U.S. faces reality

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The United States is 0-2 in the past two major international basketball competitions.
The definition of losing in each case meant failing to win the gold medal.

That, in the land that invented basketball, qualifies as a slump.

It's a slump so big that, when the 2006 FIBA World Championships start at 1 a.m. Saturday in Japan, you'll notice the U.S. team operating with a different attitude than the gold-medal-as-birthright mentality Americans used to know and love.

The plan is simple.

Instead of naming a team for every competition, the United States now has a real national team -- like Argentina and Puerto Rico, which beat the U.S. team at the 2004 Athens Olympics -- of 24 players who have committed to play through the 2008 Olympics.

They also have a national team coach in Duke's Mike Krzyzewski, who also has signed on for three years.

"We invented the game, we sent our players and our coaches out to teach the world and now they're closing the gap," U.S. senior national team managing director Jerry Colangelo said. "[Other teams] got better. ... We didn't take care of business, and they knocked us off our perch."

But is the U.S. team really serious about changing?

USA Basketball has ditched the belief that any 12 NBA players can beat any international team.

Turning down some NBA stars such as Allen Iverson and leaving others at home, the U.S. team still has stars such as the Miami Heat's Dwyane Wade. It also has talented NBA role players such as San Antonio Spurs guard Bruce Bowen, who never would have had a chance to play for the United States in other years.

"We've got everything to prove," said Denver Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony, the current leading scorer for the U.S. squad. "Right now, we don't think people respect us as a country or as a basketball team, so we feel we have to go and prove something."

The commitment

The United States knew it had run off course as a basketball power before it failed to win the gold in Athens. A sixth-place finish at the 2002 World Championships, in Indianapolis of all places, stung.

And as the U.S. team finished with the bronze medal in Athens, U.S. coach Larry Brown reminded folks this wasn't the team he wanted in Greece in the first place. NBA stars such as Jason Kidd and Tracy McGrady, who helped the U.S. qualify for the Olympics in 2003, chose not to play in Athens.

After Athens, Colangelo knew he needed players who could commit to three summers, not just one.

"Originally, people said you'll never get that, the players won't commit to three years,'" he said. "But when I visited with players one-on-one, I learned it was quite different."

Colangelo and others, including Krzyzewski, came up with 24 names, including the game's best young stars. Each one knew he would give up two to six weeks of his summer vacations for the next three years with no guarantee of a spot on the 12-member World Championship or Olympic teams.

The players

Colangelo wanted the roster to have both depth and flexibility in case of emergencies.

The U.S. team already has needed all 24 of those bodies just to get to Japan. Before the national team gathered in Las Vegas, three players -- Chauncey Billups, Michael Redd and Lamar Odom -- knew they couldn't play in Japan because of family situations. Within a month of the start of training camp, three others -- Kobe Bryant, Paul Pierce and J.J. Redick -- had to pull out due to injury or surgery.

Two more -- Adam Morrison and Luke Ridnour -- were cut after the camp. Three others -- Amare Stoudemire (recovering from right knee surgery), Gilbert Arenas (groin injury) and Shawn Marion -- left the team to heal.

All 24 remain a part of the national team, though not everyone gets to play.

This isn't an all-galaxy squad like the 1992 Dream Team.

This U.S. team has a mix of youth and experience with guys like New Orleans guard Chris Paul playing alongside Detroit's Billups. It has star power with Cleveland's LeBron James and versatility with Washington's Antawn Jamison.

"There's a ton of talent here, so no one has to do it themselves," James said.

The coach

Then there's Krzyzewski -- named coach on Oct. 26, 2005 -- pulling the strings from the sideline.

He coached the last team of male collegians to represent the United States at the senior level. That team won bronze at the 1990 World Championships.

That "loss" (read: no gold) pushed the U.S. Olympic Committee to allow NBA players into the Olympics. Krzyzewski was an assistant to Chuck Daly when the Dream Team won the gold at the 1992 Olympics.

"Back in 1990, at the World Championships, I saw where the game was going internationally," Krzyzewski said. "When they went with the Dream Team, I didn't think that was a bad thing. ... Since then, intense basketball people haven't been monitoring the situation on a day-to-day basis. Now, this continuity with coaches and players is sensational. The names will change, but this process is one we need for the future."

The motivation

In Japan, the U.S. is a favorite, though not the favorite.

"Being on the 2004 team didn't go the way I wanted it to, so I had to say, 'I can't go out like that,' " James said. "After what we felt in 2004 ... , we have a chip on our shoulders now."