Dreaming of Bronze?
The United States basketball team in the FIBA tournament settled with a bronze medal after winning all of its preliminary games to eventually lose to Greece. Is this a failure? No, this is more than a failure, this is a complete and utter breakdown from the"dream team" that received so much hype during the last couple of weeks and were the clear favorites to win the gold after dominating Puerto Rico and China in its first two games. After losing to Greece, they were able to regroup to take the game against Argentina to obtain the bronze. But where's the gold? It's not in our hands; it's with Spain after they defeated Greece. And is this suppose to be the US basketball team for the next 4 years that will take us back to the glory days in the next summer Olympics? We'll see.
So why did we lose? Well, this is not the original "dream team." Simple as that. This is not the nineties anymore guys. Basketball is not just an American sport anymore. We, the audience and players, have created a monster that we ourselves cannot stop; we have publicized the greatness of this game and touted our success on an international pedestal where outsiders have now become contenders. The commissioner of the NBA, however much I may disagree with him, have succeeded in creating a portrait of basketball being not just a sport of hiphop, headbands, and ankle-reaching "shorts" but an event for the community, an activity to promote teamwork and collaboration among all participants.
The keyword here is teamwork. An idea that rarely exists in the NBA or in any level of basketball played in the states. The idea of team work here is throwing the ball to the center in the post and isolating him. Yes, that's team work- to get the other four guys to walk away from the ball as far as possible, allowing the center to play his defender on a one-on-one basis. So lets bring back the question: why did we lose? Greece played as a team, running the pick-and-roll to perfection, setting several screens to get a shooter open on the perimeter. They made multiple passes playing the inside to outside game spreading the floor and finding the open man for the shot. And it doesn't hurt to have several sharp, clutch jump shooters on the team. I wish I could count the number of passes made by each team through out the duration of the game, and I would be confident that Greece would win in that category.
So do we go back to the drawing board?
Nothing against Coach Brown (NBA and NCAA championships) or Coach K (renown coach of Duke University) who have amazing resumes but they must realize that similar to how, for example, the best college and high school basketball player may not translate to a contributing professional player, an NBA all-star may not work well on an international level. I am not in anyway saying that the international level is harder by any means although some international teams could definitely give some NBA teams a run for their money. But the problem here is that there are too many chiefs and not enough indians on this current dream team. The starting lineup is composed of Kirk Hienrich, Dwayne Wade, Lebron James, Mello Anthoney, and Dwight Howard who are all captains of their respective teams. And Chris Bosh, an upcoming power forward who is slated to make over a 100 million in his next contract is sitting on the bench deep on the roster sheet and is only contributing to the team by publicly announcing the lack of minutes that he is receiving. They are also the go-to guys on their respective teams and they are all under the age of 24. So a team of all offense might be fun to watch with spectacular windmill dunks and amazing hurdles over international players with 35 inch verticals but where's the defense?
The defense got cut. Bruce Bowen, one of my favorite players, who is a veteran in this league and known for his unforgiving defense was cut by the team due to lack of roster positions. Sure he's old and injury prone. But he is proven. He has won several championships. He has defended the best players around the league. He is an essential on my team if I were a coach. And most importantly, he's a team player.
So this is the end of my rant. So much hype surrounded this team to only finish with a bronze. Well, lets hope these players mature a bit before the Olympics and play some more team ball. My point here is that the current dream team is not any worse than the one in the nineties (only if we had a time machine to test that idea). However, the reason we are losing is that the fundamentals of basketball in the United States are not evolving as rapidly as the game in other countries. My plan would be to gradually alter the rules of the NBA to that of the internationals rules, which will expand the game even further and will also prepare our players to play a faster paced game with less isolations and more passing routes. This will allow us to be a golden contender every year, and perhaps, regain our "Dream Team" reputation.
Sources: Espn and Hoopshype
posted by Keith Mck @ 12:28 PM
3 Comments:
Am I the only one that comments on this thing! If so I think you should include more articles that pique my interest!
I'll remember to add articles pertaining to beastality and bondage next time. Kidding.
Well, I finally read it. I think that you have a good point when you mention this -- that the "dream team" in the '90s was no better when it came to the Chiefs:Indians ratio, and that the only reason they were able to blow everybody away was because, back then, basketball was to the world what hockey was to the world in the 1950s. Just like the Soviets became awesome hockey players, so too has basketball finally earned enough fans in foreign nations that American exclusivity alone can't get us through a world match. Namely, "we've finally met our match" after many decades of waiting.
Wasn't the 90s team something like Patrick Ewing, Karl Malone, Alonzo Mourning, Scottie Pippen, etc.? I seem to remember it being a whole bunch of the NBA's best teams' best player or 2nd-best player.
I'm watching a TV series about tennis right now, and in one of the recent story arcs I just finished, they created a national team to fight against the Americans' national tennis team. In the making of this team, the coaches did not choose the eight young men who are currently on the school team that won Nationals. Instead, they chose some of those boys but they also chose some other boys from rival schools (that got defeated in the intranational tourney) because they knew that they needed certain people to form "a dream team synergy." And they were right. I think you sort of touched on that here -- that it's not all about hiring the ten best power forwards. It's about hiring the two best men for each of the five positions.
I think one of the problems that basketball faces much much moreso than soccer or football is that the latter sports have a bold line (soccer) or a massive concrete barrier (football) separating Offensive from Defensive players. I mean, in football, heck, they don't even both take to the field at the same time. Whereas with basketball, it's a small team of five men, who have to assume all the responsibilities of both good Offense as well as good Defense. One of the strategies over the years has been "the best defense is a kickass offense" (e.g. Michael Jordan). But maybe it's gotten to the point where even if having one Michael Jordan is a dream, having five Michael Jordans is something of a nightmare. Maybe it's gotten to the point in basketball where coaches will happily scout for players who are good at frustrating and distracting the opponents, players who are good at recognizing key moments to pass the ball, even players who are so good they can manage two zone-spots at once. In other words, a defensive God.
- Ryan, who probably doesn't know what he's talking about :p
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