USA, USA, USA All the Way
Team USA has supposedly failed this country, failed the game of basketball and I guess made everyone in this country really mad, because they did not win the Gold Medal in the 28th Olympiad. Why is everyone mad? Last time I checked this country has had a backlash against the sport of basketball in recent years. So why are we so upset over the fact that we lost? There are many factors that go into this. The players in other countries have learned the game & play it at a high level, FIBA basketball is different than NBA basketball, and (to repeat from an earlier Blog of mine) we do not have our best team out there.
Chew on this fat for a few minutes, while I make other great points. Does anyone remember why we went to professional players in the first place? Because other countries were using there pro’s who were men and they whooped up on our team of collegiate All-Stars in 1988, we wound up with the Bronze medal. That was the only time we did not win the Gold medal (sans 1972 when we got robbed & 1980 when we boycotted). In Barcelona we ran out a team where 11 of 12 players were NBA All-Stars (of those were probably the three best players in the history of the game), in 1996 we had a team which consisted of 12 NBA All-Stars & kicked butt, then we got complacent and sent a team to Sydney which only had 9 All-Stars & we almost lost (that should have been a sign) but alas the Olympic committee assembled a team this year which contained 5 NBA All Stars (and 2 of those guys are 20 yr old Rookies). Like I stated three months ago we are the only country not sending out best 12 players over there, and when you do not send your best your chances of losing increase.
It is easy to dismiss this team, to say that they are Street Ballers who don’t care and don’t know how to play the fundamentals of the game. I have watched all of the Olympic games and what I have seen are no look one handed passes, around the back outlet passes, and scoop alley oops all of these coming from teams that do not have USA on their chest. Yes our shooting is lackluster, but we play style of game where shooting is not the most important thing. There is nothing wrong with that, it is just a different style. Also, please stop telling me how these guys don’t care and don’t try hard. I have been around high level basketball and do you know where the guys who don’t care and don’t try hard are? They are on the And 1 Mix Tape Tour or down at a park giving you a million excuses why there careers didn’t work out. Allen Iverson works his ass off, he played almost the entire tournament with a broken bone in his hand. So stop giving me that excuse. All these guys gave their best effort. Have a problem with the other ball players in our country who did not want to go to the Olympics. Was Michael Phelps so worried about security that he did not go to Greece? No, these players went and gave there all and they failed to win. I guess since they did not win the Gold they should be exiled to Elba. Last time I checked all of you have failed at something too.
Now lets talk about the selection process of the team. And yes I will address the elephant in the room, RACISM. Let’s be honest with ourselves America is and probably always will be a racist country. Every time we lost or struggled the next day I spoke to a a myriad of people who all said, we need some shooters on this team like Fred Hoiberg or Brent Barry, I even had some people say we could bring Steve Kerr out of retirement or get JJ Reddick from Duke out there. Wow, what do all those players have in common, they are all white, and what don’t we have on the Olympic basketball team, a white guy. I looked it up, of the top 50 3 pt shooters in the league this year 28 were black, why can’t we take one of them? Why, because do you really want Aaron Mckie, Anthony Peeler, or Charlie Ward on the Olympic team? No you do not, but we did invite three of those top 50 guys to play, Allan Houston, Ray Allen, and Mike Bibby, but I guess all there pussies were sore so they could not play this summer. As for JJ Reddick, he was not even among the top 25 players in the country in percentage, heck Mike Boynton, Jr. of South Carolina hit a better percentage than him, so should we take Mike Boynton? So let’s all stop talking about shooters and how we need them on the team. We need to take the 12 best guys in the country, that is how you win.
