USA Basketball

Due to my new role as "stay at home Dad", I had the opportunity to watch the US men's basketball team play Greece this morning in the Olympics.  Just a couple years ago, Greece upset a heavily favored U.S. team at the world championships in Japan.  It was one of the most disappointing games in U.S. men's basketball history because U.S.A basketball had made great efforts leading up to the World Championships to better prepare the team for international competition after being thoroughly embarrassed at the Olympics in 2004.  Despite these efforts the US team fell in Japan to a Greek team that did not have a single NBA player on it's roster.   As a result, this rematch took on a special significance for team USA.  In the end, the men's team cruised to a 92-69 win and demonstrated the type of effort that spectators have rarely seen from team USA since pro players began competing in the Olympics.  

The funny thing about this game for me was that I really didn't care that much whether or not the U.S. won.  Sure, I rooted for the American men to win and I was proud of the effort they displayed but whether or not the U.S. wins the gold in basketball means about as much to me as whether or not the U.S. women are able pull off a gold medal in water polo.  In fact, I might actually care more about the U.S. women's water polo team.  (However, I enjoy watching men's basketball a great deal more.)  The reason for this is that the performance of the U.S. men's basketball team in no significant way reflects the quality or caliber of basketball in United States.  That may sound counter-intuitive, but there are several reasons why that statement is true.

First, the rules that govern international basketball are very different from NBA rules.  The international game is played at a different pace than NBA basketball and international referee's call games differently than NBA referees.  Why are all of these differences significant?  Well, imagine if Michael Phelps and the rest of the US swim team swam different types of swimming strokes and in a different size swimming pool than those used in the Olympics.  Would the Olympics really be an accurate measure of team USA's quality as a swim team?  The answer is no.  The same can be said of the men's basketball team.  Second, teams the US faces in the Olympic tournament consist of players that have played together in international competition for years.  The US comparatively has little experience in international competition and have players that have only played a handful of games together.  The fact is the NBA and ,by extension, USA basketball has never fully embraced international basketball.

That said, USA basketball and the NBA have made more of an effort over the last four years to develop an actual international men's basketball program that more closely resembles that of other countries.  In fact, if the US does win gold it will be because of these recent efforts.  Nevertheless, until the NBA embraces international basketball has full partners and/or international basketball realizes it's in their best interest to tailor their game more toward NBA basketball, Olympic basketball will never truly be a competition to determine the best men's basketball team in the world and basketball itself will never truly be an international game.