I was just watching The Sports Reporters on ESPN and one of the panelists basically said that the United States shouldn't participate in international play with NBA players because it hurts the NBA brand when they lose. One of the other panelists disagreed with him, saying that the rest of the world has simply caught up with North American dominance of basketball.
Thoughts?
Well now they have to play because if we quit playing the other countries are gonna think that we're sore losers because we quit and we haven't been winning anything. And then they'll be saying that USA sucks. So if we're gonna quit we have to win some golds.
We can't win so, we can't even compete, so we won't stoop to play.
Our Way, or (we hit) the Highway.
NBA Champions are parochial American champions, not World Champions.
Just a hint for this ESPN guy :
WC isn't like ASG, nba in europe and BB without borders : it's a compe ion and not a nba promotional operation.
Exactly. When I see Team USA, I don't think of the NBA. I think of them as players representing the US. Argentina has five guys that play in the NBA, so does their loss reflect badly on the NBA as well? I didn't hear him say anything about that.
I has a similar thought.
With all the international players who also play in the NBA, there is a good chance that some NBA player, even if not an American one, will win the tournament.
Regardless of the nationality of that winner, I think it still reflects well on the NBA team that drafted him.
The fact is that the NBA 'brand' deserves to lose some luster if they don't compete well, even when using their superstars.
I haven't heard anyone say they got beat because of the refs, or they don't understand the rules. Or can't play by the FIBA rules.
Apparently, the team concept of basketball is beyond the comprehension of NBA American superstars when they are all stacked together.
Idiocy. Seems like the benefit of having names like Yao, Nowitzki, Ginobili, Parker, Gasol, etc. playing for their home teams has got to outweigh any tarnish from the US only getting the Bronze. "In spite of the massive international exposure we get, oOur brand just CAN'T take the humiliation of the US team placing third. Sure, the Chinese fans are a little annoyed that we won't let Yao play, but that won't hurt us in the long run nearly as much as those US bronzes do..."
Yes, the WCs and Olympics are what sports are supposed to be about.
There are some good posts in this topic which are my opinion as well. It's good that Coach K doesn't see these compe ions as NBA promotional material, so I think USA team can get only better in next years.
The area that no one mentions were the international teams are better than the NBA is really coaching and players willing to be coached.
You or I can call for an isolation offense. That currently is the state of NBA coaching. The NBA changes where touch fouls were being called encouraged this type of offense. NBA changes need to focus on issues that cause teams to pass to the open man. So, before we start complaining about the players we need to send the coaches back to basketball 101 and then get the players who are team first guys.
I am still amazed that the coaching brain trust of team USA could not defend against a pick and role.
ditto and everything else posted, nice comments
There are some good posts in this topic which are my opinion as well. It's good that Coach K doesn't see these compe ions as NBA promotional material, so I think USA team can get only better in next years.
NBA has a problem. Look if someone like Arenas or Iverson has less than 20 shots per game, the whinning is going to start for sure. Broadcasting, and everyone surrounding NBA favour the superstar isolation basketball. C'mmon this is Rucker Park not basketball. The only exception is maybe our beloved Spurs.
Anyway the best players are in NBA so Mr. Stern has nothing to worry about.
Gus
Then don't lose.
I actually thought the US played a lot better this time around. The individual style of play still dominates there, but its sinking in IMO. Its a shame the US sees the bronze as such a failure, because that only means they don't give enough credit to other great basketball nations such as Spain, Greece or even Argentina.
As for the NBA looking bad because of their placement, thats bull . First and foremost, if the US response to adversity was to just quit participating, it would directly affect the NBA image far more than placing third would. Second, Americans should really stop looking at bronze as a complete failure. Just accept that now, there are nations that can compete at their level and instead of regarding anything other than first place as a failure, support your team and be happy to have medalled at all. Yes, the US can win the gold, but that doesn't necesarilly mean its for sure.
I for one am proud of our Argentina team. They might not have been in the top three, but I can't complain at how much effort they put in.
I am proud that the US medaled and I really don't understand why they think that anything less than Gold is a complete failure. Argentina didn't medal at all, but they're still proud with how they played in the tournament. I think that the mentality of US athletes in compe ions like this trickles down from the overall mentality of the country. If we're not completely kicking everyone's ass, we're failures. But that's a topic for the politcal forum.
Bronze is a failure and there is no other way to look at it. The talent assembled should have completely run over the rest of the field. The world has gotten much better and there is no denying that, but the fact is that the US has also degenereated into an isolation style of basketball that is easily exploitable.
