US Men's Basketball Team Embarrassed by Commonwealth of Puerto Rico
The golden age of American Basketball is long gone. The original Dream Team was a basketball fan's
fantasy, the best America had, not just some college kids sent out to embarrass the Soviet pros. It was
Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird along with Charles Barkley, David Robinson, Patrick Ewing,
Karl Malone, Scottie Pippen, Chris Mullin, Clyde Drexler, John Stockton, and Christian Laettner, the token
college kid. The American team that lost to Puerto Rico (not even a country in its own right, but a
Commonwealth of the US) 92-73 lacked Shaquille O'Neal, Kevin Garnett, Tracy McGrady and Kobe Bryant.
There are many excuses, but the truth appears to be a lack of patriotism.
In the interests of fairness, the rest of the world has learned a great deal about basketball in the last 20 years.
The NBA's white guys are largely Europeans, and if Yao Ming is one in a million, then China has 1,300
basketball players as good as he is. The days of the other Olympic sides asking for the Americans'
autographs are over. More than likely, they just say, "See you in training camp."
However, American basketball players go to Europe to play when they aren't good enough for the NBA. The
American game is the world standard still. So, where were the missing players? Only Kobe Bryant might
have been properly prevented from playing -- his legal situation in Colorado might keep him from leaving the US. But
the rest clearly prize the NBA championship ring more than the Olympic gold. And the reason for that is
financial. Olympic medals carry no monetary rewards, and the NBA pros have all the endorsement money
they are going to get. And that is their sole motivation.
Some of the fault lies in the way the US Olympic Committee and the NBA operate. The ad hoc nature of the
team and its practices doesn't help when playing squads that train together year round. And again, that is
because the NBA success is the focus of the players and the sport's authorities.
Patriotism is alien to the business culture, which is motivated by profit. Patriotism demands sacrifice of self
for the benefit of the whole. It demands altruism. Oddly, good basketball does the same: finding the open
man, setting the pick, and not worrying about making a triple-double. The NBA is a league that has low
scores because there are ten individual games, and not two team games, every night. Maybe taking Olympic
gold seriously would improve the state of play in the NBA. And if not, at least the bozos mindlessly chanting "USA! USA!" wouldn't be rooting for losers -- in more senses of the word than one.
© Copyright 2004 by
The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without
written consent.
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