Yes I know most of the guys on this team are not great shooters, but other factors such as the rules of the game seriously affect the USA’s chances of taking home gold. It is obvious that the level of international play has risen over the last 20 years. Since that has happened we have been exposed in their style of basketball. If we made them play NBA rules we would beat them in close contests and occasional blowouts. Here are the major differences in the rules and the game: The international ball is bigger in diameter, it is also made without grooves in it, which makes it harder to handle and palm, the trapezoid lane allows for more offensive rebounds on free throws and different driving lanes, the 3 pt line is closer (which in theory should be easier), there is no restricted area for charges, how you can use your hands when hand checking & guarding in the post, five fouls and your out, 40 minute games, and lastly 2 (most of the time atrocious) officials. This would all be like telling a baseball team to play with a ball where the seams were not raised, there is no second base ump, you walk on three pitches, and the game is 7 innings long. Heck our baseball team did not even make the damned Olympics, but I don’t here the outcry over that and baseball is America’s pastime. But I digress, these different rules make for a totally different style of basketball. Tim Duncan clearly did not know how to play post defense according to what contact FIBA allows in the post. Because of this he was in foul trouble most of the time and Larry Brown was forced to sit him sooner than he wanted. Also, the pace of the game is totally different at 40 minutes, there is less time to comeback and it throws off your timing and how you are used to pacing yourself. If you noticed after the game, most of the other team’s players were very winded, whereas the USA players you could tell obviously had something left in their “tanks.”
The three point line and trapezoid lane truly expose the differences in the game. In the NBA, when the ball is thrown into the low post and the post man is just outside the lane he is a legitimate scoring threat. Now at this point the wing defender has to make a commitment to either double team or stay at home. However, the post defender can try to deny the post player the ball by trying to front him and get over the top. If he decides to do that the best option for the wing player trying to enter the ball may be to drive the baseline and try to create for himself, or if he does lob the ball over from the top help has to come from the weakside and now things are created for the offense. That is they way things happen in an NBA game. Now let’s explore that very same basic basketball situation in FIBA. The post player is now about 4 feet farther away from the basket, the wing defender does not have to close out as far because the three point line is 3 feet closer. With the post player being farther out the defender can play behind him more and does not have to worry about denying him the ball. This allows for less activity on the backside where things can happen, and now the wing player is more apt to drive to the middle, but alas most teams want you to drive middle, especially when they are playing zone, because that is where most of their players are. FIBA basketball operates more from the center of the floor rather than choosing a side. This is not an easy thing to adust too.
Lastly we will talk about the one thing that does frustrate me about the Americans arrogance. But this is more an indictment of USA basketball which did not require our team to be together until July 23 in Jacksonville. That puts our team at one month’s time together, which is a short amount of time to come together as a team. Most of the international teams convened in early June and practiced for about a month, took one week off and then regrouped to get ready for their preliminary games. If you look at the US team they look like they are starting to understand each other on the court, as if they were about 10-15 days away from the start of the NBA season. Had USA Basketball had them report earlier they probably would have had a little better hot at taking home the Gold. Let’s remember that if before the games said to any international scout or anyone that knows something about basketball that Lithuania, Serbia-Montanegro, and the USA would only get one medal between them, they would have called you crazy. Heck Serbia did not make the medal rounds, they lost to New Zealand, Lithuania lost to Italy. These are unprecedented victories in International basketball. This is no longer a cake walk for the USA, even if we had some shooters or had role players like Ben Wallace & Bruce Bowen or sent our college players or sent our NBA Championship team, all suggestions I was told we make out team win the gold. Don’t be mad or be grudge the players that went over there and gave their best effort. Heck we are the same country that re-elected Marion Barry to office or cheered sports stars like cheer Daryl Strawberry. So let’s try and be rational and not just dismiss this group of men who did their best to represent our country in the Olympics. Are we this made at ever person who was favored to win Gold and failed to do so?
Chew on this fat for a few minutes, while I make other great points. Does anyone remember why we went to professional players in the first place? Because other countries were using there pro’s who were men and they whooped up on our team of collegiate All-Stars in 1988, we wound up with the Bronze medal. That was the only time we did not win the Gold medal (sans 1972 when we got robbed & 1980 when we boycotted). In Barcelona we ran out a team where 11 of 12 players were NBA All-Stars (of those were probably the three best players in the history of the game), in 1996 we had a team which consisted of 12 NBA All-Stars & kicked butt, then we got complacent and sent a team to Sydney which only had 9 All-Stars & we almost lost (that should have been a sign) but alas the Olympic committee assembled a team this year which contained 5 NBA All Stars (and 2 of those guys are 20 yr old Rookies). Like I stated three months ago we are the only country not sending out best 12 players over there, and when you do not send your best your chances of losing increase.
