USA Basketball Loses, Ends Chances for Olympic Gold

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Bronze is the best the American men's basketball team can do, and the reason is simple: They were beaten by a better team, Argentina.

Manu Ginobili scored 29 points to lead his nation to another victory over the country that used to dominate the sport, an 89-81 win in the Olympic semifinals Friday night.

For the first time since 1988, the gold medal will not go to the Americans. And for the first time since pro players were added for the original Dream Team in 1992, the United States will not be the Olympic champion.

Argentina, with almost the same roster that made history in 2002 by becoming the first team to defeat a U.S. squad of NBA players, will compete for the gold medal against the winner of Friday's late game between Lithuania and Italy.

The Argentines were the better passers, shooters and defenders. They confronted the Americans with a mixture of man-to-man and zone defenses, and confounded them with an assortment of back picks that turned the start of the second half into a layup drill.

Argentina's players celebrated wildly when the game ended, and the crowd yelled "Ole!" U.S. coach Larry Brown walked over and gave a handshake and hug to his Argentine counterpart, Ruben Magnano, who played for Argentina against the first Dream Team in Barcelona.

A dozen years later, Magnano's team became the first to knock America out of gold medal contention since the Soviet Union did it in Seoul in 1988.

NBA commissioner David Stern attended the third loss of the Athens Games for the Americans, who entered the tournament with a 109-2 record in prior Olympics.

Their first loss to Puerto Rico was shocking for its decisiveness, and their second to Lithuania finally got the message across to the players on the young U.S. roster that the level of the competition was a whole lot better than they had imagined. The U.S. team had been playing better since, and its best effort came Thursday in a victory over previously undefeated Spain.

But just a day later, they went back to missing 3-point shots, didn't get a breakout performance from any of their NBA stars and couldn't make a sustained comeback after they fell behind by a double-digit margin.

The first half ended with Argentina ahead 43-38 after its big men outplayed the Americans and showed themselves capable of playing with as much flair as anyone.

The half's prettiest play came on the 3-on-1 break when Hugo Sconochini, one of the team's elder statesmen, tossed a nifty behind-the-back pass to Alejandro Montecchia for a high-arching layup over Richard Jefferson that gave Argentina a 42-33 lead.

The Americans shot just 36 percent in the first half and didn't hit their first 3-pointer - missing their first five - until LeBron James made one 30 seconds before halftime.

Argentina shot 54 percent overall and 11-for-22 from 3-point range, while the Americans finished just 32-for-77 (42 percent) and 3-for-11 on 3s. Stephon Marbury led the U.S. team with 18 points, and Tim Duncan had just 10 while being limited to 19 1/2 minutes because of foul trouble.

The third quarter began with Ginobili hitting a wide-open 3-pointer, Duncan picking up his third foul, Luis Scola, Ginobili and Fabricio Oberto getting inside for layups, and Marbury clanging a driving shot off the side of the backboard.

Suddenly, the Americans were down 53-40 and on the verge of having the game get away from them.

It soon did. Duncan was whistled for his fourth foul with 7:41 left in the third quarter, causing Brown to jump out of his chair and scream "NO!"

Next came a wide-open 3 from the right corner by Ginobili, and the lead was up to 16 - 56-40.

The Americans quickly got their deficit down to six, but Montecchia and Ruben Wolkowyski knocked down 3s, and Ginobili added a rare four-point play - just like the one from Lithuania's Sarunas Jasikevicius that doomed the Americans in their opening-round loss - to make it 70-57 entering the fourth quarter.

The Americans trailed 76-65 when Duncan fouled out with five minutes left for hitting Ginobili with a hip check. The U.S. team eventually went to a trap and a full-court press in an effort to climb back, but Argentina handled it with aplomb and didn't let the Americans get closer than eight.

Here's what we are going to have to do to stay competitive in International basketball. First, hire a full-time coach, whose only job is to coach the USA Men's team, not an NBA or college coach moonlighting as an Olympic. He should have the power to make all personnel decisions. An Olympic team should not be composed like an All-Star team. You need to have guys who play well together, and can keep their egos in check. Also the coach, would only coach games playing by International rules, and also have good knowledge of the foreign teams, so he can know their strengths and weaknesses.

This is how the Men's soccer organization does it with having Bruce Arena as full-time coach, and it has paid off handsomely. If we are going to stay competitive in international basketball, they need to take the same approach.

