Team USA: Dream team no longer

Can we please stop calling them the "Dream Team"? Team USA hasn’t deserved the moniker since ’92, and probably never will again.

ESPN’s sports guy, Bill Simmons, called it about a month ago. Team USA was headed for another disaster and nobody realized it. At that time, that claim didn’t strike me as prophetic, as Team USA was blowing by their competition in exhibition games. Time, however, has made Mr. Simmons a prophet.

After Greece trumped the ballyhooed and allegedly more focused USA team, it became pretty obvious that the mighty Americans still didn’t get it. In hindsight, it was actually pretty obvious the moment they named the final 12 players for that team. They lost it from the moment these 12 guys put on USA jerseys.

Not to say that the 12 players named to the team didn’t deserve to be there because they did. But the selection of these players echoed the mistakes that Team USA has been committing since their last gold medal win. They refuse to build a team that fits the international game.

It’s actually kind of ironic when you think about it. After the last World Championships and the 2004 Olympics, it was decided that the next USA team would have to be equipped to respond to the nuances of international play. Ball movement, outside shooting, man-to-man defense – these were the answers they came up with in ’04. What do they put together in ’06? A superstar-centric team built around Lebron James, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony (all of whom are better off without the other two on the same team).

Even though Team USA has players with great passing skills, it really doesn’t matter when your three best players excel most when they have free reign over the ball and work from there. With a starting five of Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade, Lebron James, Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard, who exactly are you going to swing the ball to in case someone gets double-teamed? Who’s going to make the outside shot? Carmelo? Right. Carmelo can shoot the three when he’s feeling it, but he really isn’t your prototype shooter. Wade? Lebron? CP3? On a good night, maybe. On a night like the one against Greece, not a chance.

Team USA would have been better off playing their second stringers. Kirk Hinrich, Joe Johnson, Shane Battier, Elton Brand and Brad Miller are guys that resemble the international prototype more closely than the first five. Certainly they aren’t more talented or athletic, but they’re better shooters, better passers and better defenders. That’s what makes the selection so baffling. They seemed on the right track by adding shooters like collegiate standouts Adam Morrison and JJ Redick, and hustle players like Bruce Bowen and Battier to the initial roster pool, but all except Battier got cut from the team.

For whatever reason – personal, medical or whatnot – some of the guys that Team USA needed the most weren’t in the final 12. Michael Redd was absent. So was Ray Allen. Ditto with Rip Hamilton. Gilbert Arenas? Lamar Odom? Any of these guys would have immensely helped the bronze medallists.

To top off assembling a team that is almost the antithesis of what’s needed for international play, Team USA named a coach that hasn’t even handled players at the NBA level. Granted, Mike Krzyzewski is a great college coach and a brilliant basketball mind, but would you really hand the reigns to a stable of stallions to a guy who’s used to handling colts? After seeing that the big defensive scheme that Team USA was going to employ was a full-court press, it was quite obvious. (Imagine Franz Pumaren and his La Salle full-court press going up against Team China or whatever Asian powerhouse you could name.) Coach K may be right in blaming himself for Team USA’s defeat.

It’s actually quite a surprise that Team USA losing made such a big ruckus when you think about it. They had it coming from the very beginning. It might not have been that obvious then, but it certainly is now. Team USA needs to be more prepared to seriously contend. It isn’t just the team on the floor, the mistakes go all the way up to upper management guys like Jerry Colangelo. For the US to beat model international teams like Greece, Spain, and even Argentina, it has to field players that fit the international mold.

It’s a team that wins the gold, not individual talent alone.

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For questions, comments or corrections, please e-mail me at emailcarlramirez@yahoo.com