You guys can see it as a disgrace, I don't, at least not of the players.

[M Dogg™]

from the L.A. Times

ATHENS — The chant fell from the rafters like a warm, thawing rain.

"Ole! Ole! Ole!"

Down on the floor, the bull of world basketball was staggered and bleeding, its hecklers skipping circles around it, 70 years of fear vanished in a moment of morality.

It's over. Exchange that dark jersey for a bright tank top. Trade in "Hoosiers" for "Evita." Don't be like Mike, be like Manu.

It's over. America can no longer claim it plays the best basketball in the world, for the first time since the game was invented 103 years ago, back when the baskets were peach and the players still passed.

The dominance ended Friday when a team with 11 NBA players lost to a team with two, when a dozen millionaires lost to guys with string headbands and floppy socks, when Melo froze over.

The gym rats whipped off their shirts and danced on the scorer's table amid chants and flag waving. The millionaires untucked their shirts and trudged to the locker room amid whistles and jeers.

But don't cry for us, Argentina.

Knocking off the U.S. in the Olympic semifinals, 89-81, was the best thing that could have happened to our misguided basketball system.

You know what they say. Only through embarrassment can one learn empathy, and only through humiliation can one learn the half-court offense.

We know how it looks now, years of self promotion and fundamental neglect thwacked for two hours like basketball cards in a bike spoke.

We know how it sounds now, the squeak of constantly moving shoes and the slap of consistent passes, drowning out the rattle of a country that only wants to dunk.

We know how it feels now, watching a team add a needless exclamation point with a last-second posturing dunk, Scola applying the facial to Richard Jefferson just before the final buzzer.

"International players have lost respect for the NBA," said Pepe Sanchez, a former NBA journeymen. "They used to come in and take pictures of them. Now we've learned we're just as good."

The only pictures worth taking here were of Argentina's 11 mostly open three-pointers sank against defensive mistakes, against Americans who need Gene Hackman to teach them how to defend the pick-and-roll, NBA guys who could not even stop one of their own, a San Antonio sixth man named Manu Ginobili.

It's not that America still doesn't have the best players. It had probably a dozen of the best 20 players in this tournament.

It's just that America has lost all sight of team, from the high school kid with his own website to the AAU coach with the shoe contract to those embarrassing Lakers.

We don't think team. We don't act team. And when it came time to choose a group to represent us in the most important basketball tournament in the world, the selection committee didn't pick team and the candidates didn't care about team.

"We can't put together a team idly," said Larry Brown, the U.S. coach. "We've got to think about the people we put on a team, about the people we need."

In other words, the next time the Americans are trailing Argentina by 13 points entering the fourth quarter, it would help if we had the personnel to take more than two three-point attempts the entire final 10 minutes.

If you care about team, you select role players. If kids grow up caring about team, your selections agree to show up, unlike seven of the nine original American selections who declined to play.

And if your top priority is team, you allow a coach to remain for more than one Olympic cycle … and that coach is not Larry Brown.

From the beginning, when he realized that one month was not enough to prepare for teams that had been together for four years, the NBA's championship coach separated himself from this mess by talking about not having the right players.

It got so bad that David Stern, NBA commissioner, showed up at halftime Friday to publicly scold him.

"Lots of people would like to have this team," Stern said, later adding, "This whining and carping is not fair."

Losing more Olympic games in two weeks than in the previous 68 years?

Blame the basketball culture for not producing more players who would rather make floor burns than fashion statements.

Blame the USA Basketball system for not finding enough of those guys and figuring out a way to keep them together longer.

Blame Brown for not adjusting enough to the international game.

Blame everything but the effort. The bull of world basketball may have died an ugly death, but it did so with a dignity distinctly lacking in its whining, flopping, preening conquerors.

These players showed up when others would not. They attempted to play a game for which they were not prepared. They made no excuses.

Even in the defeat, they even had the nerve to say, well, listen.

"It's still an honor to come over here and represent your country," Allen Iverson said. "It is something you should cherish, something I will cherish."

Honor in the effort. Shame in the system.

[eS El Duque]

Still a disgrace, no matter how you look at it. USA STILL had the skill to beat every team there, they just fucked up on the teamwork. Could the coach be blamed?

