HoopsHype.com Columns

Causes of the disaster
by Marc Narducci / August 27, 2004

This was an Olympic of firsts for the U.S. men's basketball team and none of them were much better than the team's shooting percentage.

It's official, there will be no gold medal on the neck of U.S. players following Friday's 89-81 semifinal loss to Argentina.

This is the first time since the U.S. began sending NBA players in 1992 that the team won't win a gold medal. That followed the first time the U.S had lost more than one game in any Olympics.

And it's the first time the team won't be playing for a gold medal since a group of college players finished third in 1988. Before all the excuses are made for the loss, let's get one thing clear – the U.S. had the best team and should have won the gold medal.

Forget about the fact that many of the NBA's top players decided to skip the Olympics. Or forget that the team didn't get together until July 26, meaning they were only a true unit for a little more than a month.

Coach Larry Brown, who set an unofficial Olympic record for daily whining, still had a team capable of winning it all.

The main reason the U.S. didn't win was that the players didn't play well. It's as simple as that.

For all his greatness as a coach, Brown didn't have a stellar Olympic tournament either. This was a terrible shooting team, one that should have been playing pressure defense to increase the tempo for all 40 minutes.

Players were complaining about a lack of minutes, but they wouldn't have been if they had to full-court press the entire game. The U.S. was the deepest team and Brown should have used two units, giving everybody but Tim
Duncan equal playing time.

And on a team that couldn't shoot straight, arguably the best outside shooter ended up squarely in Brown's doghouse. That would be Carmelo Anthony. Sure, Anthony may have pouted when he didn't receive immediate
minutes, but he did get on board as the games went on. Still, Brown stuck to his stubborn guns and his team ended up firing blanks.

Anthony didn't play at all against Argentina. In fact, he saw no more action after hitting a crucial three pointer near the end of the third quarter in the United State's 102-94 quarterfinal win over Spain. Anthony only played
two minutes that game.

Believe it or not, shooting wasn't even the main downfall of the U.S. Defending the three-point shot became the team's undoing. In the semifinal against Argentina, the winners shot 11-for-22 from three-point range. The U.S. shot 3-for-11.

During a 94-90 loss to Lithuania, the winners shot 13-for-27 from beyond the arc and the U.S. was 8-for-21. In its opening 92-73 loss to Puerto Rico, the U.S. shot 3-for-24 from three-point range, while the winners were 8-for-16.
Can anybody detect a pattern from this?

In the three games it lost, the U.S. allowed the teams to shot 32-for-65 from beyond the arc, or 49.2 percent, while shooting 14-for-57 (24.6 percent).

The U.S. had a month to work on screen-and-roll defense at the high post and looked no better in the Argentina loss than the opening defeat to Puerto Rico.

The lack of three-point shooting and three-point defense will no doubt sway USA Basketball the next time it picks a team.

There will be more role players, those willing to guard a three-point shooter along with those willing and capable of making an international 20-foot, 6-inch three-pointer. And there will be players who won't make a peep when they don't receive appreciable playing time.

But what also has to happen is that the coach has to be able to have at least three selections that he and he alone wants. Let USA Basketball select nine players, but allow the coach to bring the other three. Brown whined
about the team that USA Basketball selected, as if he just woke up and was handed those players without any prior knowledge. The players he was given were capable of winning a gold medal, despite their many flaws.

A major reason for the disappointing showing is that nobody on the team played consistently well the entire Olympics. Even Duncan, the most talented player in the tournament, was continually frustrated by being called for touch fouls.

Sure the officiating was atrocious even by junior high standards, but it was bad for all teams, virtually every game. The U.S. players wasted plenty of time barking at officials, who couldn't even understand what they were saying. The last thing that has to change is the players' mindset in the future and that might be the most difficult task. The U.S. players have one major goal – to win an NBA title. The international players make the Olympics their highest priority.

Manu Ginobili, who won an NBA title with the San Antonio Spurs, couldn't hide the fact that the beating the U.S. and earning the first basketball medal in Argentina's history was more special to him than anything he has accomplished in the sport. Ginobili provided an all-world performance against the U.S., scoring 29 points on 9-for 13-shooting.

Different cultures, different attitudes, but that doesn't mean the U.S. players wanted to lose. They didn't give up a good part of their summer to put up with Brown's tirades to come home without a gold medal.

And none of them wanted to set a trend for undistinguished firsts that USA Basketball hopes aren't seconded during the 2008 Olympics.

Marc Narducci covers the NBA for the Philadelphia Inquirer and is a regular contributor to HoopsHype.com

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