Poll: Why did they Lose -TEAM USA - AKA Dream Team

[BlackHawkDown]

Why did the team Lose. Pleas Explain Why you voted the way you did.

[cyman3]

why did they lose?

here are my reasons (and in the order of importance)...

1)they dont take international competition (not named OLYMPICS) as seriously as the other nations.

for ex: worldcup soccer team. did u see how much fan support every other nation received? where was the US fans during the worldcup? They had one of the worse fan supports in Korea/Japan.

2)Overconfident? I think everyone agrees with me (or atleast the majority) when they thought this group of men would win the GOLD MEDAL. If not the GOLD, we thought "SHITT HAPPENS and we win the SILVER." We all thought of it as "lets the NBA stars go there, get the job done... and go get ready for the new NBA season"

3)Not together long enough- no chemistry once so ever. Reminds me of the Blazers back when they gave LA some competition.

4)poor players- im happy with with the selection of their guards but not their BIG MEN. They put themselves in a position where if J ONEAL had a bad day in the post, they lose all their big men offensive weapons. Offensively, Oneal/Wallace/A Davis does not scare any teams away.

Now CHRIS WEBBER or SHAQ or even ABDUR-RAHIM, now they could post up all day on these international players.

5)Coach- i dont think KARL knew the rules of INTERNATIONAL BASKETBALL. he didnt do his HW! but hey, its not all his fault- the players didnt know any better. When u assemble a team of SHAQ, WEBBER, BRYANT, etc in international competition... i think almost any coach could get the JOB DONE.

6)shhh happens - wat can u say? its not like we got BLOWN away by any of the teams. Whats the most we lost by?? like what, 10?

but overall, this assembled group HAD the SKILLS to win it all. They might not be the BEST the NBA has to offer, but they ARE ALLSTARS.... they should have won the GOLD with that team.

[Iman]

[Gray Mule]

U.S.A. didn't have a team there. They had a bunch of

individual pro basketball players there.

I believe almost any N.B.A. team, along with their coach

and his coaching staff, could have given a better account

for the U.S.A. than what was sent there.

When everyone knows what to expect from everyone else

and have played together enough for this to happen, then

you have the beginning of a team.

Another thing, apparently the coach and players were not

prepared to represent the U.S.A. and didn't study the

international rules closely enough. There does not appear

to be any great feeling of loss among the represenatives

of our country because of the showing made there. Why?

Because they feel that it doesn't really matter. We lost.

So what? Let's get back to the N.B.A. and make money.

Next time, send one team and their staff and there will

be a difference. These players should hang their head

when they enter an N.B.A. game this year.

A great coach coaches a team, not a group of individuals.

This was not a team. He could have done better. He

would have done much better is he had his 12 team

members there instead of who he had.

Just my opinion. It may not be very good, but it's mine.

Gray Mule

[capstone21]

poor players...if we had Shaq, Tmac and Kobe we would have won. Yes, with Shaq we would have won but the players we fielded should have won too.

I hate hearing how we did not have the top players there and that was why we lost. THat is complete BS. The talent we sent was basically a team of 'all stars' or future 'all stars'. Players looking for max contracts in the NBA. There is no reason why these guys should have been able to beat a team from Argintina or Spain....or even Yugoslavia for that matter.

The reason they lost is because the team had no heart. The other teams were willing to do whatever it takes to win for their country. USA took the approach that we are better then all of these guys and so we will just win.

[Traceman]

I don't think the team lacked heart at all. I would never question the heart or desire of any player on that team. All of those guys play hard every night in the NBA and none of them take nights off. They also knew going in that everyone was saying that they were not the USA's best and they set out to prove everyone wrong. I think that the team lost due to a combination of factors.

1) I think the world is CLEARLY getting better. Before, we could just put together a group of talented guys and beat the hell out of any country in the world. That is CLEARLY not the case any more. We can't put together a team of guys who never play together and practice for two weeks and expect to walk through the competition. At least not anymore. Our team needs to come together a lot sooner and practice together if we expect to dominate.

2) I think once they lost that first game, they were so tight (as well as so dejected) that they were incapable of playing their best ball. That first lost was so devastating that although I think they tried, they just couldn't play at the level that was necessary to win the gold.

3) I think that once they actually lost that game, the other countries really began to believe that they could beat them too and as a result, they played with confidence. The intimidation factor was clearly nonexistent after the loss to Argentina.

4) Other than Brand and MAYBE O'Neal, our low post players were simply not skilled enough. Wallace and Davis are tough and they hustle but they are not elite players. O'Neal and LaFrentz are more skilled than those two but they are not elite players either. Once Brand got hurt, our only consistent low post scoring threat was lost.

5) American players need to get back to the fundamentals of the game. Dunks are pretty and athleticism is great but dunks are only 2 points just like layups or jumpers. From what I saw, many other countries had more fundamentally sound players at almost every position. Our free throw shooting was HORRIBLE and our ability to execute basic plays left a lot to be desired.

I actually feel bad for the team because it has to be hard for those guys to be the first team of NBA players to ever lose a game against international competition. I don't blame them because I think they played hard. In fact, I don't blame anyone. I think this shows without a doubt that the rest of the world is playing some pretty good ball and that if the US wants to continue to dominate the world stage, our guys had better continue to get better because the world is getting better - fast!

[Guest]

I actually think that LaFrentz should have played quite a bit more, esp. after it was apparent that Brand wasn't getting it done; don't get me wrong, it wasn't really his fault...the foreign teams just don't bang - their big men can shoot at least the 15 footer, if not the three. Brand isn't trained to guard out there (even worse is Wallace)....

LaFrentz's game is much more similar to the foreign style and would have been a much better foil, given the circumstances.

I'm still really surprised that Karl, with his International experience didn't try and put egos aside more and play euro-style more.