ESPN article on World Championships Pop and other Spur notes

[George Gervin's Afro]

How Coach K's initial message misses mark

By Chris Sheridan
ESPN Insider

LAS VEGAS -- It didn't take long for Mike Krzyzewski to screw up royally in his new job as coach of Team USA. He did it before day one was even in the books.

Rather than tell the team its job is to win the World Championship on the night of Sept. 3, Coach K gave the players exactly the kind of misguided advice they didn't need to hear.

"We have to go out there and be dominant for 56 quarters -- every quarter of every game we play. That's our mission," Gilbert Arenas told me following Team USA's first practice Wednesday.

"Who on earth told you that?" I asked.

"Coach Mike," Arenas replied.

Well, Coach Mike or Coach K, or whatever you want to call him, is dead wrong, and Insider is not afraid to say so. This isn't 1992 anymore. This isn't about playing like the original Dream Team, for which Coach K was an assistant under Chuck Daly. And this should not be about restoring American dominance following three losses at the 2002 World Championship and three more losses at the 2004 Olympics.

This should be about having the U.S. team playing at its peak when the games really count, and that won't happen until the single-elimination stage of the World Championship arrives at the end of August with the Round of 16, then the quarterfinals, the semifinals and the gold-medal game -- the only four games that will really matter. Sure, it'd be nice to beat Senegal by 107 in the opening round, but nobody back home will care all that much about that if, when the games really mean something, France or Spain is one or two points better.

You know what would have been a better message, Coach K? How about this: "I don't care if you lose, and I don't want you losing your confidence if you do lose. I want you playing at your peak seven weeks from now. I want us at our best when this mission finally gets serious."

You can't be dominant if you're not even superior, and right now there's a team in Argentina that has first dibs on worldwide rights to being the best. Manu Ginobili and Co. earned that distinction fair and square in Athens, and they get to keep it until somebody knocks them off their perch.

You want to see dominant, Coach K? Go back and look at a tape of the third quarter of the Argentina-U.S. semifinal in Athens when the Argentines back-picked and back-doored the Americans into submission. That's what you're going to be up against next month, and if you infect your players with the wrong mind-set, it's going to happen again.

Better yet, Coach K, have someone from USA Basketball bring you a tape of the gold-medal game from the Tournament of the Americas in Puerto Rico in 2003, when the U.S. actually did perform like the original Dream Team and crushed Argentina with a stunning display of dazzling dunks in rapid succession at the end of the first half to turn that game into a rout. Those players were so sick of hearing assistant coach Gregg Popovich tell them how good Argentina was, they poured it on extra heavy just to shut him up.
The U.S. team Larry Brown took to Athens in 2004 talked early on about being dominant, too, but when the Americans got trounced by Italy on the way to the Olympics and by Puerto Rico in their opener, they were finished mentally. First-round losses shouldn't do that to any team, because first-round losses do not knock you out of international tournaments. The elimination games don't happen until the Round of 16, and the job in the opening round is simply to win enough games to advance to the elimination round.

But is anybody in USA Basketball explaining that simple reality to the players?

Four years ago at the World Championship, the team then known as Yugoslavia was in such disarray during the opening round in Indianapolis, Serbian journalists were actually shouting down the coach as he walked off the floor. But by the time that tournament ended a couple weeks later, Yugoslavia was the champion after an overtime victory over Argentina. Sure, Vlade Divac and his teammates looked terrible in the opening round -- even worse than the Americans would look two years later when they lost to Puerto Rico and Lithuania in Athens. But they hit their peak when it mattered, and no one back in Belgrade cared at all about the first round by the time the tournament ended.

During this past NBA season, I asked Ginobili how Argentina could have looked so bad in its quarterfinal victory over Greece at the Olympics before playing so cohesively in the semifinals against the U.S. and the gold-medal game against Italy.

"Well, every team has one bad game in every tournament, and we had ours that night but were fortunate enough to win. Our team has been through enough of those tournaments to know there's going to be a letdown somewhere along the way," Ginobili said.

