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Contact Us2002 World Championships for Men
Indianapolis, USAUSA pay price for dunking precedence
Mark Woods
Let the inquest commence.
Summon Quincy back from his retirement home.
Yugoslavia have been crowned, as they were in 2000, as World Champions in Indianapolis. Who would have thought it? Sespite courting home advantage, it was not the United States who were serenaded as the best in show after a competition which has provided a topsy-turvy rollercoaster rather than the expected serene procession towards American gold.
'The Greatest Shock Ever' decried several Stateside newspapers after their nation's fall from grace, (displaying an abhorrent ignorance of the SuperCaley ballistics of a few years back).
How, pondered a patronising native media, could a team filled with star performers from
the National Basketball Association, the world's finest league, come off second best to Argentina? On Wednesday evening though, the Hand of God was nowhere to be found.Simply, the myth of American hegemony was replaced by a Latin beat which danced to a more cohesive and effective tune.
A subsequent narrow loss to Yugoslavia ended any lingering hope that the hosts would recover to claim a medal of any colour. Instead it was left to their conquerors, closely followed by Germany and the competition's true Dream Team, New Zealand, to bring down the curtain on the final day.
Few would have predicted this quartet as the last standing. Any that wagered on it will surely be retiring abroad in luxury. It was only ten years ago in Barcelona when the USA's original
Dream Team gave the rest of the world a good hiding.A decade and 58 straight wins later, the peasants have finally revolted against the
aristocrats and left them instead with a painful nightmare as Spain inflicted the last blow to leave the USA to slope off in sixth place.What was once a Dream has now become a nightmare.
"I think people over here are more shocked than anything," admits Robert Archibald. The Scottish star, who reports this week to the Memphis Grizzles to begin training for the forthcoming NBA season, has viewed the game on both sides of the Atlantic.
This fortnight's events, he says, are just a symptom of the seeds of popularity sewed at the 1992 Olympics.
"There's a lot of talent out there and it just reinforced that everyone is catching up. It's great for the sport because it will make for more competitive games and make it more exciting for the fans. I think with the way the game's expanded and the coverage which is available all over the world, everyone is catching up."
Indisputably, the USA remains the top dog. But there are valuable lessons to be taken from this horrific failure to maintain such dominance.
"Coming into this thing I don't think we realised how important it is to the other teams," outlined Antonio Davis. "And how important it should've been to us not only to represent our country, but to represent the game of basketball."
Complacency however is the enemy of diligence. America discovered to their cost that there is no letter I in 'gold' nor 'team'.
Neither was the preparation idyllic. Most squads had been together for two months and were building on a foundation of familiarity laid down over several years of competing side by side.
USA coach George Karl, the US media's scapegoat in chief, was left to correctly lament that he had only three weeks to pull a group of players who had never before played together, hoping that chemistry would emerge in the process.
The apathy of its supporters did not aid the cause. In a land in which the victors of baseball's World Series, gridiron's Super Bowl and the NBA Finals are all deigned as World Champions, there has been a decided reluctance to embrace a genuinely global prize.
Archibald relates: "There are obviously a lot of phenomenal players and a ton of talent on the floor at every game. You'd think there'd be a little bit more interest." Perhaps it was geography, he suggests.
"The attendance has been lower than people thought it would be which has been surprising. In a lot of other places, the country's so small that it's easy to draw a lot of people to one place. With people being spread out here, it's difficult for fans of USA Basketball to get together and get the venue sold out game in and game out."
America's wounds will sting for a while, at least until 2004 when the Olympics in Athens will provide an opportunity to apply a soothing balm.
In Greece, there will be a heavier patriotic clamour upon Indianapolis absentees like Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant to rally behind the Stars and Stripes and allow the United States to do what every other country in any sport aspires to do: send its finest team to give their best shot.
"All these other countries, they are bringing their best," stated America's leading scorer Paul Pierce. "Hopefully this will be a call for these guys to come out and represent our country."
It might not be enough. The shortcomings of the Stateside system which sees kids seek highlight reels rather than pick n rolls has come at a cost. Fundamentally, the world outwith America has learned the tricks and stayed true to the game.
There's no inquest necessary though.
The Yanks now know the world got game. Turning up is no longer enough.
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