Calipari, according to Rhoden, suggested that the United States of America send "the NBA champion" to the Olympics to play for the gold medal. To be fair, he is not the first person to suggest that.
Why not, you may ask? Why do you oppose that brilliant idea?
Well, let's check it out.
If you send the reigning NBA champion San Antonio Spurs who very well might repeat this year, you would send a team that - at its core - would have an MVP point guard who is only eligible to play for FRANCE. You would have Manu Ginobili - a world class shooting guard who will be suiting up for ARGENTINA and might pack his 2004 gold medal in his bags for good luck.
Starting center, Fabricio Oberto, will be standing alongside his teammate Ginobili.
I can provide other examples as well LA Lakers (Pau Gasol); Phoenix (Nash); Utah (Kirilenko and Okur), nevermind the likes of Yao Ming, Dirk and so on. (Just consult the list of International player stats on NBA.com for a complete list).
Okay, scratch that idea, right?
Now for the next TOTALLY RIDICULOUS and irresponsible "Basketball "IQing" idea to allow college kids to play, as though they will compete at a higher level with the 'passion of college basketball' at their side and the Stanford marching band holding their play books.
Okay, Sherlock, let's see how a team of college players of the year did when they were coached by Jay Wright, one of the best coaches in the land, in their pursuit of a gold medal at the Pan Am games last summer?
Game One - An 81-72 loss to Uruguay.
Game Two - A 75-67 loss to Panama.
They finished 1-2 in the preliminary round, then rebounded nicely and won three straight to gain the fifth place ranking in the tournament which DIDN'T HAVE the top European and Asia-Pacific teams competing.
The team was stacked with NCAA talent, including six players competing in the 2008 NCAA "Sweet 16" and that list included Joey Dorsey of Memphisn (so it's not as though Cal and Rhoden could have missed the fact that Dorsey couldn't cut-it at the Pan Am Games level, nevermind the World Championship or the Olympic level.
Rhoden also made a major mistake by insinuating that USA Basketball was behind the decision to send NBA players when he wrote:
The United States team, as it did in Barcelona in 1992 — when USA Basketball first felt compelled to use professional players — is still counting on a shock-and-awe approach to winning gold medals.
USA Basketball first felt compelled? Say what?
The truth of the matter was, FIBA was the driving force and the USA people voted AGAINST it.
So, I say, "C'mon Bill? C'mon Coach Calipari? Check your facts. Check your logic. Wake up! It's no longer 1968. It's 2008 and the 'college kids' are not even close to world class level.
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One side note on this topic: Many of the same hacks that write "send the college kids" to the Olympics also turn around and write, "These kids need to 'stay in school' because they are 'not ready' for the NBA.
Wake up and smell the coffee.
In case you missed it, here is Rhoden's column:
Sports of The Times
U.S. Team Needs International Mind-Set
By WILLIAM C. RHODEN
What becomes apparent during the N.C.A.A. tournament is that there is an abundance of outstanding basketball talent in the United States, from California to North Carolina, Michigan to Texas.
Each bench has an abundance of coaching acumen as well. So why hasn’t this embarrassment of riches translated into international success? Why are we wondering if a team of N.B.A. millionaires can do better than third place in a tournament in which most of the competition is playing for love of country and a modest stipend?
For all of this talent, the United States men’s team has struggled on the global basketball front. It finished sixth in the world championships in 2002, third at the 2004 Athens Olympics and third again at the worlds in 2006.
Expectations are high that the drought will end in Beijing this summer, when the United States will send yet another team of N.B.A. All-Stars to reclaim Olympic glory.
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The team will be coached by Mike Krzyzewski, whose Duke Blue Devils were pushed to the brink by Belmont in the first round of the N.C.A.A. tournament before being booted by West Virginia in the second.
Not to worry.
“I think they’re taking all the strides to take back what we’re supposed to be doing — winning,” Coach John Calipari said Monday during a phone interview. His Memphis team will play Michigan State on Friday in a regional semifinal. “It’s not a hodgepodge of All-Stars, the way it was back in the 1980s, when we could show up and win because we were so much better.”
But if the men’s basketball team wins the gold medal, it won’t be because it mastered the international system or because Krzyzewski is a genius. It will be because the world simply has no answer for Kobe Bryant and LeBron James.
