The American Devolution
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by user MrZog3220
I'm not here to gripe about USA Basketball and their inability to win the World Championships this year. I'm not here to say that the United States has lost its stronghold on the sport. I'm not here to attack the players and say that they didn't care, because they did.
If possession is 9/10th of the law, then execution is 9/10th of success.
And the fact is, on all ends, USA Basketball had the comparative execution of a pick-up team at your local YMCA.
I had actually been very interested in the U.S. team assembled for this year's World Championships in Japan. I liked that it was a shot at redemption of sorts, because after LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Carmelo Anthony were sat on the bench by Larry Brown as the team proved to be a failure, the NBA's three biggest up-and-coming stars were really into this one.
LeBron, Carmelo and D-Wade were genuinely into these championships, had the real desire to win. Along with the three, Mike Krzyzewski and his staff attempted to assemble a team that would work in all facets of the game, i.e. not be worthless on defense, actually have a point guard, make shots beyond some three-pointers here and there and some wild drives.
So the U.S. team accomplished some of those, but items above, that are the concerns for the Americans are more telling than anything. Those actually are the concerns. If anybody tries to tell me that the team from Greece, which knocked off the Americans early Friday morning 101-95 in the semifinals, have any of those deficiencies, I'll plead ignorance, because none of those shortcomings were happening on the Greek end.
The whole game almost speaks to the evolution of basketball. More than anything, it proved to me that the NBA style of play has become so far from what basketball's originial intention was, that the best players in the world, and few would dispute that, can't even hang anymore.
I am one of the few NBA fans left, but this World Championship proved just how much the game has changed....likely for the worse. The Greeks were working and moving as a team, running high screens, flawless pick-and-rolls, streaking through every lane imaginable on offense, and forming a zone defense that had the U.S. veritably confused.
So what happens? Pretty much, Greece on offense was 5-on-3ish, since every time they penetrated the lane, the US post players were half confused and didn't roll from their defender in time. On offense, it turned into NBA style 1-on-5 offense where the team's superstar basically creates his own shot while his four fellow teammates stand somewhere.
As basketball was taken to the masses worldwide, it was rooted in the fundamentals and still is. The evolution of the NBA where dunks have become prevalent isn't all that much of the issue, it is the change in refereeing and fouls. If Michael Jordan, then Shaq and now LeBron, Dwayne Wade and others would be hit with offensive fouls like they should be when they force contact, this all would have never happened.
Team-oriented styles with players creating shots for their teammates would still be the norm. Working as a cohesive unit would not have given way to the disjoint that the teams play with now.
It's not to make excuses for the difficulty that it may be to assemble a team in three months, but I think they forgot something. During this entire game, they ran a lineup where LeBron at 6'8" was the tallest guy out there. Maybe it's just me, but I don't recall seeing many successful teams play with two 1s, two 2s and a 3.
So Chris Bosh, Elton Brand and Dwight Howard sit on the bench, played 5, 12 and 13 minutes, respectively. (Mind you, those are the only three guys that play a 4 or 5). And they can be found watching from the sidelines as the Greek pick-and-roll dominates the offensive paint en route to the win. Sure did a lot of good having the big men with the ability to plug up the lane on the sidelines.
So, no, I'm not here to gripe...I'm just here trying to make sense of it all.
Date
Fri 09/01/06, 7:06 pm EST
