I Loathe the Participation of NBA Players in International Competition – Part III
Jul 29th, 2007 by Answerman
The coverage for the team of NBA players is the same every single year (for some reason there is another international tournament every year) and it is as annoying and damaging every year.
It always starts with extreme optimism. The team of NBA superstars is announced. The Press drools over all the big names. Now, since Team USA hasn’t been blowing out competition, we hear about how all the bad things from the prior year will be turned around.
This was from last summer in the USA today:
“The team that will represent the USA in the world championships next month in Japan is an unselfish group comprised of superstars and role players. Except for its youth and lack of a true, dominant center, it is reminiscent of the 1992 Olympic Dream Team”
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/basketball/2006-07-25-new-dream-team_x.htm
With expectations set so extraordinarily high, there is nowhere to go but down. The pre-tournament coverage becomes a build to euphoric expectations, that can only be met with disappointment.
As a result, when the inevitable disappointment occurs, and Team USA dares to lose, or even not play in a dominant fashion, we get backlash from the very same group that spent the last few weeks building them up. For example, after the Greek team upset Team USA last year, one of the Greek players guys had the audacity to say:
“I think this is the NBA, one against five,” Papaloukas said. “It’s different rules” in the worlds.
(imagine if a Team USA player said something like “I guess Euro-league just isn’t that good” after any win. He’d be tarred and feathered)
…in any event, Papaloukas won, he gets to rub it in. But, our friends at ESPN have the gaul to agree:
“The U.S. is learning that, one international defeat at time.”
As if, they lost that game against Greece because they chose to just go 1 on 5 on every possession. We all know that didn’t happen. On some occasions, the offense got broken up due to good defense, and as a result, the U.S. players went one on one to create something from nothing.
Moreover, the loss is not simply treated as a loss, instead, its somehow a personality flaw applicable to the entire NBA. NBA players are – selfish, play no defense, have no teamwork, paycheck collecting, and are unintelligent.
For example, look at the comments to my prior posts from a guy named Jason:
“Surely this can be put down to bitterness at seeing Team USA humbled by the Greeks, the Argentinians, etc. who show superior levels of IQ to the ’superstars’ that get trotted out by the Yanks“
Is this for real?
When you try to explain to critics that the rules are different, the team doesn’t play together for a long period of time, so as a result, they struggle against good teams – it is cast aside. Those are viewed as “excuses” because a team as talented as Team USA should be good enough to overcome these adjustments.
Why? Because of the ridiculous pre-tournament coverage. That’s absurd. Its not even like they lose in a 7-game series. Any team can lose one-game, even to an inferior opponent – and the international team aren’t necessarily inferior. They’re just different. They play basketball differently, under a different set of rules, in a different league. Yet a loss under these circumstances shows a perceived of the entire league
A player could spend his entire summer staying at the club until 5 am, sleeping with groupies, and licking vodka out of girls’ belly-buttons, sell a video diary of his summer exploits called “NBA Gone Wild” and get less criticism than those who go to play in FIBA.
Stay tuned for more.
Nice way to sign off, with yet another nutshell. But onto your more serious, if fatally flawed, arguments
“Moreover, the loss is not simply treated as a loss, instead, its somehow a personality flaw applicable to the entire NBA. NBA players are – selfish, play no defense, have no teamwork, paycheck collecting, and are unintelligent.”
Firstly it isn’t being purported as fact, just a simple generalisation and frankly justified commonly held perception applicable to the US players within the NBA. Secondly, you must have noticed their are non US players within the NBA by now. Actually, most of those foreign born NBA players, of which there were 80, overrepresented by 60 in the 2007 playoffs, and further so with 37 in the dominant West (see a pattern?) aren’t getting painted with the same brush, including the last two league MVP’s. Which makes your own generalisation of NBA players as simply US players even less forgivable than Papaloukas’ 1-on-5 comment.
As for the coverage, wouldn’t it make more sense to loathe the media coverage of the event than the event itself?
J
i’m a basketball fan from asia, i agree with your article here, different regulations are not something that those players are going to be able to adjust easily. for me, there are several rules and regulations that affected nba players the most, first, the size of the court, then the 3 seconds defensive violation, thus making it easier to close down the keyhole area, and having to make big men taking perimeter shots, which nba’s big men are not accustom to or dish it out and have the guards taking outside shots ,while they don’t good percentage from there. lastly, the size of the ball obviously has something to do with it, since nba players seem to have difficulties making their 3points shots in fiba games in compare with nba games. back in the days of dream team when the u.s. team comprise of nba players, they get away by having superior athleticisms, but those are all gone now. to thrive and start winning again in international arena, u.s. team has to start playing tough defense, especially defending the perimeter. the dilemma here as you’ve put it, playing hard nose defense certainly gonna affect those players physical ability come nba season starts. i guess, the solution for this is either not having nba players playing for the national team to avoid embarrassment or making those players accustom first to the style of play of fiba, then making priorities such as to only make them available to olympic and world championship games, as to not waste their time and energy.
That’s the point: The rules also change for Gasol, Dirk, Parker… still, they’re posting better and better numbers each year, even earning MVPs.
So, let’s look for the seed of the problem everywhere else. From my point of view, it’s a matter of basketball style of play EDUCATION.
Do you know Paul Shirley? For sure you know. He wrote “How Michael Jordan ruined the league” at Slate (http://www.slate.com/id/2166305/entry/2166380/). Though the title sounds somehow crazy, take a look at the background of his thinkings:
“But then, along came this dude named Michael Jordan. He transcended the concept of team and had a unique combination of ability, class, and aloofness that inspired kids everywhere to tug at their middle-class parents’ Dockers until they shelled out $120 for the latest version of the Air Jordan. No dummies, those in charge of the NBA noted how much easier it was to market one man. When Jordan was gone, they tried with others—Penny Hardaway, Shawn Kemp, Allen Iverson, Shaquille O’Neal. But it’s never been the same.”
I think a decent solution would to (if they want to start taking this international stuff very seriously) extend the NBA season (make it last longer but dont add more games) to make way for more practices with the international squad or friendlies between other countries.
They would solve some of the adjustment problems or team chemistry. Whether stern is willing to do that, we dont know.
Perhaps extend the all-star break a week and have a short camp and a few practice games against a European or rival national team. I still stand by my proposal to reduce the number of games to 72, given how it would make scheduling sense as well as reducing the toll on players bodies. But these two ideas could easily be merged, they certainly make a lot more sense than foolishly blaming a short FIBA tournament for the physical effects of a gruelling NBA season.
J
Great Article man. I can’t stand the way the recent dream teams have been absolutely destroyed by the media and casual fans after losing.
This “different rules” BS is getting real old. I will repost my comment that added to “Why Can’t Everyone Play by Our Rules Part II:
“The point you are missing is that the FIBA rules are the ‘true’ rules of basketball. FIBA is real basketball, every country uses these rules except the USA, yet you complain about them. The NBA made their changes to these rules soley for entertainment purposes, nothing else, sort of like the WWE of basketball. But, I suppose that we are talking about a country who calls their baseball finals the “World Series”, when there is only one non American team (Toronto), and the NBA champion is the world champion, but USA has not been a world champion at basketball since 2000.”
Do you see my point here? It’s just like in 1985 when a bunch of American musicians released the song “We are the World”. If the NBA players had more of the talent and less of the arrogance, they would be champions once again, slightly different rules wouldn’t be a hurdle at all. The basket is still 10′ high. Other countries play for the love of the game, not the love of the greenback. That is where “Team” USA is going wrong