The United States team, as it did in Barcelona in 1992 — when USA Basketball first felt compelled to use professional players — is still counting on a shock-and-awe approach to winning gold medals.
But shock and awe are not the answer. Pick-and-rolls are; so is having centers who can step out and shoot the 3 on offense and guard the perimeter on defense. Win or lose in Beijing, the United States, once and for all, must adapt to the international game.
“The international teams will play zone because they don’t think the U.S. can shoot,” Calipari said. “That’s the way teams play us. They’re playing a style that is a sharp contrast to ours and more suited to international ball. It’s a wide-open style of basketball.”
In the United States, it’s time to do the unthinkable: widen the lanes. Widen high school and college lanes to 16 feet, and widen the N.B.A. lane to international dimensions (yes, adopt the trapezoid).
Let’s concede, for a change, that the rest of the world has it right. Clearly, the United States needs to adjust, although the attitude among its coaches is that, far from needing wider lanes, the team simply needs to have the right mix of skilled players chosen every four years from our abundant pool of talent.
“We can play like they play, but better,” Calipari said. “At the end of the day, it comes down to players making plays, and our players are better.”
We’ll see about that soon enough.
College players should be put back into the Olympic mix. They were the staple of Olympic competition until 1992, and they bring passion and enthusiasm to the competition. Problem is, college players are no longer strong enough to compete at the Olympic level.
On the other hand, an all-star team of highly paid professionals may or may not be sufficiently motivated to endure the rigors of a nine-month season, then give it the old college try in Olympic competition.
In discussing the differences between international teams and the Americans, Calipari pointed to how Yao Ming went to great lengths to have an operation so he would be ready for the Games. “He had surgery for one reason — so he can play and represent China in the Olympics,” Calipari said. “It’s like guerrilla warfare, where the other guy is willing to die for his cause and you’re not. Now all of a sudden there’s a different mentality, and you’re not winning.”
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Calipari was not suggesting that the United States’ players are not patriotic. Patriotism is deeply personal. However, among high-profile players, the notion of competing for one’s country is less pronounced inside the United States, where the focus is on playing for a professional team or a university.
The answer — for national pride and continuity — is to have some sort of permanent national team. Calipari has an even better idea: send the N.B.A. champion.
His idea would involve identifying a core group of eight or nine players from the championship team, then adding two to three players from the outside.
Widen the lane, concentrate on perimeter play, send the N.B.A. champions. Regardless of what happens in China this summer, the United States must change its global ways.
E-mail: wcr@nytimes.com
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When I saw him on Thursday night at a Celtics team function, it was fun to give Celtics Coach Glenn "Doc" Rivers a hard time over Davidson's win over Georgetown. Doc's fine young son, Jeremiah, plays a key role for Gtown off the bench as one of the solid defensive subs.
I really like Doc a lot. He is 'good people,' as they say. I would be happy to see his son win an NCAA title with the Hoyas in the future.
Earlier in the week, I caught up with Phoenix Coach Mike D'Antoni. It's funny, I realize my lasting friendships with some of the pro and college coaches stems from the 30+ to 40 day stints with them during their recent USA Basketball assignments.
I really bonded with Doc during a USA Basketball trip to Brisbane for the 2001 Goodwill Games. He was a terrific travel colleague and an even better coach. I give him a lot of the credit for Boston's resurgence, as he's stressed defensive intensity and perfectly blended the offensive weapons of Paul Pierce, KG and Ray Allen, along with his mentoring of solid bench play.
Rajon Rondo's emergence is a lock for 'most improved' player of the year.
I enjoyed a number of international trips with the NBA, the European Final Four and the last few summers with D'Antoni as he assisted the USA with the senior national team as it makes its way towards Beijing. My parting words to Mike: "See you in June or I'll see you at The Wynn."
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This story on Sonny Hill ran last week in the Philly.com papers:
Sonny Hill.
If you don't know him, you don't know anything about basketball.
But don't worry. Because if you know anything about basketball, you already know Sonny Hill.
If you hear the name of Guy Rodgers and instantly recall his underhand free throws, you know Sonny Hill.
