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For USA, everyone is to blame

It doesn’t surprise me that Team USA has already embarrassed itself in the Olympics. After all, basketball has been deteriorating in this country for years -- and now the American way is on display, the whole world watching.

Since I started the Amico Report three years ago, I’ve spent a lot of time focusing on the overall state of the game. I’ve written about the decline in the fundamentals, how professional basketball in the United States is beginning to resemble little more than a circus-like act of acrobats. We have streetball, Slamball, and SportsCenter serving us 15-second highlights of nothing but dunks, dunks and more dunks.

As no less than former NBA great Isiah Thomas noted, “We have a dunk generation. Kids today are more concerned with learning how to dunk than how to play.”

Thomas said that in Terry Pluto’s wonderful book, Falling from Grace: Can Pro Basketball be Saved? The book was released 10 years ago, the theme being that basketball in this country was headed for ground zero. Nearly everything in it holds true today, and all you need to do to see that is watch the American Olympic team get pasted by undermanned Puerto Rico, then hang on for dear life in wins over Greece and Australia. Unlike the U.S., the international players seem to have a firm grasp of the fine arts of passing, cutting, and … well, doing something besides dunking.

Heck, even Allen Iverson noticed.

"They play the game the way it's supposed to be played," Iverson told reporters after the loss to Puerto Rico. "It's not about athletics. That's the game the way Karl Malone and John Stockton play it. It's good for kids to see how the game is supposed to be played."

Amen, Allen. I’m glad to see at least one of today’s All-Stars is able to make some sense of it all.

The sad thing is, most Americans are all too ready to break out the excuses. Some say USA Basketball did a lousy job of enlisting the top players, guys like Shaquille O’Neal, Kevin Garnett, and Tracy McGrady. Others contend that the American players simply aren’t in tune with international rules like wider lanes and closely-officiated games. Apparently, they’re not all that accustomed to the closer 3-point line, either -- as the Americans made just 3 of 24 shots from beyond the arc in the Puerto Rico fiasco.

But remember, this team has stars like Iverson, Stephon Marbury, and Tim Duncan. I mean, these guys are pretty good NBA players, aren’t they? And isn’t LeBron James known as The Chosen One? Or how about Carmelo Anthony? Isn’t he the ultimate winner, the talented young man who led Syracuse to the national championship and the Denver Nuggets to the playoffs?

This isn’t meant to pick on those guys, because I love all of them. Really, I do. But I think they’ve gone a long way in making my point for me -- namely, they are the products of a basketball system that desperately needs fixed. And for once, this has nothing to do with high schoolers entering the NBA draft, because James is one of the few guys on Team USA who has actually mastered the basics of basketball.

So I don’t necessarily blame the players -- although they certainly could afford to put down the video game controllers long enough to get to the gym in the offseason.

I blame NBA general managers who draft athletes instead of basketball players. I blame owners who couldn’t care less about good basketball, as long as large corporations keep gobbling up tickets before the real fans get to them.

I blame shoe companies that sponsor camps and peddle merchandise to kids who aren’t necessarily great ballplayers -- but who are supposedly representatives of their “community.”

I also blame the puppets at ESPN who show two Richard Jefferson dunks in their highlights of the Puerto Rico game, making no mention that Jefferson shot 3-of-16 from the floor, including two jumpers that hit the side of the backboard. Yes, they hit the side. And as twisted as the shoe companies are, SportsCenter has become basketball’s No. 1 nemesis with its forever failed attempts to be flashy and cute.

Team USA coach Larry Brown just won an NBA championship with the Detroit Pistons, shocking the heavily-favored Los Angeles Lakers in the process. Brown told everyone that the Pistons were able to pull it off because they “played the right way.” At first, I believed him.

But I’m starting to think it had more to do with the Lakers playing the wrong way. After all, that is the way basketball has been played in this country for far too long.

And our shining example is none other than Team USA.

Your Turn

OK, let me know if I’m overreacting (hey, it’s happened before). Or who knows? Maybe you agree with most of the above. Either way, let’s talk about it more. Contact me at the same old place: samamico22@netzero.com.

On the Other Hand

Believe it or not, I can still think of 1,000 reasons I love this game. In fact, my passion for it is what gets me so aggravated from time to time.

But I also realize that basketball has changed a lot in the last 15 years -- and that’s not all bad. I mean, if the game was still played like it was in the 1940s, no one would buy a ticket. As longtime Cleveland Cavaliers play-by-play man Joe Tait once said, the game isn’t better than it was 20 years ago, nor is it worse. It’s just different.

And I’ll be the first to agree that the game should be exciting, full of pizzazz. But that’s not all it should be. Besides, watching a team execute the fundamentals to near-perfection is as thrilling as watching a bunch of guys doing push-ups on the rim. After a while, dunking gets boring.

I guess the bottom line is, basketball is at its best when it offers a little bit of everything.

Preps-to-Pros, Part 412

With all of the above in mind, I am actually starting to soften my stance on NBA types drafting high school players. No, too many preps aren’t ready to contribute right away, and yes, too many are drafted because GMs and scouts are merely following some sort of trend.

But let’s face it -- the draft has always been a crapshoot, even in the days when the best college players were the only ones selected.

My friend Ryan Jones at SLAM Magazine was called out by reader Sharman Willis on this very topic last week, and as usual, Ryan got me thinking with a polite and logical response.

