From the local paper....a good summary of what is wrong with this "dream" team.
Web Posted: 08/16/2004 12:00 AM CDT
San Antonio Express-News
ATHENS, Greece — Put Michael Redd, the Milwaukee Bucks sharpshooter, on one side of the floor. Put a mere backup, maybe new Spur Brent Barry, on the other side.
What does Puerto Rico do? Lose.
Either Redd or Barry would throw in jumper after jumper from the shorter international three-point line, or Tim Duncan would show one island what a guy from another island can do.
So why did USA Basketball pass on players such as Redd, and why were role players such as Barry not even considered? Why did USA Basketball instead choose young stars such as LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony? After Sunday, the reason is comical.
Larry Brown saw nothing funny when his squad became the first U.S. team in Olympic history to lose in the prelims, and the first to lose with NBA players. Worse was how.
The Americans played as Brown feared they would, as a band of talented but clueless souls. Brown said he was "angry — because the mentality of our team was like this from day one."
He didn't name Allen Iverson, though insiders suggest his distractions have never stopped. But this goes deeper than Iverson, who hung around and competed Sunday. This involves a changing world, and how USA Basketball has failed to address it.
Go back to 1988. Then, David Robinson took heat because he and his all-college teammates lost. In review? At least, they lost to a power, the Soviet Union, and by only six points.
Nonetheless, America was outraged then. So, the best were sent to Barcelona, not far from Athens, and the 1992 Dream Team beat opponents by an average of 43.8 points.
Everyone thought that was that. But the 2002 World Championships suggested what this Olympic team has officially confirmed. Once the very best are skimmed from the U.S. pool, what is left must be carefully assembled.
An example Sunday: Carlos Arroyo, who started for the Jazz last season, was clearly the best point guard on the floor. "He knows how to play this game," said his teammate, Daniel Santiago.
How many American point guards do? After Jason Kidd and Mike Bibby, who stayed home, how many others see the floor and the dynamics of a team? It's no coincidence that Arroyo, Tony Parker and Steve Nash come from other places. Still, the overall depth of ability is in America, which is why Puerto Rico's Roberto Hatton ran off the floor Sunday yelling, "We shocked the world." He knows what an upset this was. Elias Ayuso, a Puerto Rican guard who scored 15 points, shocked no one last fall.
Then, the Spurs cut him before he played a minute.
But Ayuso has a role on his team. He's nicknamed "The Rifle" because he can shoot.
The Americans are not as concerned with such details when they put together their teams.
They gather them as they did the original Dream Team, with more concern toward global marketing than success.
That's how both James and Anthony were added to a group already loaded with athletic slashers. And that's how a reliable outside shooter such as Rip Hamilton was asked so late that he declined. That's also how Sunday happened. Puerto Rico's plan was to collapse on Duncan, which is not overly original. The Spurs deal with that about 82 times every regular season.
It's also why the Spurs try to find shooters, and why they signed Barry this summer.
USA Basketball didn't do the same, and this was the result Sunday: Richard Jefferson once got the ball 15 feet from the basket and not one Puerto Rico player approached him.
Puerto Rico was telling him to shoot away (he went 3 for 16), and the Spurs did the same in the 2003 NBA Finals. As Santiago said, "We were really packing it in to focus on Duncan."
Afterward James, still 19 and ever the spokesman, had a few things to say. "We've lost before," he said, which is a pattern no American has admitted to in international play.
"We're not going to be hanging our heads," he continued, trying to be upbeat. "We can still win a medal."
It's come to that.
The Americans are still selling their tall talents, their superstars, their endorsement figures.
Whose goal, now, is to win a medal.
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bharvey@express-news.net 