Memo to Coach K: Steal Manu's words of wisdom and pass them along to your team.
This whole focus on restoring U.S. dominance is so misguided, it's actually mind-boggling. It ain't 1992 anymore, Coach K, and opposing players aren't going to be asking your players for autographs after humbly being beaten into submission. The best of the rest of the world have already proved they can stand up to the U.S., and when the rest of the basketball world hears that you want to dominate 56 quarters, they're going to laugh.

They see a U.S. program that's gone 11-6 over the past four years and is showing up with another roster bereft of America's best big men and shooters. Think they're scared of being dominated? Fat chance. They're thinking about how they're going to try to pick you apart.

This should be about one thing, Coach K: winning the gold in Japan and earning an automatic berth into the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. That's the prize here, and it's your job to keep the players' eyes on it. What happens if your team is not dominant in a preliminary-round game against Slovenia or Italy? What if they actually lose? You want that loss to get into their heads like the loss to Puerto Rico did two years ago?

If you set the bar too high, your chances of failure increase. And if you're telling them they need to dominate 56 quarters, Coach K, you're setting them up to fail.

Speaking as an American here, do us all a favor and stop trying to turn back the clock to the Age of Barcelona. Go tell your team the truth, that their only job is to continually get better as the gold-medal game in Japan draws near.

We can talk about dominance 26 months from now when y'all get back from Beijing. Until then, let's just worry about winning. And if the path to winning includes a loss along the way, let's not create a collective mind-set among the players that makes such a loss so mentally devastating.

Just tell them to do what the Miami Heat did: Tell 'em to win their final four games, and stage one of their mission will be an unqualified success. That's the message they needed to hear on day one.

Chris Sheridan, a national NBA reporter for the past decade, covers the league for ESPN Insider. To e-mail Chris, click here.
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Why the world won't be dominated

posted: Thursday, July 20, 2006 | Print Entry

LAS VEGAS -- Awoke this morning to a couple hundred e-mails on my column in which I took coach Mike Krzyzewski to task for telling his Team USA players their goal is to dominate every quarter of every game they play.

A good 90 percent of the e-mailers were of the belief that I've lost my mind, and a good percentage -- even a few Tar Heels fans -- also took the time to point out that Coach K has won more NCAA championships than me.

And while that is true, I can at least retort that I've seen a whole lot more international basketball than Coach K has (I've covered every single game Team USA has played with NBA players since 1996), so I know that of which I speak. And I'll repeat the point I made Wednesday: This team's job is not to dominate every quarter of every game it plays. Its job is to win the World Championship in Japan.

Trust me when I tell you the Americans are going to have a bad game along the way, and believe me when I tell you the way they react to that bad game will have a huge impact on how they fare in the tournament. Pau Gasol's Spanish team dominated every quarter of every game they played in the opening round of the Athens Olympics, but that didn't matter one iota when they got to the quarterfinals and lost to the United States by staying in a zone too long and letting Stephon Marbury beat them from outside. Spain ended up finishing seventh, not much of a reward for being the most dominant team in the tournament when it didn't really matter.

The object here is to win the most important games, not to dominate. And I'll repeat: The sooner Coach K gets that message across, the better off this team will be.

Quite a few e-mailers also predicted the U.S. team will trounce everyone in the World Championship, to which I'll steal a line from Gregg Popovich and ask: Have you people been living in a phone booth for the past six years?

As Coach K told the team, if these games were being played under NBA rules with NBA refs in NBA arenas, the United States would wax everybody. But that's not the case here, and the challenge will be to beat these other teams at their game. And as anybody who has spent any time around international basketball knows, it's not the same game. The rules are different, the court is different, even the ball is different (it's slightly smaller than an NBA ball).

Here's a little international basketball quiz, and don't be ashamed if you get the answer wrong. So far during this training camp, I've asked the question of Joe Johnson, Bruce Bowen, Dwight Howard and Gilbert Arenas, and they all answered incorrectly. The question is: How do you call a timeout in an international basketball game? The answer is below.

Bowen, by the way, was taken aback by comments made by Spurs teammate Manu Ginobili of Argentina, which won gold at the 2004 Olympics. "He said they're basically going to be able to do whatever the want to do," Bowen said. "That was surprising to me, but if that's how they feel, they also better know that it isn't easy to defend championships, because when you're on the top, everyone goes after you."

