Que Pasa, USA basketball?

As if the losses and close calls in the preliminary games leading up to the Olympics weren't enough of an indication, the 19 point loss by Team USA to Puerto Rico in their first tournament game signals the end of the US's domination in a sport we not only invented but have owned since, well, the Olympics first started.

But the bumbling stumbling American team has to be a very troubling development to Maximum Leader David Stern. A 19 point loss! To Puerto Rico! I don't care how you cut it, a team with Tim Duncan and Allen Iverson should not be blown out by a tiny island commonwealth. Whose PR got on its team? I mean, is Ramon Rivas still playing? Ramon Ramos?

Commentators, and I heard any number, pooh pooh the loss as not having any impact on the US's gold medal hopes, since 4 of the 6 teams in the US pool advance to the medal round. Are you kidding me? After a 19 point loss, I don't think you can count on them getting that far at this point. (i've also heard commentators try to explain away the loss as American players being unfamiliar with zone defenses. Note to commentators: NBA rules now allow zones).

Skeptics will say that the blowout, and that's what it was - no two ways about it - was just the natural evolution of the world improving in the sport in response to us sending the pros over since 1992. And let me just say, that that decision was very questionable. Sure the Dream Team made a great story, but the whole thing had a scent of bullying and overkill. We don't win the gold which the national psyche thinks is our birthright after losing by 6 to the Russkies in '88. All the sudden its a national scandal and we fall back on our pros to show the world whose really boss in basketball. Well, whose the boss now?

Up to '92, we always held the moral high ground when it came to Olympic matters like this. The commies sent their pros, and we sent our young amateurs. The subtext was that we played by the rules and the Eastern bloc cheated. The Dream Team perhaps accelerated the whole professionalization of the Olympics (with a big help from the collapse of the Soviet Union. The games no longer have that overt good vs. bad theme going.) I mean, everyone competing now has an agent. Jiminy, swimmer Gary Hall, Jr's agent was the one commenting on his disappointment of not racing in the final when the US team came up 3rd in the 4x100 freestyle relay. Can you imagine that happening 20 years ago! And by that I mean Hall's agent speaking for him while the Olympics are underway and of the relay team being soundly beaten and coming in 3rd.

As disappointing and shocking as the loss to Puerto Rico was, it has to be most troubling to David Stern. This team and this loss perhaps encapsulate what is wrong with the NBA: an uninspiring individually oriented brand of play (as opposed to the fluid team play of international teams), the astonishing inability of American pros to consistently knock down a mid-range jumper (the ESPN highlight revenge - everyone wants to take to the rim and throw it down. Apparently few Americans can hit a basic 15 footer anymore), and the lack of star appeal of the NBA players in general. International players have vastly improved their fundamental basketball skills, while American players' basics have regressed to the point where they rely primarily on their athleticism.

Yes, Shaq, Kobe, and KG aren't playing. But, c'mon. (Shaq and KG aren't going to help with the perimeter shooting anyway). More to the point, there was an ad of the USA team in Newsweek with a picture of the entire roster. I only recognized Duncan and AI. Now, as a 36 year old white guy, I'm not the NBA's key demographic, but I am more sports-oriented than the average guy. And if I'm not a key audience, why was USA basketball advertising in Newsweek to begin with? The whole thing speaks to the the mediocrity and genericness that now passes for what was the most glamorous and expertly marketed sports league in the world.