Yeah, that’s right, I said it. The players that comprise the Men’s USNational team are a bunch of losers, inasmuch that any of them whohave played on this team before have lost at least once ininternational competition. And while that may not sound like much togripe over, there was a time when a loss for USA Basketball was a faraway thought, bouncing around ridiculously in some lunatic’s mind.Now, however, the days of a blemish free US National team are aforgone memory. The truth for American basketball fans is not simplythat our team loses, but our team loses often. We are, in fact,losers.
It’s a reality that somehow manages to escape the collectiveconsciousness of our sports society today - USA Basketball hasn’t wona major international competition since the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.Our one scarce first place finish was in the 2003 FIBA Americasqualifier, a tournament in which we had to place at least top three toqualify for the 2004 Olympics, thanks to a dreadful sixth place finishin the 2002 FIBA World Championship. You can try and shake this allyou want, throw up any and all forms of apologetics and excuses, ifyou please, but the simple indisputable fact is that USA Basketballhasn’t been beating the teams we continue to claim superiority over.
I’ve been over this uncomplicated assessment of USA Basketball onnumerous occasions in the past, and for the sake of brevity I won’tdelve into it fully right now. Suffice to say, if you aren’t beatingteams, you aren’t better than them. Period. That is the most essentialbackbone principle of all forms of competition. That’s not even sports101, that’s the prerequisite to get into the class, if you can’t graspthat concept you’re too stupid to even be in sports 101.
The Men’s USA Basketball team hasn’t won anything that matters inseven years, with that established I’d like to explain why the usuallyinconsequential FIBA Americas Tournament holds so much weight for thisprogram.
We need to win something, anything. Now. And while winning theAmericas just to qualify for the ’08 Olympics wouldn’t exactly because for jubilant celebration, it might persuade certain Americans tohold off the burial services. Granted, all we need is a top two finishto qualify for the Olympics in 2008, but with that said, finishingsecond (most likely behind either Argentina or Brazil) would still because for concern.
And yes, I fully realize that in all likelihood the US will win theAmericas. Argentina is hampered by injuries and will be without someof its best players. Brazil does boast an impressive roster includingNBA pros Leandro Barbosa, Nene Hilario, and recently drafted TiagoSplitter, but they would place second at best, or so we hope. Wealways think our team is going to win, but obviously that hasn’t beenhappening much lately.
A failure this summer would be down right absurd. It’s the freakingAmericas tournament, no disrespect to any of the other teamsparticipating, but if the US doesn’t place first it would be a signthat more disappointment is on the way in ’08. Truthfully, mostAmericans would be happy if we just qualify for the Olympics thissummer, but then when the inevitable comes and Argentina rolls aroundat full strength in Beijing, everyone will look shocked and startasking how the US possibly could have lost. And after that we’d goback to promptly declaring how much better we are than everyone else,winless and stuck living a dream that died half a decade ago.
Whether the proud and blindly faithful US fans care to admit it ornot, USA Basketball needs to win the Americas tournament, notsimply to qualify for the big show in Beijing, but to begin to restorethe winning pedigree that established USA Basketball as the mostprestigious and dominant basketball team the world has ever seen.
Sure, everyone has their eyes set on the Olympics in ’08, but for theUS National team, winning can’t wait until everyone thinks it’matters’ - it always matters, it matters right now. When you haverepeatedly lost to teams with less talent and more heart, you have totake anything and everything you can get in the win column, everythingmatters.
Not only have other countries out played us, bested us in team playand fundamentals, but they have thoroughly out worked us. It would bea different story if we were losing on account of lacking talent,other countries have gracefully accepted such a role for quite sometime when facing the US. But that isn’t why USA Basketball has fallento a second rate team.
Complacency, indifference, and lack of preparation have stifledAmerican basketball in international competition more than anythingelse. Throw out your anti-FIBA rhetoric and your bitter complaintsabout international officials (as if our refs are so much better),even if goal tending and the trapezoid lane are moronic concoctions,the last thing we need is to start making excuses for the fact thatthe individuals we piece together fail to play as a cohesive unit timeand time again. You can’t pin that on anyone else.
Excuses, complaints about international rules or style, claims tosuperior talent, none of that means anything if our guys don’t put itdown when shit hits the hardwood. Players and coaches need to adjustin whatever ways necessary to achieve success. And most importantly,USA Basketball needs to perform with the ferocity and desire of a onetime giant that wants to prove it’s still on top. We have already lostour spot at the top of the basketball world, and it’s time we startplaying like we want it back.
If USA Basketball, and we as American fans, have become so absorbed in our own ego saturated need to be the best that we’ve failed to recognize that we’ve long since been beaten and replaced at the top, than we have fallen into one of the most disgusting and pathetic roles in sports - the sore loser, and worse yet the one who is in severedenial.
If we can’t face our own inadequacies, then we aren’t merely losing,we really are losers.