They did take a step in the right direction with this compe ion. We could have done much much better though. There are high standards in place for this team and there is a reason for that. When Brazil goes to the World Cup and they don't win it all, it is a failure. Why? Because of the way the culture of the sport is within that particular country. Basketball is ours, and we play it more than any other country in the world. Anything less than the best is a failure because this team should win the gold every time with the level of talent they have! Many other teams of the world play well, but none have the same capabilities that team USA had. No other country is able to reach a level of play that this country is capable of, but we failed.
The motivations that sprung from Athens and the previous WCs should have been more than enough to spur change and instill enough motivation to change the system into a winning one. It is very frustrating to see the same fundemental mistakes made in team mangement and coaching that were made in the previous Olympics. To watch the same isolation offense that results in charge after charge or to wait time and time again for a sign of a zone defense to combat the pic and roll and never see it is to witness the same errors in coaching that were made before.
So yes, if we aren't kicking everyone elses asses then this team failed. We don't play for the bronze in basketball. We play for the gold because when this team finally starts to play to its ceiling, thats what they will win each and every time.
Basketball is basketball. Of course there are minor changes to international ball, but United States is still the grestest basketball nation. It's true that the rest of the world has gradually caught up, but USA would consistently beat any other team with their main stars playing. I want to see an international team beat the a healthy US team with US players wanting to play for pride.
PG LeBron
SG Kobe
SF Tracy
PF TD/KG
C Shaq
The time when the US could possibly send scrubs from the college level are DEAD and OVER. A lot of the Euro league are far superior to the college level.
This current US team that Calengelo assembled was certainly capable of winning gold, but you can sense that it wasn't going to be easy. This team has too many lapses and holes on the team for it to consistenly win without it playing with great effort. They can't simply BS their way through a game and win against teams like Argentina and Spain.
I think there will be a point in international basketball where the US team will need to bring their super-stars to succeed. This similar to the US and delveloping soccer, but basketball for the rest of the world is happening a lot faster.
This team was more than capable of winning the gold with the personel. They were by far the most talented and deepest team.
If you give us the same coach the Greek's had, we win hands down. Chew on that.
What do you mean it's ours? And how do you know we play it more?
ooooooooooo kkkkk. I said they were capable of winning but they flat out sucked ass because...
1. Too many open threes. Give chances for scrubs to shine.
2. Lack of effort. D Wade misses a layup and instead of going back on D, he chats with the ref. That also leads to #1. Celebrating before the game by putting on a dunk display. Great stuff there. I am not taking about a dunk. Sarcasm. Where was coach K? Maybe he was coordinating the dunks. Nice.
3. Defense: Pick and Roll D and penetration. Arroyo burned US. Sarunus burned US. Scrubs from Greece burned US. History is funny. Yep is also leads to #1. Doesn't the US have the best basketball athletes in the world?
4. No post up offense. Where was the Elton Brand that we are all used to? What about Dwight Howard? Great rebouding the stats for him, but how about also feeding the man. Also Bosh never had a chance to use his superior quickness over every big man out there.
5. Offense. Offense in general sucked at times. US needed more demoralizing plays. James/Wade/somebody needs to be dunking on people with reckless abandon. When you're down, you don't try to bank a three pointer. You don't try to go ONE on FIVE. Work the ball around.
6. Pass the ball. In retrospect, I seriously wonder if they would have even sniffed the quarter-finals if it wasn't for Chris Paul. Can anyone else pass. LeBron? Not enough.
7. Coach K. Coaches that pull Flip Saunders in the fourth quarter in tight games should never coach the USA basketball team. It's not time to strain your neck and panic by making 100 subs in the fourth quarter. How about getting Howard in there late who was the low maintenance big man you made to begin with. Also a major reason for all of the above. All this coach K knows zone and defense was all hyped garbaged that turned to be over-rated bull and eventually led to his panic attack and clear inability to lead. Run-on-setennce. YES.
I agree with you.
I think the U.S. team did well, even if they didn't win. As did Argentina. As did Slovenia.
Sentiments of the majority of US population
wow...still haven't learned I see. Its still "we lost, but we were the best and should have won" sort of thing huh? It couldn't have been that Greece played better as a TEAM... no, its we had more talent we should have won, anything else is failure. Yeah, that's a healthy way of looking at it
In general terms, no, teams should not allow their players to compete on behalf of other organizations while they're under contract.
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