disneyland, but we've got a lot of more traveling to do. We've gotten to see the world.

Taj is one of those people who can't sit still. We're in the hotel room and she's always saying, "I'm bored, are we going to do something?" So I try to get her hooked up with one of the player's moms who's on the trip so she can get out and do something.

I, on the other hand, haven't got see a whole lot of Brazil. McDonald's, Outback, TGI Friday's, you know? But now that we're back in the city, I honestly hope we get a chance to get out and explore. Come Saturday, after we win the gold, we don't leave until Sunday night, so I'm sure the Team USA staff has a lot of things planned for us to do in Sao Paulo.

The cool thing about this team is that we all get along. This group right here has been the most special group in my time with team USA. There aren't any cliques, nor is there one group I vibe with more than others. I feel comfortable hanging out with Diana and Sue. I feel comfortable hanging out with Snow and Candace. I feel comfortable hanging out with Tina, with anybody. That's the good thing about this team.

The funny times for us are after the games. We sit back and review and look back at the previous games - that's when we have our fun. For instance, last night, poor Candace, we thought she had a dunk. Everyone got on their toes, "Oh, she's gonna dunk." And then she blew it. Everyone was killing her after that. Things like that are the fun times.

Playing with Tina Thompson has been a highlight for me. She's one of my favorite players in the WNBA to watch, so every single time I watch her play, I think "Man, I wish I could do that," and I try to steal some of her moves. Now, having the opportunity to play with her is always a joy. And playing with Sue and Diana, you always hear about that connection, and to actually be on the court with them, to see them in action, is fun also. Not to mention, Candace, who is the real deal, and is going to be the next superstar in the WNBA. To have the opportunity to play with her when she's still young and learning, and still wanting to learn, I think that's cool too.

I think the Czech Republic game was huge for us, because we struggled having to pull it out. I was talking to Sue earlier and we agreed that it was kind of a wake up call. We were beating teams pretty easily, and now the last game before we get to the elimination round, we actually had to fight hard for what we wanted, and I think that was a good test for us as we look forward to playing Lithuania tomorrow, and even beyond that. Now, it is play or go home, and we have to bring our A game every day.