Re: Rio Olympic Basketball 2016
Continuity. Prior to the USA overhaul in 2005, they basically treated international competitions like the NBA treats all-star games. Ask the best players you can find, and if someone drops out, ask the next guy on the list. No cohesion. Players treated it like a chore. Different coach every 2 years. When Colangelo took over he handed the reigns to Krzyzewski and made him USA basketball czar. Instead of selecting 12 guys and praying they'd say yes, he flipped the tables and selected over 20, and told the players to fight for their spots. This had the opposite effect of turning a team USA roster spot into something "won" and stoked the natural competitive instincts of the best players.
As for the 2006 debacle against Greece, that goes down as probably the biggest upset in the history of team sports that never, ever gets talked about. You have to remember, this was essentially a rebuilding year for USA, year 1 under the new system and it hadn't taken hold quite yet. The best players on the team were LeBron (22), CP3 (21), Bosh (22), Carmelo (22) Wade (24) and Howard (21). A ton of talent there yes, but all of them aside from Wade were essentially college-age, and they were ripe for a veteran team like Greece to sucker-punch them. It was easily the youngest team USA in the Dream Team era, and i essentially sewed the seeds for a dominant run. When they lost the semifinal not a lot of people were that shocked because USA had already fallen flat on their faces in 2002 and 2004. No one really gave Colangelo and Krzyzewski credit for assembling the very best young NBA talent and grooming them for the long term.
Yep. The one skill that Europeans had an advantage in international play was perimeter shooting, with the trapezoid lane and the shorter 3-point line. USA got killed behind the arc in 2002 and 2004. Since then the NBA repealed the illegal defense rule, bringing them closer to international rules, and FIBA adopted the NBA's rectangular zone, bringing them closer to the NBA. Now the NBA game much more closely mirrors the international game, and it's reflected whenever team USA takes the court. Outside of the basket interference rule difference, NBA players no longer look like fish out of water in the WBC and Olympics. The old home rules advantage for other countries is pretty much gone.
team USA by every measure is more dominant now than they were during the mid-late 90's. The gap closed in the 00's but they've bucked that trend and forced it open again.
There's a reason they call them "golden generations." They don't come along often. The fact is basketball is the most popular participation sport in America, and in every other country on earth aside from Lithuania it's a distant second at best. USA with a population of 300+ million and unmatched resources can roll out world class basketball players like an assembly line year after year, while everyone else is just hoping to get lucky, and there's no "next generation" for 90% of them. Brazil was rolling Oscar Schmidt out there in a wheelchair until he finally had enough. It isn't like they had anyone to replace him with.
Nobody in Germany wants to be the "next Dirk." yeah he's a big time celebrity there but so is David Hasselhoff. It's like if an American ever made it big time in the premiere league. We'd all cheer for the novelty, but there wouldn't be a mass increase of teenage boys taking up soccer the next year.
China came in with Yao and left when he did. Their "we have 100+ 7-footers in our pipeline" boast was a joke.
Lithuania is and will always be the little engine that could, but they're very limited by their resources and their odds of winning gold aren't ever going to improve, even with a pretty consistent youth development program.
Spain does have something of a next generation in Rubio, Abrines, Hermangomez and Mirotic, but there's no Pau in that group. No Marc. There may not even be a Rudy. Rubio was supposed to be the special talent of the new generation and he's failed to live up to the massive hype he had in 2008. The replacement of Ibaka with Mirotic on the national team is just ****ing dumb. At least I hope it was just an honestly bad decision, otherwise they have bigger issues than I thought.
France seems to have the best mix of resources and ambition for basketball outside of the USA. Quality youth development program and a steady talent pool to draw from. They hit the scene late though, so it remains to be seen if they have the staying power that other countries have lacked after their first taste of success. When Boris and Parker retire, they're going to face the same questions Argentina and Spain are facing now.
Originally posted by King Tuts Tomb
View Post
As for the 2006 debacle against Greece, that goes down as probably the biggest upset in the history of team sports that never, ever gets talked about. You have to remember, this was essentially a rebuilding year for USA, year 1 under the new system and it hadn't taken hold quite yet. The best players on the team were LeBron (22), CP3 (21), Bosh (22), Carmelo (22) Wade (24) and Howard (21). A ton of talent there yes, but all of them aside from Wade were essentially college-age, and they were ripe for a veteran team like Greece to sucker-punch them. It was easily the youngest team USA in the Dream Team era, and i essentially sewed the seeds for a dominant run. When they lost the semifinal not a lot of people were that shocked because USA had already fallen flat on their faces in 2002 and 2004. No one really gave Colangelo and Krzyzewski credit for assembling the very best young NBA talent and grooming them for the long term.
Originally posted by King Tuts Tomb
View Post
team USA by every measure is more dominant now than they were during the mid-late 90's. The gap closed in the 00's but they've bucked that trend and forced it open again.
Originally posted by BlueNGold
View Post
Nobody in Germany wants to be the "next Dirk." yeah he's a big time celebrity there but so is David Hasselhoff. It's like if an American ever made it big time in the premiere league. We'd all cheer for the novelty, but there wouldn't be a mass increase of teenage boys taking up soccer the next year.
China came in with Yao and left when he did. Their "we have 100+ 7-footers in our pipeline" boast was a joke.
Lithuania is and will always be the little engine that could, but they're very limited by their resources and their odds of winning gold aren't ever going to improve, even with a pretty consistent youth development program.
Spain does have something of a next generation in Rubio, Abrines, Hermangomez and Mirotic, but there's no Pau in that group. No Marc. There may not even be a Rudy. Rubio was supposed to be the special talent of the new generation and he's failed to live up to the massive hype he had in 2008. The replacement of Ibaka with Mirotic on the national team is just ****ing dumb. At least I hope it was just an honestly bad decision, otherwise they have bigger issues than I thought.
France seems to have the best mix of resources and ambition for basketball outside of the USA. Quality youth development program and a steady talent pool to draw from. They hit the scene late though, so it remains to be seen if they have the staying power that other countries have lacked after their first taste of success. When Boris and Parker retire, they're going to face the same questions Argentina and Spain are facing now.
Comment