Posted on 08/15/2004 12:50:40 PM PDT by wagglebee
ATHENS, Greece (AP) - In an upset as historic as it was inevitable, Tim Duncan, Allen Iverson and the rest of the U.S. basketball team lost 92-73 to Puerto Rico on Sunday, only the third Olympic defeat ever for the Americans.
It was also the most lopsided loss in the games for the U.S. team, alarming not only for its significance but also for its decisiveness.
Puerto Rico, which had lost to the Americans five times in the past 13 months, took control in the first half, led by 22 at halftime and gamely held off a fourth-quarter comeback for one of the biggest sports achievements in the island territory's history.
The loss was a blow to the Americans' confidence, but it did little to hurt their gold medal chances. They need only to finish in the top four of their six-team group to reach the quarterfinals.
Still, the defeat will go a long way toward giving the competition the bold idea that it's someone else's turn to move to the top of a sport that's been dominated by one country for nearly three-quarters of a century.
As Carlos Arroyo left the court with just over a minute left, he defiantly pulled at the words "Puerto Rico" on his jersey. He led his team with 24 points.
Anyone in America who didn't see this coming hadn't been paying attention to the way international basketball has been changing. The U.S. nearly lost in the semifinals at Sydney on a last-second miss by Lithuania, then dropped three games on its home turf at the 2002 World Championships in Indianapolis - the first losses ever by a U.S. team of NBA professionals.
This year's team, weakened by the defections and rejections of 12 top players, opened its pre-Olympic tour of Europe with a 17-point loss to Italy and a last-second victory over Germany - a pair of games in which their vulnerability to a tight zone defense was clearly exposed.
Puerto Rico used that defensive strategy, too, and the Americans could do next to nothing against it.
After Lamar Odom made their first 3-pointer, the Americans missed 16 straight. They tried to get the ball inside, but Puerto Rico collapsed several defenders into the paint and took the U.S. team's best player, Duncan, out of the offensive equation.
American teams had been 24-0 since the professional Olympic era began with the 1992 Dream Team, but now there is a blemish on their record to go with their two losses to the Soviet Union in the 1972 gold medal game and the 1988 semifinals.
They handled the loss to Puerto Rico with grace, congratulating their opponents and joining them in a huddle at center court before both teams exited to a standing ovation.
The U.S Olympic team's record now stands at 109-3.
I have to agree with you. These "representatives of the United States" appeared listless and bored for three quarters.
Correct. We need to return to sending our top amateurs (college players) -- people who actually want to be there. The NBA players spend too much time tripping over their own egos.
....and the USA would never win and never even qualify for the olympics.
Nearly every team playing in the olympics has NBA players on it. Today, for example, the point guard from the Puerto Rican team plays for the Utah Jazz in the NBA. Teams with non-Nba players still have PROFESSIONAL players.
College players may want to be there, but they would have lost in the qualifying rounds.
Tim Duncan's nickname is the big fundamental. So much for your theory.
Any number of Dependent Territories field their own teams including:
Puerto Rico, Guam, US Virgin Islands, American Samoa - USA
British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, Cayman Islands - UK
Cook Islands - New Zealand
Netherlands Antillies, Aruba - Netherlands
A big loss, I'm sure.
I'm sorry, I'm as patriotic as any American, and normally I want the USA to win, but in this case all I can say is a Nelson-like, "HA HA!"
Yep, this never would have happened if Bobby Knight was the coach.
The media is just trying to hype a story. This aint the dream team and never was. Most of the real NBA stars sensibly sat this one out and wisely so.
I was gonna reply but added my thoughts in the keywords instead.
"Think about the 1980 hockey team for example. This was a bunch of mostly high school and college kids who beat the Russians and went on to win the Gold. Many of them never had NHL careers but they will always have that gold medal. There's something special about that."
I absolutely agree. No sports memory in my lifetime will ever match the win at Lake Placid by the American hockey team in 1980. When you have professional athletes like NBA and NHL All Stars competing, it just isn't the same, and it's hard to get really excited about it.
Exactly,
Most of them are 50# overweight and just shuffle around on the court protecting themselves from injury.
I can't stand to watch pro basketball.
Give me some hustling college players.
When you... wait a second... you could take what I just wrote, replace "StreetBall" with "NBA", and it still makes sense. No WONDER this incredibly embarrassing loss occurred.
Regardless of their level of "professionalism" (and it makes me giggle like a damn schoolgirl to use the word professionalism in regards to NBA players. They may be professionals, but they don't exhibit an ounce of professionalism), until we get players who understand the concept of playing as a team instead of the "hey look at me, can I have an endorsement deal now?" ideal they're playing under at the moment, this will happen again and again.
There's a simple way to make the US competitive in Olympic basketball again, let's just make Puerto Rico a state.
Ahhhhhh, music to my ears.
In all seriousnous, WTF should we care about a bunch of over-priced arrogrant tattooed hoodlums playing street ball? Defense? What is that in the NBA?
Giv me the Wojo/Duhon/Reddick-types of the world any day. And I'll give you the points.
FYI..little known factoid..the US men's BB team silver medals, from the rigged loss to the USSR, have never been claimed..they sit in a vault in the IOC HQ in Switzerland..
You missed a key point, many players did not want on the team. Key players.
I believe it makes the game better.
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