Who's writing the AP's World Championship stuff?

It's easy to criticize the AP's gamers, but they are almost always tightly written and grammatically sound.

Some of the stuff coming out of Japan, though, is pretty terrible.

"SENDAI, Japan (AP) -- Defending champion Serbia and Montenegro lost its opener at the world championships Saturday with an 82-75 defeat to Nigeria, which got 18 points from Ime Udoka and a key 3-pointer late in the fourth quarter by Josh Akognon.

Serbia and Montenegro won the 2002 world title at Indianapolis while competing as Yugoslavia. However, it made this tournament only as a wild card. Now it is an aging team and some of its NBA players -- Nenad Krstic of New Jersey and Aleksandar Pavlovic of Cleveland -- are not playing.

Igor Rakocevic, who played a year with the Minnesota Timberwolves, led Serbia and Montenegro with 20 points, his team's only double-digit scorer."

Weak weak.

Why is it weak? Who would the AP get to cover the tournament? There can't be many basketball writers in the Tokyo bureau. How does this stuff work?

 

Story we started to run Saturday morning talked about Friday's Team USA practice but made no mention of the fact the event began Saturday or who the U.S. was playing.

 

This seems like a good time to mention the occasion when I called the AP to correct something dumb in a graphic -- they had some federal appointee serving as the Navy's assistant chief of security at age 17 or some such bull -- and I was transferred from New York to Tokyo. Tokyo!

 

Tokyo knows all.

 

They also apparently can't be bothered to type up agate (or even just copy-and-paste from the FIBA site). They sent 80 inches of agate five times a day for the whole World Cup, but for hoops, nothing.

 

I've already reached my daily quota of Asian references, so I'll demur.

 

Not only weak, but just plain wrong. Serbia & Montenegro in not only not aging, but is fielding an incredibly young team since all the experienced players took a pass on playing.

 

Wow.

"US, Argentina romp while Europeans falter at world basketball

by Jim Slater

SAPPORO, Japan (AFP) - US and Argentina teams loaded with National Basketball Association standouts rolled to victory Sunday at the World Championships while two European powers remained winless after narrow defeats.

The Americans routed China 121-90, with NBA hero Dwyane Wade's 26 points leading an overwhelming performance, while 2004 Olympic champion Argentina ripped Lebanon 107-72 behind 22 points from Walter Herrmann.

But European champions Greece edged perennial favorite Lithuania 81-76 in overtime and two-time defending champion Serbia and Montenegro slid to 0-2 as NBA standout Boris Diaw scored 20 points to spark France to a 65-61 triumph.

Italy and Turkey also matched the Greeks with an 0-2 start among the Europeans. The Italians overcame a woeful start to beat Slovenia 80-76 while the Turks staged a gritty fightback to bounce Australia 76-68."

The horrendousness of this article is remarkable.

 

A gritty fightback?

I'm not sure English is this guy's first language.

 

And, yet, "Jim Slater".

One thing's certain: basketball isn't his first sport.

Or, actually, maybe it is.

 

He must be a Cincinnati grad.

 

That really sounds like a pseudonym, probably for some Euro or Japanese stringer wanting to sound as American as possible. At first, I thought that was the name of the musclebound guy in Kentucky Fried Movie who saved the day by taking over for the poor schlep who couldn't perform to the how-to sex instruction tape, but I looked it up and that was Big Jim Slade. Oh well.