It is easy to dismiss this team, to say that they are Street Ballers who don’t care and don’t know how to play the fundamentals of the game. I have watched all of the Olympic games and what I have seen are no look one handed passes, around the back outlet passes, and scoop alley oops all of these coming from teams that do not have USA on their chest. Yes our shooting is lackluster, but we play style of game where shooting is not the most important thing. There is nothing wrong with that, it is just a different style. Also, please stop telling me how these guys don’t care and don’t try hard. I have been around high level basketball and do you know where the guys who don’t care and don’t try hard are? They are on the And 1 Mix Tape Tour or down at a park giving you a million excuses why there careers didn’t work out. Allen Iverson works his ass off, he played almost the entire tournament with a broken bone in his hand. So stop giving me that excuse. All these guys gave their best effort. Have a problem with the other ball players in our country who did not want to go to the Olympics. Was Michael Phelps so worried about security that he did not go to Greece? No, these players went and gave there all and they failed to win. I guess since they did not win the Gold they should be exiled to Elba. Last time I checked all of you have failed at something too.
Now lets talk about the selection process of the team. And yes I will address the elephant in the room, RACISM. Let’s be honest with ourselves America is and probably always will be a racist country. Every time we lost or struggled the next day I spoke to a a myriad of people who all said, we need some shooters on this team like Fred Hoiberg or Brent Barry, I even had some people say we could bring Steve Kerr out of retirement or get JJ Reddick from Duke out there. Wow, what do all those players have in common, they are all white, and what don’t we have on the Olympic basketball team, a white guy. I looked it up, of the top 50 3 pt shooters in the league this year 28 were black, why can’t we take one of them? Why, because do you really want Aaron Mckie, Anthony Peeler, or Charlie Ward on the Olympic team? No you do not, but we did invite three of those top 50 guys to play, Allan Houston, Ray Allen, and Mike Bibby, but I guess all there pussies were sore so they could not play this summer. As for JJ Reddick, he was not even among the top 25 players in the country in percentage, heck Mike Boynton, Jr. of South Carolina hit a better percentage than him, so should we take Mike Boynton? So let’s all stop talking about shooters and how we need them on the team. We need to take the 12 best guys in the country, that is how you win.
Yes I know most of the guys on this team are not great shooters, but other factors such as the rules of the game seriously affect the USA’s chances of taking home gold. It is obvious that the level of international play has risen over the last 20 years. Since that has happened we have been exposed in their style of basketball. If we made them play NBA rules we would beat them in close contests and occasional blowouts. Here are the major differences in the rules and the game: The international ball is bigger in diameter, it is also made without grooves in it, which makes it harder to handle and palm, the trapezoid lane allows for more offensive rebounds on free throws and different driving lanes, the 3 pt line is closer (which in theory should be easier), there is no restricted area for charges, how you can use your hands when hand checking & guarding in the post, five fouls and your out, 40 minute games, and lastly 2 (most of the time atrocious) officials. This would all be like telling a baseball team to play with a ball where the seams were not raised, there is no second base ump, you walk on three pitches, and the game is 7 innings long. Heck our baseball team did not even make the damned Olympics, but I don’t here the outcry over that and baseball is America’s pastime. But I digress, these different rules make for a totally different style of basketball. Tim Duncan clearly did not know how to play post defense according to what contact FIBA allows in the post. Because of this he was in foul trouble most of the time and Larry Brown was forced to sit him sooner than he wanted. Also, the pace of the game is totally different at 40 minutes, there is less time to comeback and it throws off your timing and how you are used to pacing yourself. If you noticed after the game, most of the other team’s players were very winded, whereas the USA players you could tell obviously had something left in their “tanks.”
