US team provided a perfect ending

["Stephen Beauregard" <sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

US team provided a perfect ending
By Peter May, 9/2/2003

SAN JUAN -- With Athens 2004 as the goal, three basketball teams went home
happy from the just-concluded Tournament of the Americas Olympic qualifier.
For Argentina and Puerto Rico, the 12 days can best be summed up by the
following: We came, we played, we qualified. For the third team that made it
to Athens, the United States, it was a different mission and mind-set from the
beginning. It perhaps can be summed up this way: We came, we played, we
dominated.

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There was no other ending the US really wanted. Sure, an 8-2 record would have
made it to Athens. Even a 7-3 record would have done it. But even a single
loss was seen from the start as untenable. This was a group bent on more than
just getting its passports stamped next summer. This was a group that vowed to
settle for nothing less than perfection. And they got it, including a 106-73
obliteration of the Argentines in the gold medal game that capped a 10-0
performance.

To be sure, there is no less elation in Buenos Aires today. The Argentines
were hugging, celebrating, and waving the blue-white-and-gold flag after their
impressive semifinal victory over Canada. They had already lost three times
heading into the gold medal game, so what's another one? You could tell from
the start that this was not the same team that scared the Americans a few days
earlier -- and had beaten them in Indianapolis to snap a 58-game unbeaten
streak compiled by NBA players in international competition. This was a team
that had qualified for the Olympics for just the second time in 52 years --
and you can be reasonably certain the lads from Patagonia did a little
celebrating.

That was not the case with the Yanks. They overpowered Puerto Rico in a
semifinal game to earn the invitation to Athens. (Really, we had to think
these guys could finish at least third here, didn't we?) But they showed up
for the gold medal game and played what might have been their best game of the
tournament, using a 27-2 run over the first and second quarters to turn a
contested game (20-15) into a runaway (47-17). And the only basket Argentina
could muster in that stretch was on a goaltending call. It was never a game
after that.

"Watching them play, I think they helped the game all over," US coach Larry
Brown rhapsodized after the victory. "It was pretty special. I don't know if I
have ever been involved with a team that played any better than this team
did." And Brown coached the 1999 US qualifying team to a 10-0 record as well,
also in Puerto Rico.

The United States' best player throughout the tournament was -- surprise --
Tim Duncan. It would be interesting to see what the US would have done had
Duncan not played. Suffice it to say, it would not have been nearly as easy.
Duncan and Jermaine O'Neal were both named to the All-Tournament team along
with Argentines Manu Ginobili and Andres Nocioni and Canada's Steve Nash. But,
in a real head-scratcher, the media voted Nash the tournament MVP, even though
Canada failed to qualify and Nash had a horrible game (2 of 13) against Puerto
Rico in the loser-goes-home bronze medal game against Puerto Rico. (None of
the three writers from Canada voted for Nash as MVP.) Duncan finished an
appalling third, behind Nash and Ginobili.

But that was not even a minor concern for the Yanks, who had been emphasizing
teamwork, unselfish play, and a "check the ego at the door" mentality since
they began practicing in New York three-plus weeks ago. Brown's standard
comment -- "I want them to play the right way" -- was spoken before and after
every game, "the right way" being loosely defined as the opposite of what
happened to the US in last year's World Championships.

Brown is lucky in one respect; he had a better team than the 2002 assemblage.
The sixth-place finish at Indianapolis not only convinced USA Basketball that
it had to send the best, it also convinced the best (or most of the best) that
they had to go to avoid an encore. Brown also had Duncan, who was not on the
2002 World Championship team. He also had Jason Kidd (although Kidd was
mystifyingly ineffective for much of the tournament, owing, perhaps, to an
ankle injury). If there was bickering, it was impossible to spot, unlike the
open disenchantment seen in Indianapolis. Nope, this was the Good Ship
Lollipop from beginning to end, which translated into an average victory
margin of almost 30 points.

"We wanted to show everybody that we could play as a team and that we could do
all the things that the European and international teams do," Brown said. "The
hardest thing is we have so many great players that they all had to make a big
sacrifice, and I think they did that. That was what was so neat. To watch that
display [over Argentina]. If you're a basketball fan, I don't know how you
couldn't appreciate that."

The US, Puerto Rico, and Argentina bring to six the number of countries that
have qualified for Athens, joining Greece (the host), African zone champion
Angola, and world champion Yugoslavia. Of the remaining six teams that will go
to Athens, three will come from the upcoming European qualifier in Sweden, and
two will qualify from Oceania and one from Asia.

Thanks,

Steve
sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx

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