Dreaming of the Bling Bling
August 28, 2004
The rest of the world has gotten better... The international game is a lot different than the American game.... Many of the best players declined the invitation to play for the Olympic team... The team that they did build didn't have nearly enough time to play or practice together.... The committee did a poor job of selecting the team, leaving off any real perimeter players.
Does anyone have any more excuses?
Team Bling Bling did manage to fail in their effort to break one more long-standing record that the U.S. has had in the past, staving off a tremendous three-point shooting performance from Lithuania to claim the Bronze medal and avoid being the first team in U.S. history not to medal in the Olympic games. That doesn't really change anything, though. This is the most disappointing performance in American Basketball history. So why did it really happen? First, let's take a look at all of these excuses that have been made for this group of overhyped hacks.
The world has gotten better
Yes. The world has gotten better. There's no use in trying to dispute that claim. It can easily be argued that the U.S. is largely responsible for this, as the most lucrative league in the world, the NBA, tries to globalize itself more and more. In the past five years, the NBA has welcomed more players from Asia, Europe, and South America than it had in its entire existence, and this is leading to more and more fans of the game outside of America. In turn, this leads to more of the top athletes in all of these nations to turn to basketball as their sport of choice.
The difference isn't necessarily athleticism, though. Team Bling Bling had, perhaps, the twelve most athletically gifted players in the Olympic games. There was certainly no team in the field that could even hope to match the entire U.S. roster from a pure athletic standpoint. Talent alone does not win championships. These international teams learned the game of basketball by focusing first on fundamental play, which is something that the NBA keeps removing more and more from American basketball culture.
The international game is vastly different from the NBA style
This is the primary reason that they lost, and the one thing on this list that I don't necessarily consider an excuse. The international game is built on that one thing that we just closed our last paragraph with.... fundamentals! The NBA, on the other hand, has become the basketball equivalent of the WWE in the past decade.
Let's face it. The NBA game is nothing but a marketing masterpiece nowadays. Teams do nothing but isolate against a man to man defense (although the NBA has finally allowed defenses to play some zone), working crossover dribbles and brutal non-called travels and double dribbles into layups or (more frequently) slam dunks. Why? That's what they perceive that fans want to see, and, for most NBA fans, that's all they really do want to see. In short, it sells.
Players growing up nowadays don't want to learn to pass like John Stockton. They don't want to learn to drain a jump shot like Larry Bird. Very few of them care about learning to play terrific man defense like Gary Payton could in his prime, and they certainly don't have a clue about playing zone defense because they're all just building up to playing in the NBA, where zones are generally shunned. Nobody will even sniff Calvin Murphy's .960 free throw percentage from 1980 again, and there certainly won't be another player with the all-around game of Michael Jordan or Magic Johnson, building off of great fundamentals and mixing in their tremendous athletic talents.
No.... now they just want to learn to slam the ball because that's what sells. They'll make more money from their team and more money in endorsements from playing what has become a selfish, boring (to the college and international fan) style of basketball than they would learning to play a simple, fundamental, winning style. Is it any wonder that they fail at this level then?
Team Bling Bling didn't lose this game because the rest of the world has adapted to their talent level at all. They lost it because they can't play simple fundamental basketball.... all they can do is entertain, and luckily for this group, that was somehow good enough for Bronze.
Many of the best players declined an invitation to play
No Kobe? So what? No Shaq? Who cares? As mentioned earlier, Team Bling Bling still had by far the most talented team in the Olympic basketball tournament. Isn't Allen Iverson a three time scoring champion in the NBA who won the MVP a few years ago? Hasn't Tim Duncan won the MVP in two of the past three years? Wasn't Stephon Marbury third in the league in assists last season? Weren't the two players who are considered to be the future (and already present) of the NBA on the team in Lebron James and Carmelo Anthony?
Regardless of whether a few of the top players in the NBA declined the invitation to play (most notably Kobe, Shaq, and Kevin Garnett), they still had the greatest collection of individual talent at the games in a landslide. They simply haven't, based on past experience, learned to play in a team setting.
