BasketBall Information

Nba Superstars Failing In International Competition
By Matthew Paolini
A major area of concern surrounding Team USA professional basketball is the notable lack of recent victories when pitted against international competition. In the quadrennial World Championship tournament, a U.S. team has failed to win the gold medal since 1994, and in the Olympics since 2000.

In the 2006 WC competition held in Saitama, Japan, the team came in third place, winning a bronze medal. The 2004 Athens Olympics produced the same result. The 2002 WC tournament held in Indianapolis, IN, was disastrous, as a team split by internal dissension stumbled to a sixth-place finish, the worst showing in history by an American squad in international competition.

This turn of events has engendered an orgy of hand wringing and harsh criticism as fans and commentators have taken turns ripping the “lazy” players for not dominating foreign competition. Suffice it to say that there is no dearth of proposed “solutions” to “fix” the problem. The 2007 WC tournament to qualify for the 2008 Olympics is scheduled to be held in Las Vegas, NV, Aug. 22 through Sept. 2. Time will tell what will happen.

There is a consistent theme here — the world has caught up. Long gone are the days when a group of NBA players could just show up and easily batter international opponents. That era ended after the first Dream Team, led by Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan, performed in the 1992 Olympics perhaps the greatest collection of talent on one team in any sport in history. Now, the international teams, who feature a more pass-oriented, free-flowing version of the game, smell weakness and are more than eager to heap more indignities on the heads of the American players.

All of this leads to a boatload of speculation as to whether the finest basketball is actually played in the NBA. There are some prominent sports figures who have indicated their partiality for the European-style game. Due to the fact that American teams have been handily thrashed in international competition for the better part of a decade, one would have to be very foolish to dismiss this notion.

Of particular significance is the fact that the team that wins the NBA championship is known as the “World Champion.” Is that title appropriate? Shouldn’t the championship team have to prove that it’s the best team in the world?

Why not hold a true World Championship series between the NBA and Euroleague champions? The ‘PR’ value, along with international interest in such a match would be tremendous, and the games themselves would serve to settle for once and for all which side of the Atlantic the best basketball is played on.

Matthew Paolini is Citybook.com’s compliance officer for the Miami, FL business Yellow Pages division.