Is USA Basketball on its way to recovery?
Misplaced confidence
Team USA facing tougher task than it realizes
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/chris_mannix/08/17/team.usa/index.html
All the pieces seem to be in place for a return to glory for USA Basketball at the World Championship. The man responsible for one of the most successful (and entertaining) franchises this decade put this team together. It is coached by one of the greatest college coaches in history. And for the first time in a decade, the Team USA roster looks more like a cohesive unit and less like one of Steve Nash's celebrity pickup games.
So why are we all still worried?
Because the United States' men's national team has been in a state of disrepair for the better part of the 21st century. It can't shoot. It doesn't defend. It treats coaches like hall monitors.
With Phoenix hoops boss Jerry Colangelo calling the shots, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski on the sidelines and a roster of players who have committed to the team for three years, things should be on the upswing. But I'm not so sure that's going to happen.
The most pressing concern about USA Basketball over the last four years has been the team's propensity to morph between Jekyll and Hyde. They win by 50. They lose by seven. They win by four. No one ever knew which team was going to show up.
They still don't.
Sandwiched among blowout wins over Puerto Rico, China, Lithuania and Korea in this year's exhibition slate was a four-point squeaker over a Brazil team that besides Anderson Varejao, Leandro Barbosa and future NBA draft pick Tiago Splitter fields a roster that for all the average fan knows might be on loan from the Brazilian soccer team. I had to check my box score to make sure that wasn't Ronaldinho I saw sitting at the end of the bench.
But the Brazilian team has been playing together for years, as have most of the other teams that will be playing in the World Championship. That's an advantage the U.S. can't match yet, unless it decides to send the NBA champions to international competitions. (Which is not the worst idea, by the way. But seeing as how Shaquille O'Neal would as soon picnic with Kobe Bryant than participate, that isn't going to happen.)
The U.S. did take some positive steps in the assembling of its roster. That is, of course, until effective international players such as Chauncey Billups (ball-handling, decision-making), J.J. Redick (shooting) and Michael Redd (more shooting) all bowed out. The team's best outside threat now is a guy (Kirk Hinrich) who was on the bubble two weeks ago and was a late addition to begin with. Even more puzzling, Krzyzewski inexplicably sent Bruce Bowen back to the States on Wednesday -- does Team USA think superb defenders and deadly spot-up shooters are so easy to come by?
Certainly there will be some highs, especially in preliminary play. Beginning Saturday, the U.S. will play in Group D, a field that includes welterweights Slovenia, Senegal and Puerto Rico. That's a far sight better than having to run the gantlet of Group A: Argentina (the defending gold medallists from the 2004 Olympics), France (featuring Boris Diaw and Tony Parker) and Serbia & Montenegro.
Root for the USA. Cheer them from afar. But don't let your enthusiasm cloud your logic. Manu Ginobili and Andres Nocioni still play for Argentina. Pau Gasol and Juan Carlos Navarro have been playing together in Spain for years. Parker, Diaw and RonnyTuriaf have been playing for France for even longer. The U.S. losing this tournament -- or even failing to medal -- won't be as big a surprise as winning it.