The committee failed miserably in leaving off any perimeter players
This is true, but it's certainly not something that's excusable. In a game where the three-point shots dominate (see Lithuania's 20 three-pointers in their Bronze Medal game loss to Team Bling Bling), the best three-point shooter on the U.S. team was Shawn Marion, who finished just 61st in the NBA from three-point range last year. In fact, just two other U.S. players shot over 30% from three in the NBA last year (Anthony, Marbury).
Regardless, you get the feeling when looking at the top ten three-point shooters in the league last year that only Brent Barry and Michael Finley would have had realistic shots of performing on this Olympic team. The likes of Anthony Peeler (I remember when he was great for Mizzou), Allan Houston, or Charlie Ward simply wouldn't sell any jerseys, now would they? Three of the top eleven three point shooters from the NBA last season are not U.S. citizens (Stojakovic, Turkoglu, Nash), so the committee was going to avoid the top ten perimeter players in the NBA no matter what.
What can the U.S. do to fix this for 2006 (Worlds) and 2008 (Olympics)?
I can't deny that this year's team played with passion (at least when the medal round came around), but passion, like talent, doesn't always win championships. This all comes back around to the fact that they didn't play together and seemed virtually incapable of playing like a cohesive unit. The teams that beat the U.S. during these Olympics (Puerto Rico, Lithuania, Argentina) all had that predominant thing that the U.S. lacked... unity.
College Kids?
The suggestion of college kids returning to the games would be a nice possibility to explore. They did only lose two games in 56 years of Olympic competition before the NBA stepped in. The college game is vastly more similar to the international game, preaching simple fundamentals a bit more than the NBA/WWE style of play. By forming a core of young athletes who haven't been corrupted by the NBA style yet, the U.S. could have a team of players ready to go in 2006 and re-establish basketball dominance. And if they lose? At least they weren't the overwhelming favorites with the twelve most talented players in the tournament.
Trials?
No... not the Kobe Bryant trial. They could have a tryout, though I doubt many of the NBAbies would bother showing up. After all, they already have all the bling bling and basically seem to think they're above trying out (or, in many cases, wasting their time representing their country). Some of the less selfish players from the NBA might actually show up for a tryout and earn their way onto the greatest historical basketball program in the world. By forming a collection of athletes who have decided not only to play for the U.S. team, but played their guts out to make it onto the team, the U.S. would be stronger than this year's team right out of the gate.
Who am I kidding?
Of course, none of this will happen. Two years from now in the World Championships, we'll be sending a team with some of the best individual athletes that the NBA has to offer. Expect KG, Shaq (or Kobe), and the rest to decide to show up because of the embarassment that was shown on the court this year. None of them will play together beforehand, but they just might win because they'll overwhelm the world with their talent. Let's hope they try either option A or B, though.
In conclusion, Allen Iverson's new tooth will be bronze!
To lose a game in pool play was disappointing. To lose two was just plain sad. To fail to win the gold was flat out embarassing, but at least they avoided the complete failure by winning a medal. Team Bling Bling goes down as the most overhyped, overrated, and disappointing team in the U.S.' history in international play, but I somehow doubt that the NBA will let our national basketball program learn anything when the next international competition comes around.
Posted by James Meyerriecks: Aug 28 at 1:08 PM
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'Team Bling Bling' is quite apropos. It's a sad state of affairs when an overseas team of individually less talented players takes it to the US. The country that invented the game has a lot to (re)learn.
And I'm also glad to see that no one who has responded so far has dared call Jim unpatriotic. That's the worst excuse (or cover) yet.
Lastly...I'm just glad for an Anthony Peeler mention. Mizzou-rah!
not having three point shooters was pretty bad especially since they couldve been uber useful with the three point line a lot closer to the basket than the nba, but they did not defend. you might wanna look up the exact stats but the opponents scoredaround 86 points per game against us which is kinda shameful since the playing time is only 40 minutes. imo lack of defense hurt us just as much as bad shooting and all of the other stuff.
apart from picking better 3pt shooters in the team (DUHHHH ?) and actually picking a TEAM, one part of the solution could be to pick the olympic team one year in advance and have 'em play against the best international competition the offseason before the year of the olympics. for ex. our bling bling team would have been better prepared if it had played together some more games against Argentina, Spain and Lithuania in the previous offseason. that would help them become more familiar with and adjust to the international game and rules and their top olympic opponents.
.... oh well at least they won the bronze.