Aug 25 2008
Shocker: USA Wins Olympic Gold!
All the talk for four years has been the embarrassment of the US Men’s Basketball team not winning gold in the 2004 Olympics. In general, the analysis has been that the rest of the world has caught the US team. Well, this year proved that wasn’t true.
Sure, some national teams are able to compete with the US, and play them pretty well for most if not all of the games. The thing to remember is the Olympic “tournament” is akin to a Hoop It Up tournament. For the most part, these are all teams which are put together for this purpose only, and the day after they separate for their various professional teams. This occurs for each and every country, and many of the better players from foreign teams return to the NBA. The method of team building generally means, each country will have it’s moments where things come together. For Argentina, this occurred four years ago, now they are a bit older, their best player Manu Ginobili is starting to age, and there is no one to replace him, because their talent pool isn’t very deep. Conversely, the US team, if put together right, will always have replacements for their stars.
Consider the oldest US player, Jason Kidd is 35. The next oldest player? Kobe Bryant, at 30. Even expanding the roster to look at the full squad from which the 12 were chosen, shows few players over 30, and most of them had little shot at making the final team. Look down at the younger players, Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard, LeBron James and Dwayne Wade. That is the core for 2012, if they so choose, and the oldest of them is Wade at 26. By the way, add to that core, Kevin Durant, Greg Oden, Michael Beasley and possibly Derrick Rose. How in the world is any team going to compete with them in four years?
Bottom line, the NBA and hence USA basketball really had a down period in development leading up to the 2004 team. Many of the best players of that era, were individual players (Allen Iverson), knuckle heads (Stephon Marbury) and big men prone to whining (Tim Duncan). Add to the mix, a hard nose coach who has a reputation for alienating players, and you have the right chemistry for failure. Coach Brown did as he always does, and shunned young players such as Anthony, LeBron and Wade in favor of underwhelming veteran players such as Richard Jefferson, Shawn Marion and Lamar Odom.
I don’t usually give him much credit, but Mike Krzyzewski deserves kudos for getting these players on the same page. They played defense, passed the ball and accepted roles willingly. Part of this comes from a core which generally seem to like each other, and wanted to do whatever it took to wipe the bad taste out of USA basketball fans mouth.
Credit also goes to Jerry Colangelo, who put together a quality team top to bottom. One thing also overlooked, is the players selected were generally leaders, good locker room guys and players from teams which made the NBA playoffs (only Wade and Michael Redd’s teams didn’t). He recognized that even though technically many of the players selected weren’t big men, they often played bigger then the European big men, in that they are athletically superior and aren’t soft.
One more thing, can we stop using the term “Redeem Team” and comparisons to the “Dream Team“? Calling this a redemption would only be logical, if the core of this team was the same as 2004, and it wasn’t even close to the same roster. The USA program may have needed redemption, but really what they needed was a plan, and they came up with one under the guidance of Colangelo. Prior to that, the plan was put 12 of our best (or those willing) on the court and we’ll win. That may work as it did in 1992, 1996 and 2000 or it will fail as in 2004. However, a good plan as it was implemented over the past 3 years, placed the players and coaches in a better frame of mind and ready to win. It was built as a team and hence succeeded as a team.
It is blatantly unfair to compare the 2008 team to the 2004 or 1992 teams. Sports media has an obsession with comparing the past to the present (I’m guilty too of course). But in this scenario it isn’t even worth the effort. All I have to do is list the players, Jordan, Bird, Barkley, Pippen, Magic, Stockton, Malone, Drexeler, Mullin, Robinson, Ewing and Laettner. Each one of those players is legendary (albeit Mullin and Laettner mostly for their college years). The 2008 team can only dream to be that legendary, and they certainly haven’t reach that level yet. Only Bryant and Kidd have at this point had careers in which you would mention them in the same breath as those players.
Congratulations to the USA Basketball team on proper planning, coaching and dedicated on the court execution which brought the gold back home. Will it always work this well? No. But this is the norm for the USA team and expect it again in 2012.
