'Dream Team' will author fresh nightmare in Beijing

The time has finally come to accept the fact that the United States doesn't play the world's best basketball anymore.
The Americans struggled in the final two games of their pre-Olympic tour, breaking away late to beat Russia and holding off Australia, but the damage has been done to their collective psyche and invincible reputation. Predictions that the U.S. will win the gold medal, long considered a definite as long as basketball's birthplace fielded a team, are laughable. The Americans will be lucky to even win a medal the way that they currently play the game.
Tuesday's game against Australia, an 87-76 U.S. win, was particularly troubling. The Aussies rested their best player, Milwaukee Bucks' center Andrew Bogut, and still gave the U.S. all it could handle. The Americans launched brick after brick from the outside over Australia's tightly-packed zone defense, played selfish basketball for most of the game and couldn't get their transition game going thanks to continued poor play by starting point guard Jason Kidd. It was, in short, a perfect example of everything that has plagued the U.S. during its recent international failures.
The people who are surprised by this turn of events simply haven't been paying attention. They're too caught up in the big names and star power on the American roster, much in the same way that just about every expert picked the Los Angeles Lakers to beat the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals. One quick glance at the Los Angeles roster, star-studded from top to bottom with big names like Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom, was all that analysts needed to take to dismiss Boston. The Celtics didn't care and won the series by playing defense and team basketball, something that Bryant, hailed as the missing piece that will push this version of The Dream Team over the top, and the rest of the U.S. roster know nothing about.
The sad thing about this is that the powers that be in American basketball made a sincere effort this time. They didn't throw together a team at the last minute and expect to win like they've done in the past (the sixth-place finish at the 2002 FIBA World Championships spring to mind). Still stinging from a disappointing bronze medal in the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Jerry Colangelo, the president of USA Basketball, demanded a three-year commitment from every potential player on this version of his showcase team and tried to mix in some role players (standout defender Tayshaun Prince, sweet-shooting guard Michael Redd) to make the U.S. perform as a more cohesive unit.
It still hasn't worked because the NBA is so irreparably broken at this point and two weeks at a national team training camp isn't enough to erase all the bad habits that have been ingrained in the games of Bryant, LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade. They know no other way than 1-on-1 basketball, a style that doesn't work against international opponents and their zone defenses. They don't know how to share the ball, make the extra pass and hit the open man for an easy shot. They can't shoot from the outside because they are so used to taking their man off the dribble and getting to the basket. They can't get their transition game going because none of these players will make the sacrifice of doing the dirty work in the paint and cleaning the glass at both ends -- they simply want to get out on the wings and get off to the races to add another dunk to the highlight reel. They're all style and very little substance, much like the NBA has become since the real Dream Team took Barcelona by storm in 1992 and rolled to Olympic gold. Don't be surprised when Beijing ends up another international embarrassment for a team and a group of supporters that are still blind to their own faults.