In Defense of USA Basketball

Now's the time for hyper-nationalism, what with the Summer Games of the Olympiad and all, and far be it for me to take the high road of an internationalist. So allow me to make a brief defense and promotion of the exceptionalism of USA Basketball.

For three pathetic and rather specious reasons - namely a sixth place finish at the 2002 FIBA Worlds, a Bronze-medal at the 2004 Athenian Olympics, and a third-place finish at the 2006 FIBA Worlds - the 2008 American basketball team finds itself under unprecedented pressure to 'take home the Gold' and reestablish perennial dominance, unquestioned superiority, and guaranteed victory. Behind these expectations, I throw my full support.

But I must object to the heightened levels of panic and self-doubt emanating from all corners of the sports media world. Newsweek branded the last six years 'a nightmare'. ESPN's Ric Bucher is sticking to his earlier prediction - despite our three dominating performances in the Games so far - that we'll repeat in the Bronze. And New England sports talk radio is simply upset that no Celtic is on the team. Oh, poor New England - haven't won enough championships lately?!? In all, what a bunch of myopic losers.

Ad hominems aside, let us first put things in perspective. In Olympic competition, we've won the gold medal twelve times. That is, we've won the gold every year since the games Olympic inclusion in '36 save for twice: once in 1988 in Seoul, and of course in Athens. (Officially, we lost to the Soviets in the most contested basketball game ever played, but I - and my fellow Illinois State alum Doug Collins - will never recognize this as a loss. We fuckin' won that game.) In '88, USA Basketball did not include professional players, only college boys. In short, no Jordan, no Magic, no Larry, no Adbul-Jabbar, etc. so the Seoul gold of the Soviets meant nothing more than that they happened to be the best team at the Olympic games, but not in the world. As the ex-Soviet and fourth-place "Unified Team" demonstrated four years later against the "Dream Team" in Barcelona, not having a black guy on your team officially denied you of every claiming the "Best in the World" title. So '88 means nothing.

As for 2004, we need not look any further than our roster to recognize why we (barely) lost:

Centers: Tim Duncan. Ok. Great center. Hall of Famer. MVP. NBA Champion. Things look good. His backup? Emeka Okafor. Case closed.

Filling out the roster: Carmelo Anthony, Carlos Boozer, LeBron James, Richard Jefferson, Shawn Marion, Lamar Odom, Amare Stoudemire, as forwards. Allen Iverson, Stephon Marbury, Dwayne Wade, as guards.

It's not a bad roster, to be sure. But where is Shaq? Nash? (He's Canadian, you fools!!!) KG? Kobe? McGrady? Kidd? Each were perennial repeats on the All-NBA first-team in the years leading up to the Athenian games. So while a Bronze isn't excusable, of course, as we still had the best collection of players on the court, it isn't necessarily shocking. You play your B-team - and a quickly assembled, poorly coached, tired-from-a-full-season of NBA basketball B-team with bad on-court chemistry at that - you run the risk of losing the gold. And we lost it. So fucking what?!? One loss in single-elimination Olympic play in twelve years is not cause to sound the trumpet on the end of American dominance.

The current team - which includes Kobe, Kidd, a matured LeBron, and first-teamers Dwight Howard and Chris Paul (but, not, inexplicably, Garnett) - is everything the B-team failed to be. Having practiced together for three consecutive off-seasons, the team exudes cohesion; Krzyzewski manages, whereas Brown barked; and the roster, ranging from Bosh to Boozer, from Prince to Redd, smartly allots its spots for role players - notably defenders and long-range shooters - and not simply big-name All-Stars. Plus, 'LeBronze' and the other carry-overs from '04 have a score to settle.

Fear-mongering and bold, underdog-favored predictions might sell magazines and improve ratings, but fallaciousness for its own sake is plain stupid, and simply make you look like a fool. I hope ESPN fires Bucher when the so-called 'Redeem Deam' wins the Gold with the largest margin-of-victory since the original Dream Team. Mark it, dude.