WorldTime News Report :: United States Mens Olympic Basketball Team 's Lofty Standards

"United States Mens Olympic Basketball Team 's Lofty Standards"
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June 24th 2008

By the United States basketball team's lofty standards - standards re-established by the Dream Team of 1992 - anything short of Olympic gold is seen as a failure. So when Team USA returned from Athens in 2004 with the bronze medal, having won three straight gold medals before that, the program was revamped.

"The culture certainly needed to change," Jerry Colangelo, managing director of the USA men's senior national team program, told reporters during a teleconference Monday."We needed commitments from coaches and players alike. "When you have as many outstanding players as we have in this country," Colangelo said, "to select a group of 12 is obviously going to leave out a number of outstanding people." The final roster spot went to Pistons' swingman Tayshaun Prince over Hornets center Tyson Chandler, suggesting that Colangelo and Krzyzewski valued versatility over size.

Restoring the United States' reputation as the sport's reigning Olympic superpower has the higher-ups in America's basketball establishment betting otherwise. Director Jerry Colangelo unveiled during a news conference Monday in Chicago, that the team was long on talent and short on big men. The 12-man squad could raise some questions about its lack of balance, with only one true center in Dwight Howard - after Amare Stoudemire withdrew his name from consideration last week - and two power forwards in Carlos Boozer and Chris Bosh.

Shaq so indelicately reminded Kobe the other night, "a good big man is still better than a good small man." The United States will also carry three point guards, including Jason Kidd, who is 35. "I think ball handling and defending the point, that's where it all starts," Krzyzewski said. "We learned that at the 2006 world championships, where we didn't have the strength, the bodies, at the point guard position."

"Going through that experience really helped me to learn the international game," Carmelo Anthony said. "We spoke on the plane coming back, and we decided we wanted to be respected again as a team," Dwayne Wade said.

As loaded as the U.S. squad is, it still represents a calculated gamble in the international game, where the play is often more physical, the refs are less experienced and one fewer foul, ( five brings disqualification vs. six in the NBA ) can make all the difference.Don't even ask what coach Mike Krzyzewski is supposed to do if one of those three big men goes down with an injury.

Some questionable calls will be present, no doubt, if officials see the U.S. team struggling to defend the high pick-and-roll play opponents have used in international matchups to devastating effect for the past decade. Teams like to play the United States with two of their big men taking turns setting picks, meaning the cutter often draws a smaller U.S. defender as he rolls toward the basket.

Instead of worrying about a lack of depth up front, though, both Colangelo and Krzyzewski are relying on their gut instinct that this group of players ( unlike the unhappy collections of All-Stars that represented Team USA at the past two Olympics ) won't be too stubborn or proud to sublimate their egos and adapt to the international style, instead of the other way around.

The myth that the NBA could pick 12 guys based on availability and sneaker politics and still mop up a basketball floor with the rest of the world should have ended after the U.S. team narrowly escaped with the gold medal in Sydney. Either way, it was buried by the embarrassing showing in Athens four years later. "It's not about marketing or anything like that," Krzyzewski insisted about the selection process for Beijing. "It's about representing your country. These guys get it. Believe me, I wouldn't say it if they didn't. Every second I've been with them has been good."

The biggest reason for that is experience. Eight of the dozen players were part of the U.S. squad that went unbeaten in the Olympic qualifying tournament last year, including several still seething over their roles in the 2004 debacle. There's no denying how great the individual parts on Team USA can be. But the only way they come up big will be by playing together.

2008 U.S. Olympic Mens Basketball Team