Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

Observing the current global standing of United States basketball makes one wonder …

Remember when Jim Morrison and the Doors hit it big with "Light My Fire"? And then Jose Feliciano hit it almost as big with an acoustic version of the same song?

That kind of reminds me of basketball the way legends such as Oscar Robertson and Rick Barry played it a generation ago, and how soon-to-be legends such as LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade play it today.

Same game. Different interpretation.

But you know that it would be untrue, you know that I would be a liar, if I were to say to you, we're not good enough to beat Greece.

In the Big O and Barry's heyday, the USA was No. 1 with a bullet in international play. Now it's No. 3 and in jeopardy of tumbling down the charts like a George Michael song.

At least if it doesn't learn how to defend the pick-and-roll.

Team USA's stunning third-place finish in last month's World Basketball Championships in Japan was further proof that contrary to what was being espoused during its training camp in Las Vegas, there's still too much shake and not enough bake in our game.

It also confirmed there's still work to be done, or at least a bigger commitment to be made, before these current Doctors of Dunk, or whatever you want to call them, slam and jam their way back to our rightful spot atop the basketball free world. Or at least beat a bunch of set-shot artists from the Acropolis.

We should start, Barry said, by getting our butts back on defense.

"We spent more time together this time, I think we played better and we had a better attitude," Barry said after he and fellow Hall-of-Famer Robertson and a handful of other NBA luminaries were treated to a sneak preview of "Basketball Man," the upcoming documentary about the life and times of basketball creator Dr. James Naismith, at the House of Blues.

But then Barry began to bristle as if Mendy Rudolph had just whistled him for traveling. This was, after all, the third consecutive time the NBA millionaires had failed to reach the final of an international tournament.

So what in the name of Sergei Belov is going on here?

"Obviously, we had no idea of how to play against the pick-and-roll play," said Barry, still fit and trim and feisty as he ever was at 62, as he mingled with other invited guests in the Foundation Room atop Mandalay Bay. "We had no idea about the basic concept of stopping the ball when it's going toward the basket as opposed to running out and guarding your man on the perimeter."

Robertson said Team USA also had no idea of how to assemble a team, and once it arrived in Japan with the wrong parts, no idea of how to attack a zone defense as played by guys with lots of vowels in their names.

"You've got to pick the right players," said one of the greatest ones ever who averaged - averaged - a triple-double during the 1961-62 NBA season. "You can't play platoon basketball like you do in football. You've got to have an inside presence and you've got to have some guards who can play defense."

The Big O raised his voice when he said "defense," as if Team USA's lackadaisical approach to playing it during a 101-95 semifinal loss to robotic but accurate (62 percent from the floor) Greece was a personal affront.

"They played like they don't know what a pick-and-roll is," he said of the Americans' inability to shut down a play that is more basic than a pair of high-top Converse.

Robertson, who will turn 66 next month, said he was talking to a friend during a Team USA preliminary game when he noticed what would become a glaring problem once the Americans encountered teams that could walk and chew gum at the same time.

"I told him we don't have a presence in the middle," Robertson sniffed. "Where was Kevin Garnett?"

Apparently, Garnett did not want to play. But Elton Brand did and contributed little, as Team USA avoided him as if he had cooties.

"Elton Brand gets two shots and we have no inside game?" Barry said incredulously, as if Darrell Garretson had just whistled him for a reach-in at the other end of the floor. "I mean, we should be up before a grand jury for that. That's horrible."

More defense. More offense. More cowbell. Barry and the Big O went into overtime while obsessing over what's still wrong with Team USA.

But it was obvious by the passion in their voices that if the guys losing these games cared as much about that as these two guys who were watching them do it on TV in the middle of the night, maybe Greece wouldn't have left our basketball pride in ruins.