A herd of sheep lead by a lion will always defeat a herd a lions lead by a sheep  (the quote goes comething like that)

[M Dogg™]

Still a disgrace, no matter how you look at it. USA STILL had the skill to beat every team there, they just fucked up on the teamwork. Could the coach be blamed?

A herd of sheep lead by a lion will always defeat a herd a lions lead by a sheep  (the quote goes comething like that)

I think the NBA's arrogence, and the coach's unablitiy to adjust to the international game hurt us a lot. It's not a disgrace, but it is a wake up call. We need a team, I think the Detroit Pistons could have won gold. We need a team, not a system that thinks we are unbeatable. And honestly, I think you put this team in the NBA, and you have a solid 5th seed in either conference, but you don't have a team competing for a title. Too young, not enough teamwork, and too much ego involved, and I'm not talking about the players in terms of egos.

[7even]

why do so many ppl act like they forgot the world championships 2 years ago.

[pappy]

one thing i will give this team.  Is they did learn to play as a team as time went on.  But still you are the best players in the world you should be able to hit the 3.  You should be able to adjust to the foreign rules.  The team could be a good team with a few moves here an there.  I was really impressed tho with odum an boozer how they adjusted.

[7even]

one thing i will give this team.  Is they did learn to play as a team as time went on.  But still you are the best players in the world you should be able to hit the 3.  You should be able to adjust to the foreign rules.  The team could be a good team with a few moves here an there.  I was really impressed tho with odum an boozer how they adjusted.

Yes Boozer is about to become an awesome PF. Him being a selfish traitor leaving the Cavs with nothing ruined LeBron's near future, and I hate him for that. I hope he has a hard time due to serious injuries.

[Don Jacob]

damn dude you're a hateful fucking prick, i wouldn't be suprised if you posted a pic of yourself and you looked like that bitch from the exorcist.


anyways

this usa team didn't win the gold because only 2 or 3 people deserved to be on that team

Duncan , Iverson, Marbury.

you international folks seriously think it woulda been a contest if

Shaq
kobe
KG
Kidd
Webber
T Mac
Carter
 
were playing, instead of

Boozer
anthony
Okafur
James

?

please......

[7even]

damn dude you're a hateful fucking prick, i wouldn't be suprised if you posted a pic of yourself and you looked like that bitch from the exorcist.

part 1 of the sentence combined with part 2 ... kinda ironic..  you mad? 

[eS El Duque]

I was happy to see the ppl on the USA bench were into the game (well a few) in the last couple of minutes...James, Melo and jefferson were all up cheering with like 2 minutes left in the game. James hugging melo during one of the time outs was funny lol

the young players on this us team will learn from this  and in the next 4 years they'll show up with a whole different look.

[Smoke]

damn dude you're a hateful fucking prick, i wouldn't be suprised if you posted a pic of yourself and you looked like that bitch from the exorcist.


anyways

this usa team didn't win the gold because only 2 or 3 people deserved to be on that team

Duncan , Iverson, Marbury.

you international folks seriously think it woulda been a contest if

Shaq
kobe
KG
Kidd
Webber
T Mac
Carter
 
were playing, instead of

Boozer
anthony
Okafur
James

?

please......

No.

But it's still a great fact that a selection of NBA players has lost 6 games in the last World Championship and Olympic Tournment when before 2002 they were unbeaten and used to win by 40 everygame. It's a fact that now USA needs the first team to win an international competition. They are still the best, but the level is decreased, and other nations from all over the world are improving like muthafuckaz! Now you see 18 years old Europeans all over the draft!! Now scouts watch Europe more than CBA or College. Something IS changed.

[Trauma-san]

They should have just picked an NBA team to play, like M Dogg mentioned.  Get a team, that plays like a team, to play the rest of the national teams in the world.  Any decent NBA team probably would have walked away with the Gold.  Throwing together a bunch of all-stars isn't going to work, Jordan, Magic, Bird, etc. did it last time, but they're all dead.  We're in a new game now, and it's not as "magic' as the old game. 

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

Throwing together a bunch of all-stars isn't going to work

It would work if they picked the RIGHT all-stars.


Shaq
Garnett
T-Mac
Kobe
Kidd
Webber
Carter
Iverson
Duncan
Jamison
Malone
etc.


A team like this would destroy the whole world.