Good stuff coming from the USA Mini-camp... including this piece in Sunday's LA Times on Coach K and the USA Basketball Team.. And a Las Vegas Review item by Steve Carp below.. Read on:
U.S. OLYMPIC BASKETBALL
Mike Krzyzewski sets pace for Team USA
But it helps to have a roster of players who are setting their egos aside and are committed to the approach.
By Jonathan Abrams
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
June 29, 2008
LAS VEGAS -- It's a command played out in countless junior high gymnasiums and one usually met by grumblings and groans.
"Defensive slides," the coach tells his players, his voice even but stern.
Only this isn't any coach. This is Coach Mike Krzyzewski, synonymous with Duke and winning. Coach K, to nearly everyone now.
And this isn't any team, let alone one of seventh- and eighth-graders. This is the USA men's Olympic team, a squad full of big stars, who earn bigger paychecks and strut even bigger egos.
Except there is no grumbling, no groaning. Only a smile from Kobe Bryant as the team splits into two, going to separate baselines and Krzyzewski, notebook in hand, straddling the midcourt line while keeping one keen eye trained on each side.
The team convened for a one-day mini-mini-camp Saturday as it begins tuning up for Beijing, still trying to brush away the aftertaste of coming home from Athens four years ago with a bronze medal.
Enter Krzyzewski.
Still, the task is monumental: mold a team of superstars, fresh off the rigors of a full NBA season, and get them to buy into your philosophy wholeheartedly with precious little time or margin for error.
"It'd be difficult if people don't cooperate," Krzyzewski said. "They need to be superstars on their individual teams. They're the center of the wheel. Everything emanates from them. On this team, they're not. Not one of them.
"We talked about it, but they get it. There's no 'I want to be the center of the wheel' or 'I'm jealous.' There's nothing like that."
Krzyzewski is undeniably smart about basketball, and life, and so ordinarily he does not scream nose to nose at players or referees. He is a man more of calm than calamity, but it's an intense calm.
What exactly is he?
"He's a winner," said forward Carlos Boozer, the only member of the 12-man team to play under Krzyzewski at Duke. "Any time you're playing for a winner, the respect is given before he even comes into the gym. His winning precedes him."
Krzyzewski knows superstars are often perceived as arrogant and petulant, and maybe his history of winning made a difference, but this U.S. team, he says, just isn't like that.
"It goes against what normal people would do, maybe," he said. "Or maybe people who aren't superstars who think that a superstar should act that way. I guess, it goes against stereotypes. Instead of stereotyping them in a negative sense. The reality of it is, they are in a positive sense, so they've been easy to work with."
Yet the perception that superstars will always act like superstars became reality with the Athens Games, when the U.S. was taught that it could no longer slap together a team of All-Stars and dominate in international play.
Larry Brown, the coach of that 2004 team, was rebuked in the media for criticizing his players, the officiating and nearly everything else. Allen Iverson, LeBron James and Amare Stoudemire, for example, were benched for an exhibition game after showing up late to a pregame meeting.
"We didn't approach the Games the right way," said James, one of four current players from that team. "We didn't take the Games serious and we paid for it."
That is why USA Managing Director Jerry Colangelo decided things needed to change.
Colangelo, the former longtime owner of the Phoenix Suns, requested full autonomy in putting together the team, from the coach to the players.
"When I met with guys one on one, eyeball to eyeball, I was looking for a response," Colangelo said Saturday.
"And I basically said, 'Look, here's what I'm demanding and don't ever embarrass me and I'll never embarrass you, but this is all about pride, representing your country. If you want to be part of this, you've got to buy in 100%. This is not halfway. If you can handle what I just said, then I'll consider you. But if you can't, then you're out.' "
"We got total buy-in," he said. "Total."
In Krzyzewski, Colangelo has seen what others see: his soft rhythm, a smooth manner of delivering messages and making sure it is understood, whether the recipient requested it or not.
"He has the ability to use the right words to get his message across and whatever it might be, it's uplifting," Colangelo said. "He can use the right phrases . . . to make his point and guys follow."
Said Bryant, one of those who follows: "Above all else, he just wants to see his players play well and he wants to win. He communicates that beautifully to his players."
Colangelo also did something new -- he asked Krzyzewski to help choose the roster, something previous Olympic basketball coaches had not been allowed to do.
"That team that I had, you just got the team," said Rudy Tomjanovich, who coached the U.S. to its last gold medal, in 2000. "This team got to work out and work with different possibilities to create a team."
