The true meaning of team

PARIS [The Monday International Show] - Now we know, Team USA is a real team, not just a group of stars thrown together as was the case sometimes in the past.

Their youth was more an advantage than a weakness in the end because they recuperated more quickly than their opponents.

Their depth was a decisive quality too as the other teams seemed to tire down the stretch after nine high level games in just 14 days.

One player who never seemed fatigued was the tournament MVP, Kevin Durant, who more than lived up to his budding reputation and who along with his teammates adapted rapidly and intelligently to international rules and referees.

Durant has Magic's height, Jordan's stats and Reggie Miller's range.

He proved to be an all-around player, not just a scorer in coach K's system and his teammates generously and without jealousy set him up beautifully with picks and passes when he didn't just burn his man one on one! Kevin and his buddies give a good image to the young generation of NBA players which is important before next summer's looming lockout.

Durant's mom always tells him to be and stay himself and his heartfelt salute to victims of 9/11 on the eleventh of september vs Lithuania was authentic.

This group of hard workers and quick learners confirmed the complete turnaround of the whole USA basketball program since the naming of Jerry Colangelo as the boss.

Respecting the context and the opponents with a touch of class and dignity that was sorely needed has driven Team USA straight to the top after a bump in the road in Japan in 2006, followed by an Olympic gold medal in 2008 and now a World Championship (which has a better taste than in '94) with a whole NEW group of players.

Impressive stuff! Coach K created a college atmosphere of comraderie between the players and their playful enthuiasm was genuine as egos were kept in check.

Tactically, the coach used more zone defence than in the past and went to a super small ball lineup with success against Turkey's revolutionary new 2-1-2 half court zone press and matchup defence concocted by the courageous coaching genius Boja Tanjevic who got the most out of Turkey's height advantage during the tournament while fighting cancer! I've known this man personally for 20 years and he is a jewel of humanism.

Let's descibe him as an old school players' coach like Serbia's brilliant maestro, Ivkovic.

He prefers to just be considered a coach for the last 40 years.

In terms of leadership, Billups and Odom were great in their big brother roles and Lamar saved his best for last in the final with a precious double-double against the giants on the Turkish front line.

The most improved player throughout the tournament was Westbrook(Go Oklahoma!) who in the end was even more useful than Derrick Rose.

The most under-used player was Kevin Love who always made the most of his limited minutes.

Andrè Iguodala was a revelation on D and on the boards.

I'm looking for all the players on the All-tournament team to have great seasons in the NBA.

In the final analysis this World Championship was a great success thanks to Turkey's passionate organisation,modern infrastuctures and fantastic yet non-violent fans.

The players who decided not to come regret their decision now,I'll bet.

Most of the Europeans will probably show up in basketball-loving Lithuania(THE surprise team of the tournament) for next summer's Eurobasket with 2 direct tickets for London and four other tickets to the Olympic qualifying tournament up for grabs.

Whew, that's going to be competitive!

George EDDY