I've never claimed that The United States is the greatest best country God has ever given man on the face of the earth, but what about Team USA being the greatest best basketball team God has ever given man on the face of the earth? Well, it's arguable at best that Team USA is the best international team in the world right now. So what does that mean for the Olympics coming up in about a week? Will "Team Redemption" bring back the gold after settling for bronze in the last two world tournaments?
If Team USA plays anything that resembles last night's exhibition game against Russia they will not win gold. If they play as good as they have in the other exhibition games I would probably give them a 40% chance of winning gold (which is better than I would give any other single team). Team USA is the most talented, but not respecting opponents and not implementing any offense or defense that takes advantage of the FIBA rules allows other less talented teams to take advantage. If you watch Nike's documentary on Team USA you might believe that as long as everyone on the team is gets along, has fun, and works hard, then the gold medal is theirs (for a good analysis of the documentary see truehoop). I remember reading an interview with Coach K after they lost to Greece in 2006 and he mentioned that he was surprised at how tall the Greek players were. If you don't know the height and weight of your opponents you probably don't know how effectively they run their pick n' roll. Did no one give Coach K a program? Was the metric system too difficult for him to figure out?
The things Team USA needs to change to actually be unquestionably the best team in the world are first, learn how to scout effectively (not just learning their own game but adapting to different teams). Second, change the arrogant attitude and don't say things like "let's show them how to play our game" because it's not our game, it was invented by a Canadian, and everyone has a right to play it and there's always the possibility that they will play it better than us. Third, give credit to Puerto Rico, Italy, Argentina, Lithuania and Greece for beating us and stop claiming that we had organizational problems etc. that imply that we would've beat them if we didn't have those problems. Fourth, get rid of Coach K and hire someone who has some FIBA experience, maybe even a European. Just make sure he's sponsored by Nike.
Oh yeah, and don't forget about this. (I just wanted an excuse to show Kobe getting crossed over by some unknown on the Mexican team.)
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