Krzyzewski, he said, "has done a tremendous job. . . . There's an intensity there and the players have picked it up."
Outside, the afternoon sun is beating down on Cox Pavilion on the Nevada Las Vegas campus. Nearly two hours into the practice, the slides give way to shooting drills. Players, from Bryant to Dwyane Wade, shout encouragement, be it makes or misses. It's all in perfect symmetry, one the team hopes to carry to Beijing.
So how much does Krzyzewski account for this unity of one team with one goal -- gold?
"Minimal," he said. "I think it's minimal."
Another case of a coach leading by example.
And...
Wade rebounds from injury
Guard returns after knee, shoulder troubles
By STEVE CARP
REVIEW-JOURNAL
Dwyane Wade had the requisite ice pack on his left knee. But for the Miami Heat superstar guard, life was good Saturday.
Wade was back in uniform for Team USA, and he got through a two-hour workout at Cox Pavilion without mishap as the Olympic squad concluded its two-day Las Vegas minicamp.
True, there were no contact drills, and he didn't have to play at full speed. But this was another small test for Wade in his attempt to be at full strength when the Americans begin their quest for gold Aug. 10 in Beijing with a game against host China.
"It felt great to be back," said Wade, who missed last summer's Olympic qualifying in Las Vegas following shoulder and knee surgery. "It was tough sitting out last summer having to watch.
"Anytime you go through surgery, you're going to have some doubts. But I dedicated myself to getting back. I definitely want to be part of this."
Wade had a second procedure on his knee in March, and his return to Team USA was in doubt. Mentally, Wade was committed to coming back. Physically, it was a question of whether the knee would cooperate.
Two weeks ago, Team USA managing director Jerry Colangelo and coach Mike Krzyzewski went to Chicago, where Wade was rehabilitating. After watching him play and talking with him, they decided to put him on the final roster.
"The day Coach K and Mr. Colangelo gave me the No. 9 jersey again, it felt great," Wade said. "I was smiling for hours."
Colangelo said he wanted to make sure if Wade was going to return to Team USA, it would be the Wade everyone is accustomed to seeing.
"I told him we needed the old Dwyane Wade, and he understood," Colangelo said. "I also wanted to see if the old explosiveness was there, and it was."
Wade seemed to be moving well in Saturday's practice. He appeared to be back in sync with his Olympic teammates.
"I just have to get my timing back," Wade said. "I haven't played in a real game since March. But I felt good out there with the guys."
Krzyzewski liked what he saw.
"He looked good," Krzyzew-ski said. "But I think we'll get a better idea where we are with him in a few weeks. We're bringing the Select team back when we have our training camp, and we'll scrimmage them every day. Dwyane will benefit from that."
Colangelo said the goal is to have Wade ready for Aug. 10. Saturday was merely another step in the process of achieving that goal.
"Most of these guys are in pretty good shape," Colangelo said. "Guys like Dwyane, we're not going to rush. We have time to get him ready."
The same is true for center Dwight Howard, who did not practice Saturday because of a small crack in his sternum. Howard said it is not a major issue, and he'll be ready to go when Team USA returns to Las Vegas on July 20 and begins practicing at Valley High School on July 21.
Wade also promises to be ready.
"For me, it's now or never," said Wade, one of four players on the U.S. roster -- LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Carlos Boozer are the others -- to take bronze at the 2004 Olympics. "If we don't win the gold, I'll feel like my career is unfulfilled."
• NOTES -- Lakers star Kobe Bryant wasn't saying much about being the target of Shaquille O'Neal's less-than-complimentary impromptu rap last week. When asked if he took what Shaq said personally, Bryant said, "I didn't take it any kind of way whatsoever." ... A film crew from Nike was everywhere during Saturday's practice, shooting footage for a five-part documentary on Team USA that will air on ESPN2 (Cable 31) beginning Wednesday. Nike also shot footage for a commercial that will run during the Olympics. ...
The team leaves today for New York, where the new uniforms it will wear in the Olympics will be unveiled Monday. On Saturday, the uniforms were used for the first time as team and individual pictures were taken. ... Ticket sales for the July 25 exhibition game with Canada at the Thomas & Mack Center are ahead of last year's pace when the team had an intrasquad scrimmage and more than 16,000 turned out. With a low ticket price of $12 and a high of $75, Las Vegas Events officials are hopeful the game will sell out.
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