I must admit, I don’t get it
There are a lot of people who apparently have solved the mystery of international basketball and I congratulate them. But I’ve yet to come to grips with it. Honestly, time for a confession: I still, after all these years, don’t understand why the U.S. team doesn’t massacre every team it plays.
I watched every second of the gold-medal game and I still can’t figure out how Spain was able to keep it close. That’s because you can tell me all night about how good Juan Carlos Navarro is, what an international star Pau Gasol is, how terrific Ricky Rubio is and what a wonderful prospect Rudy Fernandez is — I’m sorry, those guys are good players but none of them would have had ANY CHANCE to make the U.S. team this summer, let alone start for it.
How does this happen? How does a team with talent plainly not in the same league (literally) as another, come so close to pulling off an upset? Really — other than horrible coaching — how could the U.S. ever have let another country win an Olympic gold medal in men’s basketball? EVER?
Yes, I understand basketball is a team game. But it’s not as if any of these teams is running an intricate Princeton offense or doing anything on defense that the U.S. players have never seen before. Folks, this stuff isn’t spinal-cord surgery. The team with the best players should win, particularly when the talent gap is as wide as it is in the Olympics.
Let me first deal with one cliche answer to that question that I don’t buy for a moment — that these international teams have been playing together for years and that’s a big advantage over the all-star squads thrown together by the U.S.
Sorry, I don’t believe that. Those guys playing for Spain spend a good portion of the year playing for other teams, spread out in leagues all over the world. It’s not as if they are together 12 months a year, every year. And even if they were, I am not convinced it’s a huge advantage to have been together so long — not compared to the difference in talent, at least. If experience as a team really mattered, you’d see some sign of that on defense, where the Spain team was pretty inadequate.
I think there is something to the idea that basketball success always seems to come to teams with role players and the U.S. never seems to have the nerve to pick such players for an Olympic team. The closest it has come is this year’s team, where Michael Redd and Tayshaun Prince served in that capacity — although not for major minutes.
I think there’s also something to the theory that the three-point line is too close, which makes the shot too easy and, on a night when a team gets unreasonably hot from long distance, it can become the ultimate equalizer.
In the end, I admit I’m guessing. I can’t figure it out. So I will sit back and listen to all these basketball experts tell me how much the rest of the world has caught up with us. And then I’ll sit back and watch other countries win games with a roster of players that are, for the most part, lucky to make an NBA roster.
Yes, the rest of the world is starting to produce some good players. But in terms of gifted, difference-making players, no other country is loaded with them the way we are. There are foreign players who have become legitimate NBA stars, but the few real foreign stars are spread out all over the world — not all playing side by side for the same country.
That happens only in the United States. And it’s why, really, we should expect to be the best in the world for years to come.
NBA, Olympics | Dwight Jaynes | August 24, 2008
Great point, and certainly a valid one. And I never really thought about that until I read your article. And you were able to convince me when you said that not one of these Spanish players would make the team USA roster, they are very good players no doubt, but I don’t see any one of them taking the place of any USA player. USA should have won this game by 40 points. I have considered all your theories, but I think I can satisfy your curiosity. The answer is defense. They allowed Spain to shoot 51.4% from the field, 47.1% from the three point line. That number is pretty high even for all the NBA teams, considering they shoot at about 45% on average as a team in the NBA. Team USA scored 118 points but they allowed Spain to score 107 points. Yes stealing the ball and blocking the ball off the backboard is impressive, but how about closing down the lane and defending the three point line? They didn’t do those things. Howard was the only inside presence and even he wasn’t that effective. And don’t expect any defense from Bosh and Boozer.
dwight, ive been thinking about the same thing and heres what i came up with–
first, the defenses played by FIBA rules allow a lot more contact and handchecking on the perimiter than in the NBA which automatically helps the slower european players. and that is a HUGE advantage. ever notice how hard it has been for the US players to blow by their man while being guarded up top? with the way NBA games are officiated, most of the US opponents would foul out by halftime. Also, a lot more grabbing and holding is allowed underneath the basket which the international teams are masters at.
If this tournament was played by NBA rules with NBA refs, this final game would have been a 40 point blowout. After all, remember last pre-season when some of the best Euro teams played exhibition games in the US against NBA teams played by NBA rules. Their best clubs got slaugthered by teams like the Knicks. At first glance it doesnt seem that way but its a much different game played under FIBA and the NBA.