The three point line and trapezoid lane truly expose the differences in the game. In the NBA, when the ball is thrown into the low post and the post man is just outside the lane he is a legitimate scoring threat. Now at this point the wing defender has to make a commitment to either double team or stay at home. However, the post defender can try to deny the post player the ball by trying to front him and get over the top. If he decides to do that the best option for the wing player trying to enter the ball may be to drive the baseline and try to create for himself, or if he does lob the ball over from the top help has to come from the weakside and now things are created for the offense. That is they way things happen in an NBA game. Now let’s explore that very same basic basketball situation in FIBA. The post player is now about 4 feet farther away from the basket, the wing defender does not have to close out as far because the three point line is 3 feet closer. With the post player being farther out the defender can play behind him more and does not have to worry about denying him the ball. This allows for less activity on the backside where things can happen, and now the wing player is more apt to drive to the middle, but alas most teams want you to drive middle, especially when they are playing zone, because that is where most of their players are. FIBA basketball operates more from the center of the floor rather than choosing a side. This is not an easy thing to adust too.
Lastly we will talk about the one thing that does frustrate me about the Americans arrogance. But this is more an indictment of USA basketball which did not require our team to be together until July 23 in Jacksonville. That puts our team at one month’s time together, which is a short amount of time to come together as a team. Most of the international teams convened in early June and practiced for about a month, took one week off and then regrouped to get ready for their preliminary games. If you look at the US team they look like they are starting to understand each other on the court, as if they were about 10-15 days away from the start of the NBA season. Had USA Basketball had them report earlier they probably would have had a little better hot at taking home the Gold. Let’s remember that if before the games said to any international scout or anyone that knows something about basketball that Lithuania, Serbia-Montanegro, and the USA would only get one medal between them, they would have called you crazy. Heck Serbia did not make the medal rounds, they lost to New Zealand, Lithuania lost to Italy. These are unprecedented victories in International basketball. This is no longer a cake walk for the USA, even if we had some shooters or had role players like Ben Wallace & Bruce Bowen or sent our college players or sent our NBA Championship team, all suggestions I was told we make out team win the gold. Don’t be mad or be grudge the players that went over there and gave their best effort. Heck we are the same country that re-elected Marion Barry to office or cheered sports stars like cheer Daryl Strawberry. So let’s try and be rational and not just dismiss this group of men who did their best to represent our country in the Olympics. Are we this made at ever person who was favored to win Gold and failed to do so?
2 Comments:
Rather than filling the last three spots with Lebron James, Carmelo Anthony, and Emeka Okafor wouldn't it have made more sense to fill those spots with role players? The guy that seemed to make the easiest transition to this team was Carlos Boozer and that has more to do with his game and role than anything else. He is used to working without the ball and doing the dirty work, while the other guys all really had to swallow their pride to accept diminished roles. Guys like a Fred Hoiberg, a Bruce Bowen, a Derek Fisher, or a Raef LaFrentz never had to worry about being the "man" on any team, so their experience of working without the ball and finding ways to contribute would have been helpful (it also doesn't hurt that they can all shoot the ball from the outside). Just my opinion, take it or leave it. Have a great day!
The Great White Hype
PS Where is my shoe? I do start work on Tuesday, I would prefer to not have to buy a new pair because you took one of them. Thank you. Die die die!
I understand the point some of you are making, except Whitey. If you announced the Olympic basketball team and it has guys like Raef Lafrentz, Fred Hoiberg, and Derek Fisher the backlash would be ten times worse than it is now. Imagine if the game was close and Derek Fisher started turning the ball over or Raef Lafrentz was missing shots, we would all be saying why isn't LeBron James or Stephon Marbury on the team. And Dan point guard play my ass, nobody worth a damn at the point (except Ason Kidd and he is the last) plays what would be considered a "conventional" Point Guard. Just take the two PG's who torched us in the Olymics, Jasekevicius and Arroyo, they seemd to shoot at will and drive whenever they wanted to. The fact remains that the twelve best would have won gold, we cannot and should not run at these third rate players. Everybody else has brought their game, I am simply stating we need to bring ours. We need to put our top 12 and give them ample time to practice and adjust to the international style of basketball. Or say F-U Olympics we want to play our game, otherwise we don't want to be a part of Olympic basketball.
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