Team USA 2012: What's Not To Like?

Watching the men’s US Olympic basketball team dismantle France over the weekend, my friend Patrick couldn’t contain his glee when France kept the game at least within reach over the 1st half. As a blue blooded American, this would strike some people as odd. 1st of all, you have to understand that Patrick is an eternal supporter of the underdog. For example, he vows that last year’s NCAA tournament was the greatest ever. I wondered how this was possible considering that the games were mostly dull and filled with what can only be considered a mediocre level of basketball at best. But to Pat, the upset-ridden field (which included a pair of 15-over-2 stunners) was the real story. For me, that’s a nice backdrop, but I tend to focus more on the games themselves. And my feeling that I was watching bad basketball has more to do with the overall landscape of college basketball (an AAU mentality, 1-and-done players, etc.) than with the advancement of lower seeded teams. The championship game in 2010, where Butler came within a Gordon Hayward halfcourt heave of winning the whole thing was 1 of the greatest college basketball games I ever watched…the following year when Butler shot about 8% from the field in the final game against Connecticut was not. So to me, upsets and underdogs are great, but they are like gravy…it doesn’t do a lot of good without the turkey and stuffing.

Having said all that, Patrick has a particular disdain for USA Basketball. He views them as arrogant and entitled, and he would like nothing better for Argentina or Spain or Lithuania to serve them a plate of comeuppance in these Olympic games. It made me wonder how prevalent that feeling is among Americans…is there a group of American-born basketball fans out there like Patrick that not only root for other teams to win, but who actively root for USA to lose too?

Anti-Team USA feelings this year might be misplaced.

My feeling is that a little bit of arrogance is unavoidable when you happen to be a mega-talent athlete of some kind, but I can kind of see his point. In 1992, the Dream Team was a revelation…they were so otherworldly, superhuman, and superior to the competition that it was impossible to feel anything but good will towards them. The Olympic teams that followed seemed to rest on the laurels of that ’92 team a little bit though. The Americans just seemed a little too sure they were going to win, and they seemed more concerned with dunking, flexing, and mean-mugging than anything else (cue Vince Carter’s leapfrog dunk in the 2000 games). And yet while we were still far and away the best in the world, everyone else was catching up…only we didn’t seem to take notice.

By 2004, it seemed like USA Basketball was a complete mess. Many of the top players showed little interest in playing to begin with, and no one really seemed to care either…as if winning a gold medal was a birthright. Surely, we could send over a team of college intramural all-stars and still win. Also, there didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to how the team was selected. The rosters 2 “point guards” were the shot-happy Allen Iverson and Stephon Marbury. That’s right, boys and girls…Stephon Marbury not only was selected to but started on a US Olympic basketball team at 1 time. The team was filled with great athletes, but no reliable outside shooters to speak of. Lamar Odom was the starting power forward for Pete’s sake! LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony were 19 and 20 years at the time, respectively, and neither had a particularly prominent role. After sheepishly coming home with a bronze medal, reporters asked Tim Duncan whether he would return to the US team again, to which he famously responded, “FIBA sucks.”

Oh, it's true...but finding this picture was more work than you think.

Team USA could still very well be upset. Lowly Tunisia’s flurry of 3’s in the 1st half of last night’s game (before getting whupped in the 2nd) should be enough to prove that. And if you want to, you can find things to pick at regarding USA Basketball over the last 2 Olympics as well. There will always be Kobe-haters/LeBron-haters/Coach K-haters out there. You can say this team isn’t of the caliber of the Dream Team or other teams before it. You can say it is a flawed team in terms of their size. For me, it’s hard to argue that it’s not a likeable team though. They seem to play hard and play for each other. They actually seem to like each other…the on-court connection between guys like Melo, LeBron, and Durant is easily apparent. And despite a lack of healthy quality big guys to choose from, the team appears to have been selected with a specific role for each guy in mind. I have rooted for much less likeable Team USA’s in the past…if I can root for AI-Starbury-Lamar, then I can root for these guys for sure.