“I won’t disagree that the NBA game is suffering somewhat with fundamentals, etc., but I think it has a lot less to do with high school kids coming up than with the system that produces all of our players -- and that includes the college game,” Jones wrote. “My point is, just as there are high school kids who ARE ready (LeBron James, Amare Stoudemire), there are plenty of college kids who aren’t.”

Jones went on to support that strong point:

“Drew Gooden is a decent player, and a guy I like. But has he been good enough to justify being selected with the No. 4 overall pick, let alone mature enough off the court (from everything we hear), for a guy who spent three years at Kansas? Joseph Forte spent a couple of years at North Carolina. Has he justified his place as a first-round pick? Was Marcus Fizer worth a No. 4 pick? Has Chris Mihm justified being drafted No. 7 overall? How about college-seasoned big men Michael Olowokandi and Raef LaFrentz, chosen Nos. 1 and 3 overall in 1998? And have any of the above won ANYTHING themselves?”

There’s more.

“The point is that plenty of college guys turn out to be busts, as many are never ready for the league in the first place,” Jones wrote. “And while a good number of them have been used by a cash-happy NCAA system that exploits their talents without doing anything to help them in the classroom, no one seems to mind. But when the high school kids want (wisely, I think) to bypass that system altogether, skipping the often silly ‘student-athlete’ designation for guaranteed money, people are up in arms. So discuss and critique the system that produces these kids all you want (hey, we do) -- but the thought that the kids who’ve actually made the jump are the problem is outdated and wrong.”

Ryan, thanks for writing close to half of this week's edition -- and mostly, for providing it with some common sense.

Talkin’ Lakers

Renny Thompson (Arlington, Va.) wrote: “Finally, all those ignorant Laker fans who say that Kobe Bryant at 25 years old is better than Michael Jordan was at 25 will get to see the light. If MJ had a center like Shaq next to him during the early stages of his career, he would own eight or nine titles, probably more. Kobe got three.”

Bob Woods (Wadsworth, Ohio) wrote, “I like the Lakers’ moves this offseason. Shaq usually reported to camp overweight when things were normal, so could you imagine what would have happened had the team kept him against his demand to be traded? As it is, the Lakers’ young roster will be much more energetic and fun to watch.”

Kelly Clark (Columbus, Ohio) wrote, “The whole Laker situation had run its course and it was time to blow things up. This is a team that will run, pass and shoot much better than it did last season. I love what the trade does for the NBA, too. There are so many teams that are now worth watching, and so many teams that can win on any given night.”

Jason Ward (Deltona, Fla.) wrote, “I absolutely hate the Lakers but the trading of Shaq was a necessary evil. He would have come back this year and pulled the team down with talks of not wanting to play and his usual superstar whining. Then next year, he would have left via free agency and the Lakers would have gotten nothing in return. Ask Orlando fans what that feels like.”

Patrick Sellers wrote, “The Lakers gave away their ‘automatic 50’ in Shaq. By that, I mean put Shaq on any team in the league and it will win 50-plus games. Think about it. If Shaq had played for Atlanta last season, everyone would have been saying, ‘Wow. That Jason Terry is very good, Stephen Jackson was a free-agent steal, and the Hawks have a chance to make it to The Finals!”

Craig Rudnick (Tucson, Ariz.) wrote, “Shaq is not worth the $30 million he was seeking at this point in his career -- but you don’t let him go. You just don’t. (Lakers GM Mitch) Kupchak handled this one with all the grace of a Chris Dudley free throw.”

Martin Lastrapes (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.) wrote, “The Lakers learned firsthand from the Pistons that you can win an NBA championship with good players and no true superstars. With their trades and free-agent moves, they are a deeper and more complete team than they’ve been in a long time.”

Monty McMahon (Los Angeles) wrote, “Kobe is considerably younger than Shaq and has yet to reach his prime. Kobe has always wanted to be like Michael Jordan and feels the need to prove it. So here’s his chance. And Kobe CAN be the best player in he game, if he would only learn how to make his teammates better.”

Doctor J and Pistol Pete

A neat fact to close this week's edition:

Did you know Julius “Doctor J” Erving and Pete Maravich played two games as teammates with the Atlanta Hawks? I didn’t until I read a story in the most recent edition of Basketball Digest.

It happened during the preseason of 1972-73, after Erving’s rookie season in the old American Basketball Association with the Virginia Squires. He signed with the Hawks -- even though he was selected in the NBA draft by Milwaukee. Imagine if something like that happened today. There would be lawyers everywhere and ESPN would make it out to be more important than the fall of Communism.

Anyway, Erving joined Maravich, who was drafted by the Hawks, for two exhibition games against ABA teams. On Sept. 23, 1972, he scored 28 points and grabbed 18 rebounds in a 112-99 win over the Kentucky Colonels. A week later, he shot an amazing 14-of-15 from the field in a 120-106 win over the Carolina Cougars.

But before the regular season started, a three-judge panel ruled that Erving was contractually bound to the Squires, and he returned to the ABA. But not before taking on Pistol Pete in a few games of one-on-one. And wouldn’t that have been just awesome to see?

“It was really one of the joys of my life to play with Pete,” Erving told Basketball Digest. “We would play for dinner after practice. … I pretty much learned that from Pete. If this guy is going to be your teammate, you need to stay after practice and get to understand his game.”

Ah, the good ol’ days.

Anyway, until next time, thanks for reading and keep those e-mails coming!

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