Quote:
Dream team collapse in nightmare
Lawrence Donegan in Athens
Monday August 16, 2004
The Guardian
So much for the pre-game suggestion by one of the numerous American assistant coaches that his players need to be "scared" into believing that winning the Olympic basketball gold medal would be hard. Never mind a scare; this was an humiliation.
In what can justifiably be described as the greatest shock in international basketball history, Puerto Rico beat the United States by 92 points to 73 in the Helliniko indoor arena last night.
This is the measure of it. A squad of 12 NBA players, including LeBron James, a $100m-a-year Nike marketing machine and 11 other stars, was played off the court by a squad captained by a 40-year-old has-been with a dodgy knee.This is another: the US captain Allan Iverson makes more from his annual shoe contract with Reebok than the entire Puerto Rican team have made in their careers. Or, again, the US team is spending the duration of the Olympics in $1,000-a-night suites in the Queen Mary. The Puerto Ricans are shacked up in the athletes' village.
Of course, money does not measure the men. But rarely has it been made to look so foolish. Out-passed and out-shot from the start, the US team was down by 22 points at half-time. They rallied in the third quarter, reducing the deficit to nine points but by the end the Puerto Ricans were making uncontested lay-ups.
Throughout the match the contrast between the cluelessness of the US and the sound, simple play of the Puerto Ricans was staggering. The half-time score of 49-27 in the underdogs' favour did them a disservice. Carlos Arrroyo, a 6ft 1in point guard, ran rings around his opposite number, Stephon Marbury of the New York Knicks. In the first half alone Arroyo scored nine points to Marbury's two.
The officials statistics listed him with two assists but that hardly reflected his influence on the game. This was the man who two years ago was deemed expendable by the worst team in the NBA, the Denver Nuggets, and let go.
What does Arroyo's performance last night say about the judgment of some of those who hold sway in the NBA? And what does it say about his chance of making a real name for himself next year when he gets a second chance with the NBA's Utah Jazz.
It goes without saying that the coach Larry Brown's team were presumptive favourites for the Olympic gold, and not just because the country hosts the NBA, the best league in the world. The US record against other nations in Olympic tournaments prior to last night was hilariously lop-sided; games won 109; games lost two. Since 1992, when the original Dream Team swanned into Barcelona to win gold, it was 24-0.
To the untrained eye that superiority seemed obvious last night, even during the warm-up, when the US team ran out on to the court to join their under-sized opponents, like a troupe of Gullivers ambling into the VIP room of a Lilliputian nightclub.
However, knowledgeable observers were sceptical, unconvinced that James, Iverson and colleagues will be able to rouse themselves for a tournament they were expected to cruise through. The scepticism was not unfounded.
For one thing the US finished a poor sixth at last year's basketball world championships in Indianapolis. For another they endured a mortifying warm-up to the Olympic tournament, losing by 17 points to Italy a couple of weeks ago. Brown and his players reassured the American media that everything would be fine when the games became serious. Yet, in truth, the Italian botch job and last night's defeat should have been no surprise to anyone who cared to look at what has happened to US basketball in recent years.
To make it on to highlight reels shown on American sports TV's most watched programme, ESPN's Sportcenter, an athlete has to come out with flashy plays which are risky in the context of a close-fought game like last night's. Longer term, this obsession with showboating over fundamentals met its inevitable conclusion at the Helliniko arena.
"Can't defend, can't pass and can't shoot" is no mantra to take on to a basketball court no matter who the opponent. And, when opponents are having the night of their lives, watch out. Needless to say the hyper-critical American media will have a field day with this result, even though the Americans could still qualify for the quarter-finals if they are in the top four of their six-man team.
If they want scapegoats, how about Brown, anointed the doyen of the coaching fraternity after guiding his Detroit Pistons team to the NBA championship earlier this summer? Despite his recent record he sent out a team that could not hold on to the ball. Bereft, the NBA superstars resorted to the individualism that has made them all rich. Last night's Sportcenter's highlight reel will have been a short one indeed
