The picture says it all.
By Rob Schumacher, USA TODAY Sports
USA players James Harden (left) and Kobe Bryant (right) pose with their gold medals after defeating Spain 107-100 during the men's basketball gold medal game in the London 2012 Olympic Games at North Greenwich Arena.
By Rob Schumacher, USA TODAY Sports
USA players James Harden (left) and Kobe Bryant (right) pose with their gold medals after defeating Spain 107-100 during the men's basketball gold medal game in the London 2012 Olympic Games at North Greenwich Arena.
LeBron James hugging Kevin Durant with a smile that only a summer of winning could bring.
Weren't these guys just fighting for an NBA title against each other? Aren't they rivals, enemies?
Nah. Not in London, not in the Olympics.
The other picture tells a similar story. Kobe Bryant showing off his second (and supposedly last) gold medal with James Harden by his side. Didn't these guys hate each other? Before that, the two were posing in Instagram pictures pretending they were track athletes. Wonder what Metta World Peace thinks about this.
There's something about winning that brings foes together. When the goal is a gold medal, that NBA hatred goes to the wayside. It's what makes a league-shifting Dwight Howard trade to the Lakers secondary.
When asked by an NBC reporter what he does to bring so many lethal scorers and superstar players together, coach Mike Krzyzewski nonchalantly says "they make my job easy."
And so, with Coach K announcing his departure from Team USA, where he holds a dazzling 62-1 record, we ponder the next chapter for U.S. basketball.
Architect Jerry Colangelo has said he'll have pizza and wine again with Coach K to see if he'll reconsider. But he might have to have cheese and wine with another coach. Perhaps another college guru, Tom Izzo. Or a proven NBA coach like Doc Rivers. Or maybe even a guy with revenge on his mind, a teaching coach like Doug Collins, who had a gold medal denied to him and his countrymen in the controversial 1972 Munich Games.
And it's not just the coach in question. What about the players? Who will make up the roster for the Rio de Janeiro?
Kobe Bryant has said he's done, but "these younger guys might be back."
Will the team's face, LeBron James, return?
"It's been a great run honestly," he said. "I don't know if I'm going to be part of the 2016 team."
Kevin Durant seems like a surefire bet to return, but James will be in his 30s in four years. And health issues always arise. Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Dwight Howard, Blake Griffin and Derrick Rose were supposed to make up the 2012 roster but were either resting or treating their injuries.
Perhaps the most important question of all is if an under-23 rule, which reportedly wouldn't happen until the 2020 Games, will affect players' motivation to play in 2016?
The U.S. will definitely need to field a dominant roster, as it's clear the world has caught up. This past Olympics, 39 NBA players and 18 former NBA players were on Olympic rosters. Who will challenge in 2016? Probably not the top U.S. challengers from this year â€" Spain and Lithuania â€" because those teams will have older rosters with their top talent, led by NBAers Pau Gasol and Manu Ginobili, closing in on the end of their careers.
We've seen the NBA's best talent turn down playing in the Olympics before, and a bronze finish in the 2004 Athens Games was the result. That opened eyes and helped form 2008's "Redeem Team."
If the Dream Team gets credit for changing the game globally, then the Redeem Team should get credit for changing the dynamic of the NBA. Think about it. Without the 2008 gold medal team, there'd be no Decision, there'd be no Big Three on the Miami Heat.
The summer talk before the Olympics was about the 20th anniversary of the Dream Team and the talk during the Games was about who's better, 1992 or 2012?
But now we move on to a less fun, more serious discussion, and that's the future of USA basketball. It's difficult to tell what that picture will look like in 2016.
No comments:
Post a Comment