Bowen likely will get the assignment of defending Ginobili if the Americans face Argentina, but Bowen said there's a misperception that he knows all of Ginobili's tendencies inside and out from defending him in practice every day. In reality, Bowen hasn't defended Ginobili during the Spurs' practices since 2004-05. Last season, they were almost always on the same squad during practice, Bowen said.

A few other notes:

• Carmelo Anthony declined to guarantee a gold medal as he did two years ago prior to the Olympics, a comment that circulated quickly around the world and was taken as a sign of disrespect by players from other countries.

• Chris Bosh became the first player to snatch a ball off the rim during a scrimmage. Under international rules, players can grab the ball while it is still in the cylinder -- a play that would be called goaltending under NBA rules.

• Elton Brand on the mind-set of the typical American fan when it comes to understanding how compe ive international basketball has become: "They don't get it."

• Dwyane Wade on seeking redemption for the bronze-medal performance in Athens: "Coach K doesn't want us to redeem ourselves, but the guys that were there have that inside us."

Quiz answer: If you are a player, you cannot call a timeout in international basketball. Only a coach can.

[1Parker1]

Bowen, by the way, was taken aback by comments made by Spurs teammate Manu Ginobili of Argentina, which won gold at the 2004 Olympics. "He said they're basically going to be able to do whatever the want to do," Bowen said. "That was surprising to me, but if that's how they feel, they also better know that it isn't easy to defend championships, because when you're on the top, everyone goes after you."

Interesting article. I'm suprised none of the US players knew about how to call a TO (not that I did either...). Also, I don't recall Manu saying that "Argentina would basically be able to do whatever they wanted." ?

[angel_luv]

I don't remember hearing that either.

Was that Gino quote in that same article and I missed it? It was lengthy.

"He said they're basically going to be able to do whatever the want to do," Bowen said. "That was surprising to me, but if that's how they feel, they also better know that it isn't easy to defend championships, because when you're on the top, everyone goes after you."

at Bruce sort of talking some smack... letting them know!
( As if they didn't. haha)

[Quadzilla99]

I wonder how much PT BB will get with Lebron, D-Wade, and Carmelo on this summer's team and active. If they stick with using guys like Ridnour and Heinrich at the point he would have a hard time getting PT at the expense of those 3 unless Coach K is really serious about making this a real team and not just putting the 5 most talented players on the floor.

[ChumpDumper]

Goddam Spurs trot out Bruce in front of the media again to talk about his current teammate.

[TMTTRIO]

Kind of different from what Manu said

ARG - Ginobili delighted to be back

BUENOS AIRES (FIBA World Championship) - Emanuel Ginobili has expressed his delight at his return to the Argentina squad.

The San Antonio Spurs guard has earned a recall for next month's FIBA World Championship in Japan after a two-year absence.

He last played in the 2004 Athens Olympics, helping his country to the gold medal, and told Argentinian newspaper Ole: "I've missed the national team.

"I needed to take a rest. Before Athens I was tired, and now, I want to return. I was missing being with the guys."

Ginobili was one of the 15 players named in coach Sergio Hernandez's preliminary squad who meet up on Sunday in Mar del Plate.

Japan 2006 will be Ginobili's third World Championship, having been part of the squad in Greece 1998 and the main guard in Indianapolis 2002.

He believes his team have what it takes to be successful in the tournament but admitted: "We have to keep the unit, group balance and sense of altruism.
"If we can repeat that, we'll be fine, but I don't think there will be any problem because we know each other very well.

"Today, I can say that to be on the podium would be a great result, but when you are there, you want the le.

"The United States are still the best," he added. "We're not the only favourites. There are a lot of high-level national teams.

"It's not the case that we can simply turn up and be champions. There are a lot of factors in play.

"It's true we have several players in better form even than in 2004, but it doesn't mean that the team will play better. We win as a team.
"The only new part is the coach and I don't see any problems with this. When I was asked about the succession I said that, whoever the successor was, he would be respected and the style would be kept. That will happen with Sergio."

