The ignominy of the NBA
’s fall from grace is now officially complete, with the coup de
grace a humiliating 92-73 blowout loss to Puerto Rico in the
Olympics.
U.S. Olympic hoops collapse complete
The ignominy of the NBA’s fall from grace is now officially complete, with the coup de grace a humiliating 92-73 blowout loss to Puerto Rico in the Olympics.
This wasn’t just the first time an NBA all-star team lost in the Olympics, this was the first time an NBA all-star team had virtually no chance to win in an Olympic-level competition.
This is not only not the vaunted U.S. Dream Team of 12 years ago, this is an out-and-out, waking-up-drenched-in-sweat nightmare.
It’s clear now that the mantra that the rest of the world is catching up to the U.S. in basketball skills and talent is only part of the equation. The ugly truth is the U.S. is also getting much worse at the game we invented and dominated for decades.
The rest of the world is now showing America’s best how to play the game — the game we should still be dominating if it weren’t for the devastatingly short-sighted “me-first, style-over-substance” attitude that pervades the NBA these days.
Sure, there are plenty of reasons the U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team lost to a tiny Caribbean island on Sunday.
This year’s version isn’t anything like the original Dream Team of the 1992 Olympics.
Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Karl Malone, John Stockton, Michael Jordan and Patrick Ewing are to Shawn Marion, Richard Jefferson, Carlos Boozer, Amare Stoudamire, Dwayne Wade and Lamar Odom like a Porsche is to a VW bug.
They start out from the same place but end up worlds apart.
You have to wonder if Shaq, Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, Jason Kidd, and some of the other top-flight players are feeling the least bit guilty.
Probably not.
But the problem runs deeper than just who’s out on the court for the U.S. these days.
The real challenges the Americans face are the twin bugaboos that are beginning to haunt the NBA on a regular basis — namely, attitude and fundamentals.
One has to look no further than the U.S. point guards for proof that things are not on the right track.
Tattoos, bling-bling and gangsta ‘tudes may work for Allen Iverson and Stephon Marbury on the playgrounds of the ‘hood but Puerto Rico’s Carlos Arroyo exploited their dubious defensive skills and near complete lack of playmaking ability to completely outplay the American guards.
Not that the futility was limited to Iverson and Marbury.
Nobody played defense, blocked out or crashed the offensive glass, everyone played with laissez faire, and no one could seem to figure out how to hit a wide-open 3-pointer from three feet closer than the NBA trey stripe.
If the U.S. doesn’t suddenly remember how to play this game, it could be a very short ride in Athens, followed by a very long flight home.
Jim Johnson is the Morgan Hill Times’ Sports Editor. Call him at (408) 779-4106 or email him at
jj******@mo*************.com
