Team USA began practice yesterday under the expert tutelage of Coach Mike Krzyzewski. The message he tried to impart on his first day in charge was dominance. 56 quarters of international ass-whoopin’. That’s the way The K wants things to go down. ESPN’s Chris Sheridan is not okay with this. A sampling (and I think this might be an Insider thing, so the link won’t work. But I hope they don’t mind if I cut and paste just a bit)…
You know what would have been a better message, Coach K? How bout this: “I don’t care if you lose, and I don’t want you losing your confidence if you do lose. I want you playing at your peak seven weeks from now. I want us at our best when this mission finally gets serious.”
You can’t be dominant if you’re not even superior, and right now there’s a team in Argentina that has first dibs on worldwide rights to being the best. Manu Ginobili and Co. earned that distinction fair and square in Athens, and they get to keep it until somebody knocks them off their perch.
I’m gonna have to side with Coach K on this one. I see where Sheridan is coming from, and it would seem like domination is a but much to ask for, but I don’t believe that’s really the case. The fact of the matter is that if you were to rank, on a scale of 1-100, the pure basketball talent of all the national basketball teams of the world, the United States would still be 30 points ahead of any other nation. I firmly believe that. And when the gap in talent is that wide, dominance should not be unfeasible.
Now, I’m not saying it’s a given, of course. But the biggest challeneges facing the Unites States team have nothing to do with the talent of the other countries, but the following series of factors, in no particular order: 1) their guys are more familiar with playing with one another, and aren’t playing under a new coach and new style every four years, 2) their style of play was designed exclusively to attack our weaknesses, 3) it’s a very, very different style of basketball than we’re accustomed to seeing, 4) we have traditionally shot very poorly from the international three-point line, and 5) every other basketball nation in the world places more of a value on fundamentals. If nothing else, they aren’t going to beat themselves. But in terms of talent, we could send an NBDL team over there still be fine, at least in terms of raw, physical ability.
Which is why I think it’s OK to preach dominance. If we go over there, prepared for what we’re going to see, ready to defend it, and ready to shoot teams out of their zones, everything should be fine. Despite what happened in Athens, despite what happened in the ‘02 Worlds, I still think we are capable of running through any team we’ll encounter. I’m not saying it’s going to happen, and I’m not saying I’ll be disappointed if it doesn’t happen, but it certainly can happen. It would take a near-perfect coaching job, and you know what? I think we have the right staff in place.
I’d rather implore the team to dominate than to tell them it’s okay to lose, under any circumstances, because there’s no reason this team ever should lose to anyone. He might not seem it, but Mike Krzyzewski is a hard-ass. He’s Bob Knight without the public outbursts. The job means a great deal to him, he’ll be as well-prepared for this as he possibly can be, and he will tolerate no poor attitudes. And I hope that he’ll lean heavily on assistant coach Mike D’Antoni, who knows the international game as well as anyone.
andrea Says:
July 20th, 2006 at 3:54 am
i love your writing man but you wrong now, i think.
point 1 it’s simply not true, point 2 it’s not true either ( eruopean basket got its own tradition too, it aint fair to define it just as designed exclusively to attack your weaknesses point 3: so what? why the fact that it’s different would be an advantage for european/south americans teams? point 4: if it’s so difficult to adjust to the international 3 points line why don’t they just shoot from 3 feet back then? point 5: you seem to assume that having good fundamentals is not related with having talent. i dunno about that.
in summary pal, i think nba basket it’s mostly a one man show, coz you have all those nike shoes to sell and all, euro basket it’s about teams, they share the ball.
Mike Says:
July 20th, 2006 at 4:05 am
If Sheridan knows exactly what message to give the players of Team USA and what they should expect out of international competition, then why isn’t he coaching them? Oh wait, he’s a REPORTER, not a coach.
Tink Says:
July 20th, 2006 at 6:42 am
Obviously, Sheridan’s card is Diner’s Club…
rob Says:
July 20th, 2006 at 8:31 am
Damn you Mike. You beat me to my point.
Imagine Sheridan coaching at George Mason last spring. “You can’t be dominant if you’re not even superior, and right now there’s about 40 other teams in the NCAA seeded higher than us that have first dibs on the rights to being in the Final Four.
So what I’m saying is don’t bother unpacking or getting too comfy at the hotel. I doubt we’ll be here very long. Just go out there and have fun, cause it’s not whether you win or lose but how good you feel about yourself afterwards.”
Figures we writes for espn.
DookieStyle Says:
July 20th, 2006 at 8:57 am
100 percent spot on MJD. Enabling failure is not an option.
j Says:
July 20th, 2006 at 10:21 am
The Dream Team of the early nineties that had Jordan, Magic, Bird, Drexler, Barkley, David Robinson, Malone, Pippen, Ewing, Chris Mullin and Stockton set our expectations too high. That team was dominant. Our team today just isn’t as good. The rule changes in the NBA that favor offense make it seem like Kobe, T-Mac and Wade are unstoppable, but they rely on getting to the line alot (see the NBA Finals) whereas in international play, they aren’t getting those calls.
That said, Coach K demanding that this team be dominant is a motivation tool.
Fan's Attic Says:
July 20th, 2006 at 1:34 pm
I agree with Mike and Rob. I think I’ll leave the motivation tactics and goal-setting to a three-time NCAA champion and coach of a very successful NCAA program. Who is Chris Sheridan?
stevie Says:
July 21st, 2006 at 8:38 pm
j,
Even though the current may not be as good or have as many future HoFers, the talent pool that America picks from is still far and away the best in the world. There’s no possible way for the expectations to be “too high”. The U.S. should destroy everyone at this tournament if they have any kind of outside shooting and don’t collapse chemistry-wise.
Nevertheless, Sheridan is obviously an idiot for writing that column. How did that get published? Mind you, ESPN would run anything to get people to read it….the pronouncements the Daily Quickie guy makes sometimes….sheesh…..