Argentina have been drawn in Group A, alongside reigning champions Serbia & Montenegro, France, Venezuela, Nigeria and Lebanon.

PA Sport
Exclusively for FIBA.com

[austinfan]

These articles sound like Chris Sheridan has seen the US team in practice and is trying to send an urgent wake-up call. I think the US has a very good chance of winning the tournament, but they're going to have to play very smart, very alert ball every step of the way in order to get there.

[Obstructed_View]

Bruce won't make the team.

[Winnipeg_Spur]

Chris Bosh became the first player to snatch a ball off the rim during a scrimmage. Under international rules, players can grab the ball while it is still in the cylinder -- a play that would be called goaltending under NBA rules.

I've always thought NBA players with their size and athleticism could really take advantage of that rule in international compe ion, but they don't seem to.

[diego]

for argentina and the US to play, it can only be the final game because of the way the tourney is set. Would make a great game, and if Argentina wins, again, maybe some haters will begin to recognize!

oh and i was watching the argentine domestic league, and it came up that they're disputing the 72nd (or was it 79th) league le: i believe that means our league is older than the NBA. I'm not saying its better, but maybe some of you will begin to understand this isnt a new sport here, and also understand why international tournaments are FIBA rules instead of NBA: FIBA came first.

[milkyway21]

Interesting article. I'm suprised none of the US players knew about how to call a TO (not that I did either...). Also, I don't recall Manu saying that "Argentina would basically be able to do whatever they wanted." ?

did Manu say that?

BTW, how come you switched team from S.A. to Dallas?

[Phenomanul]

for argentina and the US to play, it can only be the final game because of the way the tourney is set. Would make a great game, and if Argentina wins, again, maybe some haters will begin to recognize!

oh and i was watching the argentine domestic league, and it came up that they're disputing the 72nd (or was it 79th) league le: i believe that means our league is older than the NBA. I'm not saying its better, but maybe some of you will begin to understand this isnt a new sport here, and also understand why international tournaments are FIBA rules instead of NBA: FIBA came first.

Interesting...

[milkyway21]

Bruce won't make the team.

i was thinking the same thing after I read this article today...

COMPE ION HEATS UP AT U.S. TEAM TRAINING
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/basketball/nba/

...A compe ive vibe is obvious in the workouts, where the players give an effort better suited to a preseason Duke workout than a midsummer scrimmage among millionaires.

During practice on Thursday, LeBron James attempted a looping underhand shot that was goaltended by Shawn Marion. When Kirk Hinrich congratulated Marion on a good block, James howled: "It wasn't no good block!"

The players wore smiles, but they clearly take their task seriously. While James and Marion don't have to worry about being left home, players such as Hinrich, Shane Battier, Bruce Bowen, Luke Ridnour and Antawn Jamison are working to prove their worth to Krzyzewski and his staff .

"If you get to this level where you're under consideration for these types of opportunities, you're the kind of player that takes practice very seriously," said Battier, traded from Memphis to Houston last week. "Somebody who works hard and treats every day like it's a tryout. So that's no different here. We're always in compe ion."

Krzyzewski and Jerry Colangelo, the club's managing director, purposely shunned the All-Star approach in choosing this roster, instead selecting many of the NBA's best complementary players.

Bowen and Sacramento center Brad Miller, who both went undrafted and earned their NBA careers through sheer hard work, are right alongside James, Amare Stoudemire, Carmelo Anthony and others who have been stars practically since birth.

Krzyzewski ended both of his first two practices earlier than he expected because his players already had picked up everything he planned to teach. He also has praised their work in daily pre-practice film sessions with his 11-man coaching staff.

Two full-court workouts Thursday appeared focused and compe ive. Phoenix Suns coach Mike D'Antoni taught principles of his innovative, Italian-influenced fast-break offense on one court, and Portland's Nate McMillan worked on man-to-man defense with Duke assistants Chris Collins and Steve Wojciechowski on the other.

"We've got to put the work in," said Bowen, the oldest invitee at 35. "We've got to learn to play the international game, because it's different. We're learning, but it takes an effort by all the guys here."


...i guess it's okay if Bruce won't be selected. He'll just get ready for next season.

