Dateline Beijing /Jerry Sullivan at the Olympics
Redeemers show Greece is history
BEIJING — Mike Krzyzewski couldn’t say enough good things about the Greeks. It’s an honor to play against them. They play the game the right way. The Americans have “great love and respect” for Greece. Their coach is the best thing to come along since peach baskets were replaced with nets.
“They play hard,” Krzyzewski said. “They play together, and they’re a difficult team to beat.”
In other words, “Coach K” has the world right where he wants it. I’ve seen the guy’s act for 20 years. This isn’t badminton or archery. I know a great basketball team when I see one, and Krzyzewski, the esteemed Duke coach, knows he has a doozy.
Yes, the poor Americans embarrassed themselves in Athens, losing three times and settling for bronze. They lost to the Greeks at the ’06 world championships. It was such a crisis, Jerry Colangelo and USA basketball put together a real team for Beijing.
From what I saw Thursday night, they outdid themselves. The U. S. men’s team — the “Redeem Team” — put on an astonishing show, running and dunking their way past the Greeks, 92-69, to run their Olympic record to 3-0.
Look, I know it’s bad form to gush about American hoops. The rest of the world has supposedly caught up.
Argentina and Spain play the same tough, surgical game as Greece, and they have NBA players.
Maybe the U. S. is not a lock, but it’s hard to see it losing. Did you see that performance? Did you see Le- Bron James, Dwyane Wade and Kobe Bryant on the floor together — with Chris Paul at the point?
There has never been a team with this combination of raw athletic ability and basketball IQ. Throw in the fact that they’re motivated to redeem American hoops, with the ideal coach in Krzyzewski, and it’s a team that will be hard to beat.
It starts, as always, with defense. More specifically, defense on the perimeter. The U. S. has been criticized for building teams without good outside shooting, and with reason. But the bigger problem in Athens was their inability to defend the three-point line.
Opposing teams shot 44.1 percent from three-point land in Athens. You can tie your shoelaces together, fall on the arc and hold teams under 44 percent. Maybe that’ll happen when you throw the team together at the last minute.
But in 2005, USA Basketball decided to assemble a team of NBA players who would make a long-term commitment and take the international game seriously. They got a coach, Krzyzewski, who would settle for nothing but their best.
At Duke, Coach K is known for defenses that attack the guards and stifle offenses at the source. He’s had some great defensive point guards. But this U. S. team is beyond his wildest imaginings. He’s loaded with perimeter defenders who happen to be some of the best midsized athletes ever to play. Greece, a sound fundamental team, committed 25 turnovers.
“We’re built to play defense,” said Paul, who came in when Jason Kidd got three early fouls. “Coach told us from Day One we were the best defensive team he ever coached, and it starts with us guards. As long as we keep up our defensive intensity, we’ll impose our will and eventually wear them down.”
Greece shot 0 for 7 from three in the first half, when the U. S. blew out to a 51-32 lead. Vasillis Spanoulis, a 6- foot-4 guard who became a national hero after the win over the Americans in ’06, shot 4 for 13 on the night.
The Redeemers shot 62 percent from two-point range, which will happen when you’re stealing passes and soaring in for dunks. Where do we begin? Uh, how about the Wade-to- Kobe play?
Early in the second quarter, Wade lunged for a loose ball at the left sideline, 35 feet from the basket. Wade grabbed the ball with two hands as he fell out of bounds and made a perfect backhand feed to the right of the rim, where Bryant was elevating unattended. You can imagine the rest.
Moments later, James leapt to block a pass, which went bounding the other way. James retrieved it inside the opposite foul lane and twisted for a reverse dunk.
It was a Hall of Fame preview, and somehow the best guy on the floor in the second quarter was Chris Bosh, the 6-10 power forward from the Raptors. Bosh was in heaven playing with such gifted teammates. Who wouldn’t want to play with Bryant, Paul, Wade and King James?
So I’m gushing. Aren’t you relieved to get away from Michael Phelps? This isn’t some mindless dunkathon. It’s gifted, fundamentally sound players who are motivated to make amends for their sport. If you’ve perused the NBA payrolls, you know it’s not about money.
“We’ve invested a lot in this,” Paul said. “This has been a three-year commitment. There’s a lot at stake. We’re not only playing for our country, we’re playing for each other.”
This is only group play. Anything can happen in medal play, when one loss can end it all. The Greek coach, Panagiotis Yannakis, said his team can play a lot better, and he looks forward to meeting the U. S. again.
“Basketball is a team and a mind game,” he said. “It depends how often you play them. Sometimes against these players, you’re surprised and don’t think clearly. The more often we play them, the harder it is going to be for them to play against us.”
Right. If they meet in the medal round, and the Greeks are playing well and thinking clearly, the U. S. might only win by 12. I’m not one to overreact, but polish up the gold.
