Basketball again takes prime stage in my weekly column. This week the emphasis is on the Americas Championships that were held and concluded last week in Las Vegas, the Europeans being played in Spain and the forthcoming Olympics in Beijing next year.
The United States easily put away Argentina (118-81) to win the coveted gold medal at the 2007 Tournament of the Americas earlier this month. Actually, what was more coveted, a spot in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, was secured the day before by both the Americans and the Argentines.
This big win in Las Vegas improved the United States’ record in zone qualifiers to a thrilling 36-0. There is however a pretty good reason for that. These 36 wins have come with NBA-stocked rosters against modest teams.
The only exception was four years ago, when Argentina (a year after from being the first country to beat a USA team with NBA players in the 2002 World Championships), sent what turned out then to become its Olympic gold medal team to San Juan in the 2003 Olympic qualifier and lost, 94-86. In fact, of the 36 wins by the Americans, that is the only one by 10 points or fewer.
The US team that competed in this year’s Americas championships (which battered opponents by a margin of nearly 40 points a game) is pretty much the same one will see next summer in Beijing.
The most likely additions will be Chris Bosh and possibly both Dwayne Wade and Carlos Boozer (who both played in the Athens 2004 team that contained other stars like Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James, and Amare Stoudemire ).
FIBA, the international governing body for basketball, ranks the USA as the No. 1 team in the world, even though they have not won a major international tournament since the Sydney Olympics in 2000. Since then, there have been two 3rd place finishes (Athens and the 2006 World Cup in Japan) and the eye-opening 6th place finish at the 2002 World Cup in Indianapolis.
No other team playing in the Americas Championships in the last weeks was among the top 12 in the present FIBA ranking and only one other, Puerto Rico, ranked 13th, was among the top 15. (It should be noted that Argentina is ranked 2nd in the world, but its team this month was surely not the one that will be in Beijing as Manu Ginobili, Andreas Nocioni, Walter Herrmann, and Fabricio Oberto were all missing).
Most of you are surely aware that Spain is presently hosting the 2007 European Championships (each of the five world zones within FIBA organize their zone championships and the top teams win some of the limited open berths for the coming Olympics).
Now one must ponder on the fact that here in Europe we have a big number of very good teams but the end the tussle is still for the same number of spots in Beijing (namely two whilst four will get the opportunity to have another chance by playing, with other second-time lucky hopefuls from other zones, in the Olympic qualifiers where three teams will then advance to the Olympics).
In fact, the Europeans are featuring seven of the top 10 teams in FIBA’s world rankings and thus basic logic tells us that at least one would not even get to China. (yet then, Iran, ranked 32nd, has qualified from the Asian zone.)
One should note that world no.3 Spain already has qualified for Beijing 2008 by virtue of its win in the 2006 Japan World Championships.
The competition, stakes, and intensity next year in Beijing will be dramatically higher than the individual zone championships. There will be a limited field of 12 teams. There really is only minnow, Iran. Other certain qualifiers are Angola (14th rank) and Australia (9th).
All in all, the Americas championship gave the US players and coaches a chance to practice and get accustomed to one another. Had the US won the World Cup last summer, there would have been no opportunity like that this summer. However, the gold medal they received is not the one they really want. The Olympic gold will come a lot harder – and, if secured, mean a whole lot more.
NBA superstar Kobe Bryant said he was confident the United States could re-establish its dominance in world basketball and take home the gold at the Beijing Olympics next year. The 29-year-old All-Star guard for the Los Angeles Lakers however says he is not about to relax, predicting that Team USA will face a tough challenge at the 2008 Summer Games from other teams with NBA talent on their rosters.
“We are preparing for (the Olympics) like we were playing for the NBA finals. What we faced in the Americas Championships is going to pale in comparison to the Olympics,” Bryant told reporters lately.
Bryant said the US squad could face tough competition in Beijing from Argentina, Spain, other European nations and even home team China, which are pinning their hopes on Houston Rockets’ all-star centre Yao Ming and Milwaukee Bucks’ draft pick Yi Jianlin. Bryant described the latter as “a very talented player who can be pretty special”.
Team USA would be facing, Bryant commented, a “much greater” challenge at the 2008 Olympics than seen by the 1992 “Dream Team” which took home gold in Barcelona, led by legends Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan.
When asked if he would prefer an NBA championship or Olympic gold, Bryant said he could win both. “I don’t have to choose one or the other,” the Lakers guard said. “You focus on one thing at a time.”