The state of Olympic basketball
Irony: In news reports following the shellacking Italy gave the United States Olympic basketball team in an exhibition game Tuesday morning, one indication of the Americans' lack of seriousness and preparation was that in the pre-game warmup, several players spent time practicing half-court shots rather than reviewing offensive and defensive sets or practicing plays.
Then, Allen Iverson wins Wednesday's exhibition against Germany with a buzzer-beating half-court prayer.
In all seriousness though, rewatching both exhibitions has shown me that this Olympic USA team is not very well constructed. Too many athletes with too few team skills and lack of basketball IQ. Perhaps the greatest sense of poetic justice was watching the end of the Italy rout, with the announcers remarking on how it was the worst loss ever for American basketball in international competition, and then ESPN2 then came up with its following program... the And1 MixTape Tour. In other words, just as everyone was asking how this apparent decline in American supremacy had occurred, a major culprit showed up on screen. When young basketball players are eschewing fundamental coaching, team practice, and defense in favor of dribbling tricks and high-flying dunks, of course you're going to see a dearth of skill at the "highest level". Take Marbury for example. Legendary NYC baller. Not a very good point guard. MixTape supreme, but that doesn't mean a whole lot when Italy's point guards are going around you and flipping in layups a la Nash or Maravich. Despite the presence of my favorite player, Duncan, on Team USA, I have major reservations about our country's ability to defend its gold medal this year.
To revisit the "Would the '92 Dream Team medal in the 2004 Olympics?" question debated on the 5824 blog (scroll to 8/2 comments and 7/28 post), I have to stand by my belief that even though a 41-year old Jordan is still sublime, the '92 team would not medal this year, for one primary reason: they're too old to get after it on defense. It's clear that other countries' teams have improved significantly on offense, particularly in perimeter shooting, and a fair amount of good defense is athleticism to get to the ball... and Jordan et al have lost too many steps. They'd probably - undoubtedly - be more effective in the half-court offense than the 2004 Team USA though.
Irony: In news reports following the shellacking Italy gave the United States Olympic basketball team in an exhibition game Tuesday morning, one indication of the Americans' lack of seriousness and preparation was that in the pre-game warmup, several players spent time practicing half-court shots rather than reviewing offensive and defensive sets or practicing plays.
Then, Allen Iverson wins Wednesday's exhibition against Germany with a buzzer-beating half-court prayer.
In all seriousness though, rewatching both exhibitions has shown me that this Olympic USA team is not very well constructed. Too many athletes with too few team skills and lack of basketball IQ. Perhaps the greatest sense of poetic justice was watching the end of the Italy rout, with the announcers remarking on how it was the worst loss ever for American basketball in international competition, and then ESPN2 then came up with its following program... the And1 MixTape Tour. In other words, just as everyone was asking how this apparent decline in American supremacy had occurred, a major culprit showed up on screen. When young basketball players are eschewing fundamental coaching, team practice, and defense in favor of dribbling tricks and high-flying dunks, of course you're going to see a dearth of skill at the "highest level". Take Marbury for example. Legendary NYC baller. Not a very good point guard. MixTape supreme, but that doesn't mean a whole lot when Italy's point guards are going around you and flipping in layups a la Nash or Maravich. Despite the presence of my favorite player, Duncan, on Team USA, I have major reservations about our country's ability to defend its gold medal this year.
To revisit the "Would the '92 Dream Team medal in the 2004 Olympics?" question debated on the 5824 blog (scroll to 8/2 comments and 7/28 post), I have to stand by my belief that even though a 41-year old Jordan is still sublime, the '92 team would not medal this year, for one primary reason: they're too old to get after it on defense. It's clear that other countries' teams have improved significantly on offense, particularly in perimeter shooting, and a fair amount of good defense is athleticism to get to the ball... and Jordan et al have lost too many steps. They'd probably - undoubtedly - be more effective in the half-court offense than the 2004 Team USA though.
posted by Bob at
11:35 PM
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