[Please_dont_ban_me]

What the ?

This is a media guy suggesting we don't play every quarter our hardest? He wants us to take plays/quarters/games off? If this was a coach in the NBA or any player he would get ripped into retirement for being a ing idiot and shmuck.


We should have the mentality and hope to be dominant every game, every quarter. Good teams do that. The Bulls, the Lakers, the Spurs...they would shut the door and stomp on your throat. They didn't win 82 games a year though, but they still had that mentality. Who is this idiot?

[AFE7FATMAN]

i was thinking the same thing after I read this article today...

COMPE ION HEATS UP AT U.S. TEAM TRAINING
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/basketball/nba/




...i guess it's okay if Bruce won't be selected. He'll just get ready for next season.

Maybe He will get back some of the offense he had when he played against TP in France, before making it in the NBA.

Thanks GGA for the articles.

Great Thread

[Duncanoypi]

Quiz answer: If you are a player, you cannot call a timeout in international basketball. Only a coach can.

Josh Howard is not on the team right?

[jman3000]

Maybe He will get back some of the offense he had when he played against TP in France, before making it in the NBA.

Thanks GGA for the articles.

Great Thread

I don't think he ever played against TP in France... I think when TP was growing up BB played for a French team.

[carina_gino20]

i think Bruce was probably jesting with his quote on Manu...or probably just good-natured bantering in the locker room since we have a lot of guys going to the Worlds.

[AFE7FATMAN]

jman


You said"
I don't think he ever played against TP in France... I think when TP was growing up BB played for a French team."








I don't have the link but I remenber TP stating he wasn't suprised one time when Bowen went off and scored a bunch of PTS because TP either played against BB or watched BB play a lot. TP has been playing professional ball since he was 15 years old. I think BB played in Belgium, a lot of the french teams do.

[jman3000]

jman


You said"
I don't think he ever played against TP in France... I think when TP was growing up BB played for a French team."








I don't have the link but I remenber TP stating he wasn't suprised one time when Bowen went off and scored a bunch of PTS because TP either played against BB or watched BB play a lot. TP has been playing professional ball since he was 15 years old. I think BB played in Belgium, a lot of the french teams do.

I know he watched him play ... but I'm quite sure they never played against eachother ... which was the point of my post.

[milkyway21]

Josh Howard is not on the team right?

the only Howard on THAT team is named Dwight

Dwight Howard Aims for Team USA
"Dwight Howard can't help but dream about the future," writes Sekou Smith of the ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONS UTION. "What 20-year-old with his lifelong goals within his gargantuan grasp wouldn't? Dwight Howard, the second-year Orlando Magic power forward and former Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy star, is vying for a spot on the 12-man roster of the U.S. national team that will compete in next month's World Championships in Japan and in the 2008 Beijing Olympics."

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hey, Duncanoypi congratulations on your team-Purefoods for winning the All-Filipino le last night(the NBA visitors were there too who tossed up the ball).

you're lucky you didn't play against us(SMB).
just kiddin'

[AFE7FATMAN]

I know he watched him play ... but I'm quite sure they never played against eachother ... which was the point of my post.

No Problem, take you word for it, now I understand, I guess I should have been more Blunt, in order to express my bottom line, which is.

How in the can a starting SF go through an entire game without taking at lease one shot, unless his coach told him not to....................

[Duncanoypi]

the only Howard on THAT team is named Dwight


------------------------------------------

hey, Duncanoypi congratulations on your team-Purefoods for winning the All-Filipino le last night(the NBA visitors were there too who tossed up the ball).

you're lucky you didn't play against us(SMB).
just kiddin'

yup i've seen them(AI2 and Frye)...We're the champion!...

(sorry offtopic)

[GrandeDavid]

I disagree adamantly with this reporter. I think that these superstar players need to come in focused on dominating, and that starts with stuff like defense, intensity, the team will be super deep so everyone will be able to get plenty of rest. Dominate the hustle stats, step up your offensive game, bury those $10 million jump shots and layups they all supposedly own.

Go Coach K.

[duncan2k5]

hmmm...Hall of Fame coach...vs a reporter who watches the olympics just like the rest of us??? decisions...