Nothing Gold Can Stay

Last Saturday night at 11:30, I, like a lot of the world, watched the United States Men's Basketball team beat Spain in the Gold Medal game. I was surprised at the coverage of the game's result--most media outlets incorrectly blurbed that Spain provided only a "scare" to the US. However, the victory didn't come easily. Spain played much, much better than they did in the Preliminary round, when their impression of a fainting goat was spot on. And for three quarters and some change, they played better than the Americans. In the end, USA's athleticism and Kobe Bryant's Satanically inspired compettitiveness outlasted the Spaniards. Even though the US won, they should have won by a lot more. Which takes me back to one of the best nights of my life....

In August of 2006, I experienced one of the greatest nights of my life. My in-laws got tickets to the Team USA exhibition game vs. Puerto Rico, and they let my wife and I tag along. From the minute we sat down, everywhere I looked I saw basketball legends. Let alone the coaching staff and the loaded roster, imagine being in the same arena as Dr. J, Scottie Pippen, Clyde Drexler, Pat Riley, Chuck Daly, Lenny Wilkens, Tark the Shark, and John Thompson, Jr. The game was great too, a plethora of fast breaks and windmill dunks, but the precision was lacking. Carmelo Anthony was shooting the ball as if he were trying to earn enough tickets to get a stuffed LooneyTunes character; 7' forward Chris Bosh never entered the key and launched (and missed) a million three point shots; the American guards (CP, Kirk Heinrich) were unselfish, but Carlos Arroyo zipped by them all night and their court vision was blurry at best.

Since that night, I've followed the progress of Team USA to see if they would fulfill Coach K's vision for what USA Basketball should become--committed, team-oriented, and lethally compettitive. Seeing them play in the Olympics had been, in my opinion, a near fulfillment of that vision. Their backcourt, inspired by the hustling Dwayne Wade and Kobe Bryant, was everywhere. Their undersized frontcourt, led by Bosh, Dwight Howard, and Tayshawn Prince overacheived in almost every way.

So when I sat down on Saturday night to watch the Gold medal game, I expected to see a culmination of the vision--the Beijing Opening Ceremonies of basketball, if you will.....not exactly. Spain, even without star guard Rudy Fernandez, played good enough to win and their fundamentals were precise. 17 year old phenom Ricky Rubio asserted himself as the next Pistol Pete, flying past an aging J-Kidd, an uncreative CP, and a balding Deron Williams, dishing beautiul passes to his Bigs. Pau Gasol drew a lot of attention from the American frontcourt, which allowed little brother Mark (a beefier, harrier, uglier version of his bro) to make jumper after jumper.

The bottom line is that team USA did the least they had to do in order to get the Gold, and I wanted them to do the most they could possibly do. Ussain Bolt, the Jamaican Blur, also did the least he had to do in order to win the Gold by jogging the last 10 meters of the 100m dash. Bolt did finish with a world record 9.69, but had he done his best, he could have run an unbreakable 9.59 and possibly outshined Michael Phelps. And yes, Team USA did go undefeated and win the Gold, but instead of winning by 11, they could have won by 30. Instead of fulfilling Coach K's vision, they largely ignored it. Instead of emerging from these Games as the best basketball team ever assembled, they will forever be silver to the Dream Team's gold.