New-look Team USA for 2008 Games Announced
On ABC's NBA Nation pregame show today, USA basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo and head coach Mike Krzyzewski announced their selections for who will be invited to participate in the next round of international basketball competition for the USA. The three-year commitment will begin with preparations for this year's world championships in Japan over the summer and will conclude with the Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, in 2008. The United States is very concerned with improving on 2004's embarrassing bronze-medal finish -- not only was third place a disappointing finish for the country that invented the game of basketball, but Team USA was seen as a hastily thrown together all-star squad that lacked anything resembling chemistry, maturity, or sportsmanship. Consequently, Colangelo and Krzyzewski emphasized the importance of teamwork and cohesion in their selections of the team.
While the 2008 squad certainly has its share of young superstars, such as Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and Dwayne Wade, it also boasts elements that were sorely lacking on the bronze medal winners of two years ago: role players. The San Antonio defensive stopper Bruce Bowen has been selected, as has Shane Battier, the Memphis Grizzlies' ace defender; in the shooting department, Duke's J.J. Redick will be providing his long-range acumen, as will Michael Redd of the Milwaukee Bucks and Chauncey Billups of the Detroit Pistons. On the boards, Team USA will have such non-flashy behemoths as the LA Clippers' Elton Brand, the Orlando Magic's Dwight Howard, and the Toronto Raptors' Chris Bosh patrolling the paint. The point is that this is not just an all-star squad -- in selecting such a wide variety of talent, Colangelo seems to be on the right track toward assembling a cohesive team that has a real chance to run the table in Beijing. Moreover, the program has gained some credibility, since Bruce Bowen will not sell a lot of T-shirts and replica jerseys, but he will win a lot of basketball games.
The game following this announcement on ABC featured the Indiana Pacers visiting the Philadelphia 76ers, who are led by Allen Iverson, the most prominent player snubbed by the selection committee. ABC announcer Bill Walton went on and on about what a travesty it was that this future hall of famer was left off, despite his bad attitude, lack of leadership during the 2004 games, and "shoot-first" offensive mindset. To my mind, it made total sense to leave the volatile Philadelphia superstar off the squad. For one thing, the team is already filled to the brim with scorers, all of whom are younger, bigger, stronger, and more versatile than Iverson (such as Bryant, James, Carmelo Anthony, and Gilbert Arenas). More importantly, though, Allen Iverson is not the type of basketball player the United States want to present to the rest of the world. True, he is a fierce competitor and nearly took the 2001 76ers to the championship all by himself, but he is also a malcontent, who on one day can lead your team to victory and the next day skip practice because he didn't feel like going.
In being snubbed for the 2008 games, Iverson has, in a way, been pegged as the poster boy for that failed Olympic experiment. Hopefully never again will the USA be so arrogant and lazy in simply throwing together a group of "me-first" superstars and expecting they can emerge victorious over a group of world competitors who have caught up in a big way. The emphasis in the future will be on teamwork, consistency, commitment, and professionalism. As talented as Iverson no doubt is, he is simply at odds with too many of those ideals. And given that those characteristics form the bedrock of what is decent and admirable about sportsmanship, it certainly makes you wonder about Iverson's legacy. Is he being scapegoated here? After all, were it not for the efforts of him and Duncan in Athens in 2004, the team might not have even won the bronze. And doesn't 2004 head coach Larry Brown deserve some of the blame, since it seems he severely under-utilized stratospheric talents like Amare Stoudemire and LeBron James? And what about the selection committee, which put together a team that had no long-range shooters or defensive stalwarts?
I agree that there seems to be no place for Iverson on the 2008 squad, but whether or not that should be taken to be a condemnation of him and the 2004 team, I'm not so sure. I do certainly hope that the Beijing teams fares better than the Athens team (no matter whose "fault" it was), not only for national pride, but also for the sake of the game itself. The United States is where the world's finest and most explosive basketball is played, and at the biggest international stage, the USA should be the game's most forceful positive ambassador, not yet another example of what's wrong with the NBA. I believe Colangelo and Krzyzewski are providing the USA Basketball program with a sense of balance, consistency, professionalism, and pride, which, as a serious American sports fan, makes me very happy.
While the 2008 squad certainly has its share of young superstars, such as Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and Dwayne Wade, it also boasts elements that were sorely lacking on the bronze medal winners of two years ago: role players. The San Antonio defensive stopper Bruce Bowen has been selected, as has Shane Battier, the Memphis Grizzlies' ace defender; in the shooting department, Duke's J.J. Redick will be providing his long-range acumen, as will Michael Redd of the Milwaukee Bucks and Chauncey Billups of the Detroit Pistons. On the boards, Team USA will have such non-flashy behemoths as the LA Clippers' Elton Brand, the Orlando Magic's Dwight Howard, and the Toronto Raptors' Chris Bosh patrolling the paint. The point is that this is not just an all-star squad -- in selecting such a wide variety of talent, Colangelo seems to be on the right track toward assembling a cohesive team that has a real chance to run the table in Beijing. Moreover, the program has gained some credibility, since Bruce Bowen will not sell a lot of T-shirts and replica jerseys, but he will win a lot of basketball games.
The game following this announcement on ABC featured the Indiana Pacers visiting the Philadelphia 76ers, who are led by Allen Iverson, the most prominent player snubbed by the selection committee. ABC announcer Bill Walton went on and on about what a travesty it was that this future hall of famer was left off, despite his bad attitude, lack of leadership during the 2004 games, and "shoot-first" offensive mindset. To my mind, it made total sense to leave the volatile Philadelphia superstar off the squad. For one thing, the team is already filled to the brim with scorers, all of whom are younger, bigger, stronger, and more versatile than Iverson (such as Bryant, James, Carmelo Anthony, and Gilbert Arenas). More importantly, though, Allen Iverson is not the type of basketball player the United States want to present to the rest of the world. True, he is a fierce competitor and nearly took the 2001 76ers to the championship all by himself, but he is also a malcontent, who on one day can lead your team to victory and the next day skip practice because he didn't feel like going.
In being snubbed for the 2008 games, Iverson has, in a way, been pegged as the poster boy for that failed Olympic experiment. Hopefully never again will the USA be so arrogant and lazy in simply throwing together a group of "me-first" superstars and expecting they can emerge victorious over a group of world competitors who have caught up in a big way. The emphasis in the future will be on teamwork, consistency, commitment, and professionalism. As talented as Iverson no doubt is, he is simply at odds with too many of those ideals. And given that those characteristics form the bedrock of what is decent and admirable about sportsmanship, it certainly makes you wonder about Iverson's legacy. Is he being scapegoated here? After all, were it not for the efforts of him and Duncan in Athens in 2004, the team might not have even won the bronze. And doesn't 2004 head coach Larry Brown deserve some of the blame, since it seems he severely under-utilized stratospheric talents like Amare Stoudemire and LeBron James? And what about the selection committee, which put together a team that had no long-range shooters or defensive stalwarts?
I agree that there seems to be no place for Iverson on the 2008 squad, but whether or not that should be taken to be a condemnation of him and the 2004 team, I'm not so sure. I do certainly hope that the Beijing teams fares better than the Athens team (no matter whose "fault" it was), not only for national pride, but also for the sake of the game itself. The United States is where the world's finest and most explosive basketball is played, and at the biggest international stage, the USA should be the game's most forceful positive ambassador, not yet another example of what's wrong with the NBA. I believe Colangelo and Krzyzewski are providing the USA Basketball program with a sense of balance, consistency, professionalism, and pride, which, as a serious American sports fan, makes me very happy.
posted by Nicholas Taylor at
4:39 PM
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