by fanboyslim on Mon Aug 11, 2008 12:55 am
I don't understand the argument really. People are talking past each other on this one. On paper, team USA is better than Spain player by player, hands down, and the favorite by a large margin. Does anyone have doubts about who would win in a best of 7 playoff?
Of course, that's not the real question. The real question is: does being the overwhelming favorite guarantee the Olympic gold? As recent history proves, the answer is no. In a FIBA competition like the Olympics there are many factors that may cause an upset for the USA just like it happened on 3 out of the last 4 major FIBA tournaments: different rules, team play, team chemistry, respect for the other team (which includes proper scouting), and so on.
There's this triumphalist vibe in the US since last year's FIBA Americas tournament, as if suddenly the team had vastly improved from what it was in Athens and Tokyo. Guess what: it has improved significantly, but not to the point where it guarantees a landslide victory over any other team, every time. And you only need one loss in the Olympics in order to go from playing for the gold to playing for 7th place (ask Spain about that).
Newsflash: just as the individual players in team USA have improved, so have players in other teams. There are more NBA players in teams other than the USA in Beijing. But that's not team USA's problem, individual players in team USA have ALWAYS been better since '92, and they still lost games! The missing thing in those upsets was the inability to get those exceptional players to gel into a team, the dismissive attitude that got them into holes they couldn't get out of, the assumption that other teams would fold and cheer as they made windmill dunks.
The good part is the team, as opposed to the fans, has largely understood the message. They ARE a better team than a few years ago, there haven't been ego trips from the usual suspects, they're approaching the competition professionally. Again, this doesn't guarantee a gold, but it makes them much more likely to win than in recent occasions. And by the way, Spain, whose players and coaches (as well as anyone in Spain that knows a basketball is round) know very well that to beat this USA squad they'll need to play exceptionally well and catch the USA in a bad day or otherwise it'll be almost impossible, have understood the message as well.
And I can tell you, I'm as sick as most of you about the triumphalist attitude of some Spanish "fans" and media that were nowhere to be seen when Spain was landing 9th spots but have crawled out of the woodwork after the 2006 win as if we were the best thing to ever grace a basketball court. Newsflash for us too: we lost the 2007 Eurobasket against Russia at home, partly because we thought we had won even before the game started.
[/rant]
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