Chasing gold in Vegas

Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2007 | 6:56 a.m.

The U.S. national basketball team has not played in the past three major international finals, a first since the FIBA World Championships started in 1950 in Buenos Aires, Argentina .

The disaster of 2002, the flop of 2004 and the stumble of 2006.

Jerry Colangelo, the 67-year-old director of USA Basketball, doesn't want to hear how the national team has failed to play in the final game of the past three major international tournaments.

That hadn't happened since the inaugural FIBA World Championship in 1950 in Argentina.

"We're done talking about that," Colangelo says. "Look, anything short of gold in Beijing will be totally unsatisfactory."

On the eve of the FIBA Americas Championship in Las Vegas, Colangelo is all about the future.

The U.S. wouldn't have had to participate in the Americas' tournament, however, if it had taken care of business in Japan at the FIBA Worlds last summer.

In its first major tournament under Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, the Americans were pick-and-rolled by Greece, a 101-95 defeat that relegated the U.S. to the bronze-medal game.

The top two teams in that tournament earned automatic spots in the 2008 Olympics in China, so the U.S. was forced to earn an Olympic berth in the 10-team Americas tournament.

The top two squads in Las Vegas advance to Beijing, and the next three will enter an Olympic qualifying tournament in July at a site to be determined.

Venezuela had been scheduled to host the Americas Championship, but Las Vegas slipped into the picture when Venezuela missed a deadline to wire $1.5 million to FIBA.

Some teams won't have their top players at the Thomas & Mack Center. Argentina, for instance, won't have the services of NBA champion Manu Ginobili.

"Our opponents really are not the focus here," Colangelo says. "This is more about us. This is about us getting ready to play, regardless of who we play and what anyone's roster is, and how we take care of business."

Especially how the U.S. takes care of the pick-and-roll, the nuances of which have always been a nuisance to certain tall Americans. The Greeks shot 63 percent.

"The pick-and-roll hurt us so much in the Greek game," Colangelo says.

The U.S. regrouped to beat Argentina, which had defeated the Americans in the 2002 Worlds and the 2004 Olympics, for World Championship bronze. Spain upended Greece for gold.

According to Colangelo, Krzyzewski and his staff have addressed the squad's pick-and-roll deficiencies.

"They have a plan," Colangelo says. "It's not going to be as simple as working on the pick-and-roll, and everything's fine. I think there's a ways to go. (But) definitely, certainly, they intend to fine tune, for sure."

On offense, Colangelo sees Kobe Bryant and LeBron James capitalizing on their athleticism and ability to run fast break after fast break.

At a recent minicamp in Las Vegas, Colangelo and Krzyzewski reviewed the program's past year, and talked with the players about goals and objectives, attitudes and leaving egos at the door.

"It's all preparation for the big picture," Colangelo says. "Now we have to qualify. One step at a time. After we qualify, it's about winning when we get to Beijing."

For now, it's about not getting distracted in Las Vegas, of all places.

"That is ironic," Colangelo says. "So is life."