You can call it black basketball but it is realy junk basketball, street basketball, the kind of crap you play on the playground and white kids in America play the same junk ball. It is a game that is dominated by players "making their moves" There is no offense, there is no defense. There is really nothing you can watch on NBA basketball that you can go down to the local park and see.

I agree, but don't you still have to term it "black basketball"?

I would prefer to call it "street basketball" as in; The 2004 Olympics marked the end of the illusion that US Street Basketball was superior to the rest of the world.

But it begs the obvious point that you simply can't say out loud in our society- the term "street" refers to black ghettos, so this undisciplined work ethic, resulting in this unbelievable embarrassment of 3 (and counting) USA losses when we'd lost one other time, when the officials cheated for the Soviets in 72-in 80 years. Its a game we invented, and this is an indictment of that entire thug mentality NBA fans have allowed to take over the sport.

They should take away Lebron James' shoe contract and give it to one of the Argentinians who whooped him.

Another statistic:

No undefeated teams.

The Medalists:

1. Argentina, 6-2. Finished third in Group A with a 3-2 record. Losses to Spain and Italy. Lost to Italy to be determined third in Group A. Defeated #2B Greece, #4B United States, and avenged first-round loss to #2A Italy for Gold. At-large bid, 2nd Americas. Earns a guaranteed free pass to the 2006 World Championships in Japan where the winner of Saitama tournament wins 2008 Olympics automatic bid. At-large bids for Olympics based on performance at 2002 World Championships of region.

2. Italy, 5-3. Finished second in Group A with a 3-2 record. Losses to Spain and Serbia-Montenegro. Beat Argentina in preliminary round to be determined second in Group A. Defeated #3B Puerto Rico and #1B Lithuania to advance to finals. Lost to #3A Argentina to clinch Silver. At-large bid, 3rd Europe. (Beat France when the Spurs' Tony Parker Jnr, born to a Chicago native playing pro ball in France and a French wife, missed free throws with 9.9 seconds remaining to seal the final bid.)

3. United States, 5-3. Finished fourth in Group B with a 3-2 record, losing a three-way tie-breaker with Greece and Puerto Rico based on best record among the three teams in a tie-breaker as the three-way record was 1-1, and total net point differential favored Greece. Losses to Puerto Rico and Lithuania. Defeated #1A Spain to advance to semifinals. Lost to #3A Argentina to be relegated, and avanged loss to #1B Lithuania in the finals to clinch Bronze. Automatic bid, won Americas.

The rest of the quarterfinals

4. Lithuania. 6-2. Undefeated against Group B (United States, Puerto Rico, Greece, Angola, Australia) to finish first in Group A. Defeated #4A PRC in quarterfinals. Lost to #2A Italy in semifinals, shut out of medals when #4B United States avenged loss in preliminaries. Automatic bid, won Europe.

5. Greece. 4-3. Finished second in Group B with losses to United States and Lithuania in preliminary round, but on the point differential matches among three tie-breaking teams for second in Group B. Lost to #3A Argentina in quarterfinal, relegated to fifth place game. Automatic bid, host country.

6. Puerto Rico, 3-4. Finished third in Group B with losses to Lithuania and Greece in preliminary round, tie-breaker. Eliminated by loss to #2A Italy in quarterfinal, relegated to sixth place game. At-large bid, 2nd Americas.

7. Spain, 6-1. Won Group A with sweep of New Zealand, PRC, Italy, Argentina, and Serbia-Montenegro. Eliminated in quarterfinals by loss to #4B United States. Beat PRC to finish seventh. At-large bid, 2nd Europe.

8. PRC, 2-6. Fourth in Group A with wins against New Zealand's "Tall Blacks" and 2002 World Champion Serbia and Montenegro, the latter advanced them to the quarterfinals. Losses to Argentina, Italy, and Spain. Eliminated by #1B Lithuania. Lost to Spain in relegation game. Automatic bid, won Asia.

9. Australia, 2-4. Won once, against Angola, in Group B. Beat New Zealand in classification game. Automatic bid, won Oceania.

10. New Zealand, 1-5. Won once, against Serbia and Montenegro, in Group A. Lost to Australia in classification game, will be costly at 2006 World Championships. At-large bid, 2nd Oceania.

11. Serbia and Montenegro, 2-4. Won once, against Italy, in Group A. Lost tie-breaker to New Zealand based on head to head. Defeated Angola in classification game, will be costly at 2006 World Championships. Automatic bid, 2002 Indianapolis World Champion.

12. Angola, 0-6. Winless in Group B. Lost classification game. Automatic bid, won Africa.

The three medalists may earn an automatic 2006 Worlds bid.

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