Finally, U.S. has a 'team' again
Posted: Sunday, September 02, 2007 8:58 PM
It’s just a qualifying tournament, with the top two teams from the Americas getting slots in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. But for the first time in at least 10 years, the United States once again has a national basketball team that’s worthy of the country that invented the game. (OK, Dr. James Naismith, basketball's inventor, was Canadian. But the United States embraced it.)
Team USA not only won the tournament, they did what American basketball teams had forgotten how to do in international competition – they kicked butt. LeBron James, who had been doing his playmaker thing, led the team in scoring in the final victory over a team that had become their nemesis – Argentina.
Take a look at the game-by-game results. The smallest margin of victory was 15 points over Argentina. The next smallest margin of victory was 27 points. Most important, the team finally caught on to the international game, playing furious defense, but being more proficient than ever on the offensive end, averaging 117 points in games that are eight minutes shorter than NBA contests.
My hat is off to this team, whose members gave up their summers, checked their egos at the locker room door and played their tails off for little more than a bangle on a ribbon. It’s also off to Jerry Colangelo, who was in charge of the operation, and the head coach, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski.
In a way, the 1992 Dream Team – Magic, Bird, M.J. and company – ruined American international basketball. For the next three Olympics – Atlanta, Sydney and Athens – the architects of the team thought that all they had to do was get the biggest stars and the coach with the biggest name, roll the basketballs out on the floor, and stand back and let them win.
It worked in 1996, although that team was too arrogant and won on raw talent. In 2000, Team USA darned near lost to France and Lithuania on the way to a gold.
After that, the disaster that some of us said was coming finally arrived. The United States has not won a major international competition since. In the 2004 Athens Games, it was lucky to finish third.
This team had its stars – LeBron, Kobe and Carmelo – but it also had role players and grinders. Give a big hand to Jason Kidd, who is getting too old for this sort of thing but stepped in as point guard. Michael Redd shot threes. Amare Stoudemire played center.
Let’s name all the others: Chauncey Billups, Tyson Chandler, Dwight Howard, Mike Miller, Tayshaun Pince and Deron Williams. They aren’t all superstars, but they were a helluva team.
What was touching at the end was how excited LeBron was to win a gold medal; he’d never won one before. He’ll be back in Beijing and let’s hope the rest of his teammates are, too. If they play as they did this past week and sacrifice as much to a common goal, the Olympic gold will finally return to its home: the United States of America.
