When did Harrison Barnes become that scrappy little underdog trying to get in the game?
Barnes won a championship with the Golden State Warriors, helped them win an NBA record 73 games and scored a $95 million max contract from the Dallas Mavericks.
Somewhere along the way, he also became THE WORST PLAYER TO MAKE TEAM USA'S ROSTER IN THE DREAM TEAM ERA.
That might be a bit harsh, but Barnes clearly has become the new Christian Laettner of the Dream Team, the guy who rides the pine. After scoring eight points in 20 minutes of Team USA's opening blowouts of China and Venezuela, Barnes was on the bench for the next three games -- narrow wins over Australia, Serbia and France.
I mean, Andres Nocioni mentions were in my Twitter feed and Barnes was nowhere to be found. It was crazy.
Finally, as the U.S. spanked Argentina to reach the semifinals, fans called for him. Kinda. Then they went back to flaming him.
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