Show some love for the USA Basketball team

Wow. The Olympic games in Athens are turning out to be quite "interesting" for the USA Basketball team. But that's nothing compared to the grief these guys are getting on the home front. People are whining about them being arrogant millionaires, complaining about the lack of effort and defense, and critical of the ineptitude of their outside shooting. Most are disgruntled that our guys are not blowing teams out like the '92 Dream Team. "Michael, Magic, and Larry wouldn't have tolerated this!" they say. Some have even made suggested going back to college players to "teach those guys a lesson!" While at least some of the critiquing is valid, let's look at the facts:

1. The average age of the players on the USA basketball team this year is 23. Hello? 23! Six of the twelve players are 22 or younger--the youngest being Emeka Okafor at 19. Two of the players are 24--Richard Jefferson and Lamar Odom, and the remaining elder statesmen--Shawn Marion, Stephon Marbury, Tim Duncan, and Allen Iverson--are 26,27, 28, and 29 respectively. Imagine that: Allen Iverson is the senior. Compared to the '92 team, whose average age was 29, we've lost a cumulative 72 year's worth of experience.
2. Of the twelve players on the roster, only three of the players have reached the NBA Championship round--Tim Duncan, Richard Jefferson, and Allen Iverson. None of remaining players have even made it out of the second round of playoffs. By comparison, every player on the '92 squad had significant playoff experience--with the lone exception being Christian Laettner.
3. The current team consists of 7 guards, 4 forwards, and only 1 center--again, Tim Duncan. The '92 team had 5 guards, 5 forwards, and 2 centers--Patrick Ewing and David Robinson.
4. Of the '92 Dream Teamers, nine were named as the NBA's Fifty greatest players and (at least ten) will go into the hall of fame. Sorry, Christian and Mully, I don't see you guys in there. On the current team, Duncan and Iverson will probably make it to the hall of fame, but the jury is still out on the rest of the gang.

I say all this to make a point: Despite what you may think about these guys, you should support you USA Basketball team! Why? Well for one thing, these guys volunteered when most of your current superstars--Shaq, T-Mac, K.G., and Jason Kidd, to name a few--decided the opportunity to represent their country wasn't all that important. Give credit where it's due. It's no simple task to play team ball in few weeks after throwing some guys together...even with great talent, and little experience. Go ahead and ask Jerry Buss about having an all-star team and coming up short this year. Finally, if there's someone that ought to be chastised, it would be USA Basketball for not putting together a more balanced team. With all they have working against them, I'm rather impressed to see Team USA overcoming some glaring weaknesses--most notably, the missing outside shot and poor off-ball defense.

None of these guys are asked to do these things with any regularity on their existing teams, so can you really fault them for being dumbfounded initially with what's been delegated to garbage players? All things considered, I believe if this team is able to achieve gold in the Olympics, it would be more impressive than the '92 team's accomplishment. Face it. The level of competition is superior and the other teams are not looking starry eyed at Carlos Boozer in search of an autograph as they were before playing Magic & Michael! Speaking of Boozer, "don't hate...appreciate!" as Vivica A. Fox likes to say.

Bottomline: Support your USA Basketball team! Even if you don't particularly like these players, appreciate that they stepped up to represent the red, white, and blue. No different (and no less) than Michael Phelps has done. Too bad there aren't more fundamental basketball events in the Olympics like during the All-Star weekend--3 point shootout, point guard skills competition, or even the slam dunk contest. Think about it. No disrespect to some of the athletes, but what would you rather watch as an Olympic event? Kayaking? Or a 3-point shootout? [pause] I rest my case.

Peace,

+THINKER