If you can conjure up images of Wilt Chamberlain, John Cheney, Hank Gathers, Alonzo Mourning or Kobe Bryant in your mind, and if those images remind you of the grace, the passion and the power of basketball, you know Sonny Hill.
Most importantly, if you truly understand the kind of good - true, real good - that a simple leather ball and iron hoop can bring to an individual and a family, a neighborhood and a city, then you know Sonny Hill.
The calendar says Sonny Hill is 71 years old. So what was a 71-year-old Philadelphian doing at his 31st consecutive McDonald's All-American High School Basketball Games at the Bradley Center on Wednesday?
Fulfilling his lifelong mission.
"I've touched 40,000 young lives, just with my league, not to mention my camps and classes," Hill said. "And we're still preaching the same thing: What are you going to give back to the game when it's all over for you."
Since he formed them in 1968, the Sonny Hill Leagues have catered to young Philadelphia kids from elementary school through college, with one simple motto, "Tuck those shirts in and shut those mouths up." The leagues provide a sense of stability, order and direction that is missing from so many young lives these days.
Did Sonny Hill play? Oh, Sonny Hill could play. In high school, his backcourt mate was Hal Lear, who went on to star for Temple University and the old Philadelphia Warriors. He then played in the professional Eastern Basketball League and in 1960 served as first president of the Charles Baker League, organized for pro players to work on their games in the summer.
Does Sonny Hill know the game? Well, he was a broadcaster, announcing NBA games on CBS-TV and on local Philadelphia radio for decades.
Now, he leads from many of the game's innermost circles, running his leagues and programs, working as an executive adviser with the Philadelphia 76ers, and serving another year on the McDonald's board.
And reflecting on all those years.
"The game has changed so much in that time," Hill said. "The players that play today have more hands on them than necessary. And not all of them are good hands."
It's not hard to understand what he means. All the handlers, the agents, the recruiters, the representatives, the assistants, the bodyguards, the advisers. . . . Every one of them has to make a living, and each one wants a nicer car and a shinier watch than his counterpart.
"Back then, even with the best players, the adults in their lives were a few older players and teachers, the people who were willing to take them under their wings and raise them," Hill said. "We don't have a lot of that today. We have a lot of people around, but for all the wrong reasons. There are a lot of phony people involved with our young people."
Chalk it up to the almighty dollar and the soaring popularity of big-time basketball. The life. And, yes, it has reached the high school level.
"Look at the AAU people," Hill said, echoing a complaint that even flares up in Wisconsin from time to time. "Too many of those people are looking to glorify themselves and their programs, not help the kids. It's self-aggrandization. They're not looking to help young people for the reasons you'd want to see. They're doing it so they can benefit."
The media has played a role, too, Hill said.
"Because of the technology of today, the exposure is so much greater," Hill said. "When you get some of that exposure, it makes you feel to some degree, 'I'm the greatest in the world and I helped to develop the game of basketball.' And they lose sight of who really did help develop the game.
"And then, when it's their turn to come back and teach that to the next generation, they're not going to be around as much as their predecessors. When the game is over for them, they don't make the same contribution to the game afterward. . . . And so, for those who run into problems, they're not going to be welcomed back the same way as others who have made that contribution."
No matter where he goes these days, Hill says, Sonny Hill League alumnae approach him. "They just walk up to me and thank me for all that we've done," he said. "That keeps me going.
"If you can touch as many people as I have, you have to continue fighting the forces pulling them in a different direction."
Send e-mail to akabelowsky@journalsentinel.com
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How do you think I did on my "NCAA Brackets" this year?
Answer: Eleven out of the Sweet 16 (I did not pick Davidson to be Geaorgetown< and I did have Xavier).
Six of the Elite Eight, as my Bracket Road went missing Davidson and Villanova.
My Final Four picks: Louisville, Kansas, Memphis and UCLA.
UCLA to defeat Kansas in the Finals.
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1 comment:
Some people just can't get past the idea of sending "pro" athletes to the Olympics even though every other player in the world was eligible to play in 1988. Only the NBA players were listed as ineligible. For instance, Drazen Petrovic - then a pro in Spain for Real Madrid - played for then-Yugoslavia.
FIBA saw the trend of international players starting to play in the NBA and they wanted to change the rule to make it fair for everyone.
Rhoden and many others must have missed school that day.
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