USA - U.S. plots Olympic basketball comeback

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When Jerry Colangelo watched the men's basketball competition at the 2004 Summer Olympics, he saw a U.S. team that resembled the disastrous work of a novice cook.
Team USA was flat, underprepared and unappealing. The Americans' bronze-medal finish left a bad taste in Colangelo's mouth.

Four years later, he is in charge of the kitchen. And as the first managing director of USA Basketball's senior men's team, Colangelo will take the heat if, in Beijing this summer, the Americans flop again like a bad souffle.

"The '04 team was put together at the last minute," Colangelo said earlier this week at the 2008 U.S. Olympic team media summit. "There were a lot of young players [Dwyane, Wade, Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James] . . . and it was way too early for them. The lack of prep and lack of commitment led to the outcome."

Despite NBA stars such as James, Anthony, Wade, Tim Duncan and Allen Iverson, Team USA could manage only a 5-3 record against more-seasoned opponents in Athens. They were frustrated - by the international officiating, by zones, by the experience edge of their foreign counterparts, by their inability to shoot from distance.

And, as Colangelo could see from in front of his TV thousands of miles away, they wore those frustrations like badges of dishonor.

Their body language "wasn't pretty," Colangelo said. "That's as simple and as honest as I can be. It was just very bad. When I heard and saw what people in our own country felt about that team, it was evident we needed to change."

Athens wasn't the start of Team USA's troubles. Two years before, at the world championships, the Americans had finished sixth, an unprecedented fiasco.

So after the Olympics, Colangelo, the longtime owner of the Phoenix Suns, got together with USA Basketball officials, who asked him to take charge. They created the new position for him and he accepted - with some conditions.

Colangelo demanded that he alone, and not a committee, as had been the case, select the coaches and players. And he wanted three-year commitments from the NBA players who would play. Duncan and Kevin Garnett, among others, declined. Iverson wasn't invited.

"The international game is a different game," said Colangelo, who has made team-oriented players his No. 1 priority. "There are different rules. There are lots of zones. In looking at the roster, shooters come at a premium. There will be games and situations where you will need to call on that."

First, he got Duke's Mike Krzyzewski as his head coach. For his assistants, he added Syracuse's Jim Boeheim, a zone expert; Portland coach Nate McMillan, a defensive guru; and Phoenix coach Mike D'Antoni, who has a long history with the international game.

Krzyzewski said their goal went beyond winning an Olympic gold medal. It is to replace the highlight-reel mentality of American players with the kind of sound basketball principles now taught more fervently overseas.

"We have an opportunity, and not only in Beijing, to play the game [more fundamentally] right here in our own country," Krzyzewski said. "The things that make basketball what it is. Not just a highlight of a dunk, but a better appreciation of the game. Our guys did that last summer. They are very unselfish."

Once the players were invited, a rigid practice and exhibition schedule was instituted.

The 2004 team, Colangelo said, practiced together just 15 times and played six exhibitions. The team's 2008 counterparts already have worked out 66 times and played 24 games.

So far, the change has worked well. The Americans, with a lineup that included James, Chauncey Billups, Jason Kidd, Kobe Bryant and Deron Williams, won the gold medal last summer at the FINA Americas Championship in Las Vegas and have taken 23 of 24 games.

Finding NBA players willing to make the commitment hasn't been difficult, Colangelo said. The current Team USA roster lists 32 players, but some, like Wade and Brad Miller, are hurt.

Most, he said, were eager to play for their country. He recalled the day two years ago when Milwaukee star Michael Redd drove down to Chicago to talk to him about playing on Team USA.

"He showed up at my hotel, called my room and knocked on the door," said Colangelo. "He was in his sweats, and he had a hanging bag over his shoulder. Then he asked to be excused, and he went into the john to put on his suit and tie to have an interview with me. Now that was pretty darn impressive."

Colangelo and Krzyzewski will have to pare the 33-man roster down to 18 for the final training-camp session, then to 12, with three reserves, for the Beijing Games. It won't be easy.

"We're like teenagers at a dance," Krzyzewski said of the talent on Team USA. "We fall in love with everybody."

Krzyzewski and Colangelo are likely to end up with Bryant, James and a roster full of talented role players - those who can shoot from distance, those who can distribute the ball, those who can shut down an opponent, those who can make free throws at game's end.

The hardest decisions, both men said, will be at point guard, where Kidd, Williams, Billups and Chris Paul are vying for probably three spots.