If there's one thing we should've learned from this past NBA season, it's this: a good team (Detroit Pistons) filled with good players who are willing to work hard on offense and defense can beat a superstar team (Los Angeles Lakers) that can't or won't play together on either end of the floor. With this in mind, what's happening to Team USA during their pre-Olympic tour shouldn't be too surprizing.
First there was the loss to Italy on Tuesday, and then the last-second win over Dirk Nowitzki and Germany on Wednesday. I suppose it would be easy to say that Iverson, Duncan, and the rest will get it together once the games count, but I'm not so sure. There are too many things going against this Bad Dream Team.
Aside from Duncan and Iverson, this is obviously the junior varsity team. It's hard to imagine a starting five of Shaquille O'Neal, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, and Jason Kidd being pushed at all in any international tournament, but with things the way they are today, it's doubtful we'll ever see all of the top players come together to represent their country, especially not during Games which are held overseas.
Meanwhile, as the U.S. squad has gotten weaker with each successive Olympics since the first incarnation of the Dream Team in 1992, the competition has gotten much stronger. Most of the top teams boast star NBA players, including Yao Ming, Dirk Nowitzki, and Steve Nash, players who have competed with -- and beaten -- the guys on Team USA. As a result, there is no awe of the Americans.
The original Dream Team might have been the greatest team ever assembled in any sport. Consider this: of the twelve men on the team, ten will eventually end up in the Basketball Hall of Fame. (Only Chris Mullin and Christian Laettner, a dubious pick over Shaquille O'Neal, won't make it.) They were so far ahead of their competition that their games were mere exhibitions; they often posed for pictures and signed autographs for their opponents before the opening tip. That probably won't happen in the Athens Olympics.
Instead, Team USA will likely struggle, lose a few games, and end up with something less than a gold medal. Some will report the American loss as a sign that the U.S. has lost its dominance in the sport, but nothing could be farther from the truth. What's been lost is the commitment.
Bill Simmons at ESPN has a good breakdown on why he thinks this team will break down, and how he would put together a team for the Olympics, assuming the "varsity" still decides to sit one out. Has a lot of names that would surprise you, but he makes a good case why this type of team would win.
This Dream Team is Doomed over at ESPN.com
Posted by: Ludpud | August 14, 2004 at 08:13 AM