Bare Eye
Can Team USA fight on without a special star?
By Recah Trinidad
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 05:24:00 08/12/2008
BEIJING—US President George W. Bush, who cheered from the sidelines here Sunday, did not notice it but there was one problem with the USA Olympic basketball team.
It didn’t happen to be a team, it was an invasion outfit.
A bigger problem was that it had no singular star like, say, Yao Ming for China or Manu Ginobili for defending Olympic basketball champion Argentina.
That clear picture came out after the American team made a devastating debut here, a follow-up act to the thunderous afternoon downpour Sunday.
Forget that snide tag which says the US basketball squad here is nothing but a colorful collection of superstars.
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That sorry label was perfect for the 2004 USA basketball team to the Athens Olympics whose members, led by Allen Iverson, tried to outdo one another in a selfish bid to be the MVP of the Olympic series.
Sunday night here, Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Dwight Howard, Devon Williams, Chris Paul, the biggest young and not-too-young names in the NBA, were all present and played their respective roles in the game against China.
Chinese citizens numbering over 20,000 and hoping Yao Ming and the Chinese squad would trip the US squad filled the coliseum early.
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But these Chinese fans headed home dazed, mystified.
They also started asking themselves who among the American pros did the most damage to their national squad.
There was no ready answer.
For one, the American squad that banished Chinese fancy did not force the issue.
There was hardly a trace of one-man plunder.
The Americans never forced the issue.
There were no frayed nerves in the end.
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OK, two or three more Yao Mings would have made it better for the Chinese side.
But this was only because the imported Houston Rockets giant shone and threatened to do it on his own in the first quarter.
He hauled big rebounds, scored inside and converted on a couple of graceful perimeter flips.
That individual heroism no doubt further fired up Chinese dreams of an upset.
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The USA team, on the other hand, made sure there would be no such thing as a dirty, humiliating reversal.
And all the members of the star-studded American team had to do was play selfless basketball.
OK, Kobe Bryant was there but he was basically absent in the thick of competition.
The Bryant that played against China Sunday was a shining example of a dedicated team man, no swagger, no sneer, only pure concern for solid team philosophy.
If Lebron James as much as soared up high en route to a thundering dunk, this was the culmination of team effort.
King James would succeed on his aerial expedition, but only after being propped and goaded by a neat assist flip from backcourt.
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It was, if there’s such a thing in basketball, painless surgery.
There were points in the third quarter when it would appear that the Chinese were not being bombarded, but were, in fact, self-destructing.
The Great Wall team deteriorated inexplicably, razed by a hail of uncharacteristic turnovers.
Yes, the China team may have been crushed, but it’s safe to say Yao Ming & Co. never lost face.
They kept their self-respect at the end of the noiseless massacre.
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Unlike a shattered prizefighter, the China team, beaten bad, did not have to be repaired and stitched back into shape.
Of course, the Chinese must be told that, in their case, it was not the selfish NBA brand of offensive that did them in.
Last Sunday, the US basketball team marched as a unit riding on a selfless West Point-style of defense.
Hold it. Unfortunately, President Bush may have to order a forced Iraq-style invasion when the USA team goes up against either Argentina or Lithuania, which practically had to use the bludgeons before Ginobili et al. reluctantly yielded in the other half of Sunday’s major preliminaries.
After that win over China, there’s very little chance the Americans could indulge in another Chinese lauriat hardcourt feast.
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