STORM2K

There was once a time when opposing teams reacted like a helpless "deer-caught-in-the-headlights" when confronted by the National Basketball Association's players in international competition. No more.

The 2002 World Championships changed that. There, the collection of NBA players representing the United States lost not one game. They lost three games. They also failed to medal.

Afterward, some skeptics tried to explain away the defeats. All kinds of excuses were made. It was almost as if one argued that the results were not for real.

Against the test of reality where results alone matter and excuses, no matter how creative, are irrelevant, those myths were shattered for good earlier this week. On the eve of the 2004 Summer Olympic Games, Team Italy blew away the Team USA's NBA players 95-78. In practically every aspect of the game, Team Italy's players proved better fundamentally.

This game was not a matter of Italy having a hot hand or merely outplaying Team USA. It was a matter of Team USA's players actually being overmatched. And, for one who loves basketball, this was a painful game to watch.

A day later, a weak German squad presented another life-and-death struggle for Team USA. Now, the formidable Serbian team awaits tomorrow and, if the last two games are any indication, the outcome could be very ugly.

Indeed, and some likely will dispute this, from what I saw, some of the Duke teams of the '90s would likely have easily handled this team of outclassed NBA players. Those Duke teams were better shooters, better rebounders, and played better together. The NBA players seemed almost raw in contrast and at times befuddled by what was happening, particularly against Italy.

In my view, neither the recent loss and struggles nor the poor play is all that surprising. NBA shooting percentages have been eroding since the early 1990s and NBA scores have now been following suit. This has happened even as no new defensive innovations have been designed or new rules put in place.

I believe the problem lies with the growing share of American-born NBA players who leave university early or enter into the NBA directly from high school. The decline in shooting percentages reveals the high costs of foregone player development.

Players cannot develop in the NBA. When planning for the rigorous 82-game schedule, the NBA's coaches simply do not have the time to teach players the basics of the game and teaching is what many of these players increasingly need. Training camp is insufficient for remedial training. It is more about conditioning for the season ahead than learning the game or improving one's mechanics.

Players are expected to be sound fundamentally when they arrive in the League and this once was the expectation. Increasingly, this is becoming less the case with those who leave university early or enter into the NBA from high school even before they have fully mastered the fundamentals of the game. Not surprisingly, more and more international players are coming to the NBA, in growing part, because they are increasingly the better players. And, with those players often representing the opposition in international competition, parity is increasingly close at hand on the international stage.

Worse, fundamentally-unsound players have been entering into the NBA before they have really had a chance to learn and apply the team concept. The consequences of a lack of such experience is enormous.

Hence, the syndrome of the "whole adding up to less than the sum of the parts"--far less, at times--was vividly on display in the Italy-USA game. There were also flashes of this syndrome during the Lakers-Pistons series, namely with Kobe Bryant throwing up brick after brick rather than passing to open players, even as it was evident that his shooting was badly off and others were in a far better position to score.

But then "I" trumped "We." Not surprisingly, Detroit won the series four games to none. And that's often the result.

In the end, what does this mean for the 2004 Olympics?

If Team USA is defeated in the 2004 Summer Games, the defeat will not be anything close to the magnitude of the USA's upset of the Soviet Union in the 1980 Winter Olympics' hockey semifinals. Larry Brown is a great coach, but he is dealing with a team that is not by far superior to the others and perhaps just might not even be the best at the Games.

Later, the NBA would do well to reconsider its drafting guidelines so that it really admits only the players who have the fundamentals to play at the highest level, not to mention knowledge and experience in applying the team concept.

[T]hey simply aren’t a team, but a collection of people with a lot of individual skill, but little grasp of the fundamentals of the game.
--MSNBC commentary by Mike Celizic, August 16, 2004.

As I had feared earlier, the lack of proficiency with respect to some of the major fundamentals of the game--particularly shooting--has come back to haunt the U.S. Olympic basketball team.

Previously, I had genuine questions as to whether the U.S. team was even the most talented at the games. After yesterday, it is entirely possible that Puerto Rico, among a handful of other teams, might be more talented than the U.S. team.

After its being routed, the U.S. needs to win all but perhaps one of its remaining games to advance. For this team, that could be a tall order. It will face Lithuania (a tough team that almost defeated the last Olympic team) and Greece (possibly a stronger-than-expected opponent). It is within the realm of possibility that both of these teams could defeat this collection of NBA players. If so, the U.S. would fail to medal and that's not a very encouraging prospect. I'm not predicting this dire outcome, but am suggesting that it can't be wholly dismissed.

