This country's sportswriters would have you believe that the rest of the world has caught up to the USA in terms of basketball talent. They've produced some good ones, true indeed, most notably, Dirk Nowitzki, of Germany and Steve Nash of Canada. But has the world REALLY caught up? Has anyone does any real critical thinking about this issue? Well, neither have I, but this is what I came up with when I was sitting on the toilet one morning:
The '92 Men's Team contained Hall of Famers, from top to bottom. The three captains of the team have all been a part of the "Best EVER" discussion (Jordan, Bird, Magic). There are 23 NBA Championships, 15 Most Valuable Player Awards, and 5 NCAA Championships on this roster. Two of the top three all time assist leaders and two of the top four all time scoring leaders are listed here. 10 out of the 12 are among the NBA's 50 Greatest Players. Quite simply, the greatest collection of talent ever assembled in any sport, ever. The Dream Team, indeed.
The 2004 Men's Team contained three NBA Championships, three NBA MVPs (all credited to the same player, except one MVP award), two NCAA championships, one NBA rookie, three others with two years NBA experience, six players who weren't even the best player on their own team, one player who had never played on a winning team, one center, and no jump shooters. Not to mention, a coach who's only effective if he has two years to work with the team. I don't think it's any surprise that this team lost. However...let's look at who WASN'T on this team:
Shaquille O'Neal, Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, Vince Carter, Jason Kidd, Tracy McGrady, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, Reggie Miller, Jermaine O'Neal, Chris Webber, Gilbert Arenas, Rasheed Wallace...combined with Allen Iverson and Tim Duncan, and you have the A-List talent in the league. To recap, that's 11 NBA Championships, and 5 MVP awards. Seven of them could be ranked among the NBA 50 Greatest. Two of them already are. You actually expect me to believe that anything the world could come up with could match this team? You actually expect me to believe that the gap has closed that much?
The reason why we lost in 2002 and 2004 is because we didn't have our top stars there. Period. No team in the world could beat our top stars, and nothing against Shawn Marion and Carlos Boozer, but they hardly qualify as "top" anything. The 2002 team was even worse than the 2004 team! Nick Collison made the 2002 team! Nick Collison! Is he even in the league anymore? Raef LaFrentz? Antonio Davis? Ben Wallace...before he was good?
The misconception was that we could throw any NBA players out there against the world and we'd win every time. I don't even think that was the case back in 92. Imagine if, instead of the Dream Team we sent, guys like Dan Majerle, Kevin Johnson, Jerome Kersey, Derek Harper, Charles Oakley, Joe Dumars, Kenny Anderson, and Derrick Coleman over there. Good players, to be sure, but definitely not A-list. Not even B-list, for some of them. Do you really think they would have been blowing out teams by 40 points? Can you confidently say that they would have won the gold? Well, that's what we did in 2002 and 2004. Instead of Kevin Garnett, we got Derrick Coleman. Derrick f'n Coleman.
Now, we're in panic mode and that's why guys like Vince Carter and Allen Iverson, who were more than willing to play, are staying home. Guys like that were blamed for the losses. Yeah, that damn Iverson...he was so selfish that he kept passing the ball to his teammates. That damn Vince Carter, who actually has some international experience. And a gold medal, to boot.
The current strategy is a good one, having a team that plays together longer, to create continuity. And it's probably required, considering most of the top stars keep bowing out. I think it's a bit overkill to lock out the top stars who do want to play, though. This time, the mistake could be that we sacrifice talent for continuity and politcal correctness. Or just plain politics. We know that a lot of people out there don't like Iverson or Vince.
The world hasn't caught up, we just got overconfident. Plain and simple.
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