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Buck Harvey: For Ginobili, the challenge has grown up
Web Posted: 08/27/2006 09:58 PM CDT
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/b...y.2e3c97e.html
San Antonio Express-News
Manu Ginobili will be pressed to beat the Americans as he did in Athens.
For one, he may never play the United States. Spain is one team that stands in Argentina's way at the world championships, and Spain has beaten Argentina nine-straight times.
For another, what Ginobili did in Athens wasn't easy. He needed to win one game with a bank shot at the buzzer, and the Americans then, as fractured as they were, were still powerful at times. They were the ones who eliminated Spain.
But Ginobili also will be pressed because of how the Americans have changed. Tim Duncan is gone, but in his place are three of his former Olympic teammates.
LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade.
They are two years older and twice as mature.
It's too early to announce their international greatness, because Stephon Marbury could also roll through Senegal and Australia. The Americans struggled with Italy this month, and Greece, Spain and Argentina are all better than Italy.
How the Argentines can counter: With rebounding, toughness, international experience and, naturally, Ginobili.
But that hasn't stopped premature praise. Some choose to compliment Jerry Colangelo because, after all, the selection process needed changing. And some laud Mike Krzyzewski as the great communicator because, well, he isn't Larry Brown.
In truth, multiyear commitments make sense, especially if the players live up to their pledges. Colangelo, furthermore, did a good job of selling this to NBA players.
These Americans appear willing and cooperative, unlike the sour assemblage in Athens. Brown, to be fair, didn't put that team together, and he found himself preaching to a crowd who didn't want to hear the sermon. He would repeat the same a year later with the Knicks.
But the Olympic team also was talent poor. Marbury has never played well with others, and Richard Jefferson, a second-tier player, was a go-to option expected to bust zones.
Watching with young eyes, wanting to play but not sure how, were James, Anthony and Wade. USA Basketball put them on the roster partly because they wanted to promote the next generation.
All three were coming off their rookie years, and all three were still finding themselves. None was a match for Ginobili, a veteran of international basketball, at home with both the trapezoid lane and Europe.
Wade got minutes in the Olympics but didn't have the confidence or stature to show what would come later. James and Anthony mostly sat in Athens, and they combined to play only three minutes against Argentina.
Everyone knows what has happened since. James became MVP worthy. Anthony ceased appearing in gangsta videos and showed, over the second half of last season, that he can carry a team. And Wade merely won a le with the best-looking Michael Jordan imitation since the original last played in an NBA Finals.
Krzyzewski has rarely played all three together, preferring instead to alternate them to keep at least one on the floor at all times. But searching for an answer against Italy, Krzyzewski scrapped his system and played all three of his captains at the same time.
Reports from Japan highlighted this, as if Krzyzewski had really come up with something. Krzyzewski's strategic wisdom, however, was less technical. He was simply smart enough to coach James, Anthony and Wade when they were two years older.
These Americans can sometimes sound as they did in Athens. Asked by reporters in Japan if the U.S. is unbeatable when its shots are falling, Joe Johnson replied, "No doubt. When our shots are falling, and when they're not falling."
If they're not falling against Spain or Argentina, the U.S. will come home with the kind of bronze weight that hangs on the 2004 team. But this group looks different than that one did. They share, they seem to get along and their captains — James, Anthony and Wade — have grown.
Ginobili knows better than anyone. Those three were in Athens, and they also weren't.