When it comes to sports, I'm both a purist and realist. The glamor or glitz of certain athletes or professional leagues don't blind me to the emphasis on results. It's the outcomes that dictate who is better--and basketball is a team sport, not a one-on-one contest--and thus far the poor play of the U.S. team tells me this team is not a lock for a Gold Medal--it could even fail to medal--and it is most definitely a stretch to automatically proclaim it the most talented team at the Games.

Biggest celebrities? Yes. By far. Best players? Doubtful.

On a side note, perhaps the outcome and the generally poor shooting of the U.S. team is a powerful new argument in favor of permitting the zone defense in the NBA. But then again, if the caliber of play were increased to international levels--imagine this "heresy" on my part to suggest that the NBA has to raise its quality of play to international standards--perhaps some of the players who have been entering into the NBA (discussed in the opening post) would not make it. Under such a rules upgrade, a greater premium would be placed on shooters and other fundamentally-sound players.

Making 3 of 24 shots from a shorter-than-NBA 3-point arc, shooting less than 35% for the game (missing almost twice as many shots as the team made), and shooting more airballs than made 3-pointers (5 airballs to 3 3-pointers), simply is not professional-quality basketball or at least it ought not be.

The struggles with weak German and Turkish teams and loss to Italy in the exhibition games and now rout by Puerto Rico are not flukes. In my view, if one examines the shooting performance of this team, if the Puerto Rico game is an upset, it has to be one of the mildest of upsets of all-time. In no way is this outcome comparable to Team USA defeating the Soviet Union in hockey in 1980.

Shooting is a basic element of the game. It is indispensable. Against a good zone defense, if a team can't shoot, it won't overcome the zone defense, and it could wind up in serious peril.

It's time the NBA permit the zone defense in its games and, if some of the players can't cut the muster, it's their problem. There's no reason why the NBA should continue to play by rules that provide a less demanding level of basketball than what is demanded at the international level--the nerve of me, more "heresy!"

Yesterday was a sad day for American basketball. Even sadder, it should not have been seen as unexpected. Washington Post columnist Michael Wilpon said it best when he observed:

The score may shock you but the result should not. In fact, it was entirely predictable if we look at what is instead of what was...

Teams from San Juan to China have spent the past 12 years creating clever strategies and exploring every nuance of the game's fundamentals, while Americans obsessed over dunking and reassured each other we were keepers of the global game.

Well, apparently not this time, not this tournament and not with this team. The Puerto Ricans didn't just win, they were better...

The U.S. team's problem isn't lack of effort, it's lack of skill.

After the loss at Seoul in 1988, all kinds of excuses were made. After this debacle, excuses won't wash away the consequences of a lack of proficiency in the game's fundamentals.

In Seoul, the excuse was that the U.S. team played "professionals" from the Soviet Union. This version of Team USA was composed of professional players from arguably the world's top professional league. Perhaps the new excuse will be that they lost to the "gods" of Greek mythology?

No more excuses, please.

In the end--and I truly hope that the team can rebound to win the Gold Medal or at least any medal--skills such as shooting that might be neglected in the NBA (witness the decline in shooting percentages, overreliance on isolation plays, even without rigorous defenses such as the zone defense), do matter on the international stage.

If a team lacks proficiency in those fundamentals, the international game is not going to make exceptions to bring about parity for those weaker teams. In general, the outcomes will continue to reward the better teams.

Who is the best team in this tournament? The Gold Medal will tell all and, this time, I believe the excuses of yesterday simply won't wash if only because the opposing teams won't stand down for such excuse-making.

I completely agree, the game against Italy was disgusting to watch. They just do not want to play with each other, and it seemed like they did lack every simple fundamental possible. They should be ashamed to try to represent their country in that way, becuase it certainly doesn't seem that they did their best. I only hope that they can pull out of this, and hopefully manage a medal position.

Do I ever agree.

The current day NBA is more an "I" game. I have to have the ball, I have to dunk the ball... etc. I could go on. Anyways, the true fundamentals of basketball happen to dissipate in the NBA. No more do we see suffication defenses (Dick Bennett's Wisconsin team) and 5 pass drills. Do you know how many times prep and college athletes have defense drills and medicine ball passing drills.... plenty of times, but they understand the teamwork wins games not acrabatic show stopping dunks. The only thing the NBA players care about is the MONEY.... all the Jeffersons! College kids leave early, prep kids avoid college.... all for one thing... the fame and riches of the NBA. If that falls through, what can they fall back on.... flipping burgers. These 'kids' don't understand what a hard earned college education means. They'd rather play in the NBA instead of getting a useful collegiate degree