USA Basketball won't win gold
Published August 04, 2004
Call me a pessimist. Call me a naysayer. Call me stupid for writing about sports in a clearly-nerd dominated community. Oh well, maybe someone will understand my angst.
The United States men's basketball team lost to the Italian national team 95-78 on Tuesday. They followed that embarassing loss with almost another defeat--beating Germany 80-77 on a last-second shot.
Now for those of you who haven't read my blog (let me check my stats ... ah, that's all of you!), I wrote on July 27 that USA would not win the gold medal in men's basketball. I still believe that, even moreso having seen them play, that this is the year that America gets embarassed at the Athens Olympics.
USA has no team. Well, obviously they have a "team." They have a roster, they have players--ah, but that's just it! They only have players--no actual team. They have no chemistry. These players are normally playing against each other. LeBron James, Allen Iverson, Tim Duncan, Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire all play on different teams. How are they expected to play together well and learn to be selfless, all whilst adjusting to international rules of play?
(Oh, and by the way guys, they actually call traveling in the Olympics.)
Italy had no players in the NBA. Italy was a solid team. We still don't know any of the players on the Italian team, and it doesn't matter because they played well as a team.
What USA should have done was a) get more people who could actually shoot (because, unlike the NBA All-Star Game, this isn't a contest to see who can dunk the most) or b) send one team to the Olympics. The Detroit Pistons would have made an exceptional team to send to the Olympics, and they would have won. Mehmet Okur and Darko Milicic are the only two foreign players on that team, and they produced very minimally. Ben Wallace and Rip Hamilton, two Pistons, were invited to play and they declined, stating security reasons.
But we don't have a team. We have 12 great players who all want to score 20 points. Unless they learn to pass, set screens, play defense and not travel, they probably won't even medal in the Olympics.
They are not even guaranteed a medal. USA might might win bronze if they're lucky, at this rate.
Matt Sussman is the former sports editor of BC Magazine and also writes for Deadspin, SPORTSbyBROOKS, The Futon Report, and the Toledo Free Press. Catch him with Tuffy on Treehouse Fort, the official show of BC Sports. Feed the feedback back to matt.sussman@blogcritics.org.
- USA Basketball won't win gold
- Published: August 04, 2004
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- Section: Sports
- Writer: Matthew T. Sussman
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Comments on this articleComments
You're a pessimist. You're a naysayer. But you're not so stupid.
Has Al Qaeda fielded a team?
How about Afghanistan or Iraq?
I don't care if we medal as long as we kick their asses.
U!
S!
A!
U!
S!
A!
How about the fact that the US players can't guard anyone? I found it amazing how well the Italian guards got to the basket on Iverson and Marbury. The big men for the Italians just got out of the lane and if Odom or Duncan went down to help, the guards would just kick it out for a three. If Germany had hit 2 threes in the entire game we would have lost bad.
I totally agree that the Detroit Pistons would destroy all international competition.
Hell, even the Pistons starters, with a bunch of other good NBA players on the bench, would roll over the competition.
But this "Dream Team" is likely to end in a nightmare.
Poor Larry Brown. He'll be lucky to get Bronze, I agree...
My name is Martine, i am in my final grade of high school , i am 17 year old i am 5.6feet tall .i am a nigerian. i live at [deleted]. i will like to play for your team i promiss i will not fail u this is my no [deleted] pls do call so we can talk to each other .thanks
Martins
Editor's Note: It is not considered within BC protocol to include personal contact information in these comments. This is for everybody's safety and protection.
It occurs to me that you may have trouble at basketball if you are only 5'6"...
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I would comment here, since the failure of our Olympians to crush and humiliate the opposition will severely wound my pride, but I already made a smartass comment over at the Ben Moody site.