So far there has been one worthy suggestion for Team USA’s most fitting new nickname: “The Unknowns.” By the end of this week, perhaps something else will be more fitting, like the “C-Deem Team.”
I was the guy four years ago who dubbed the 2010 World Championship team the “B-Deem” team as it traveled to Turkey, learned of how hard it would be to not lean on Kevin Durant, and got out of Istanbul with the gold medal by trouncing the host team in the championship game.
That team was undersized but got a yeoman’s effort from “center” Lamar Odom and relied more upon backup point guard Russell Westbrook than starter Derrick Rose.
Perhaps most curiously, they did not ride Kevin Love to even the slightest degree despite his dominance off the bench. It was very much a learning experience for both the players and coach Mike Krzyzewski, who continues to find himself in that toughest of spots: Nothing to gain and everything to lose.
Maybe we should give a nickname to Coach K because of the masochistic nature of his existence. If his team runs the table and brings home the gold, Americans will have gotten what they expected — an eighth consecutive summer of not having to endure a loss that defies explanation. Too bad “Gimp” was already taken.
In case you have forgotten or did not realize it, the Americans have gone undefeated since losing to Greece in the semifinals of the 2006 World Championship in Japan with a team that included LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade. Coach K’s record with USA Basketball now stands at 43-1 in global competitions, 62-1 when you throw in his 19 exhibition games.
Krzyzewski has guided Team USA to gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2010 World Championship and the 2012 Olympics.
This week, we’ll get an idea of whether a second blemish might be put on his record. It could even happen as soon as Saturday night when the Americans play Brazil at the United Center in Chicago.
It will be a test case of whether youth and speed can triumph over size and experience.
Let’s start with a look at Brazil’s front line: The three bigs are Tiago Splitter, who just won an NBA championship with the San Antonio Spurs; Anderson Varejao, who will have a very good chance to win an NBA championship next season with the Cleveland Cavaliers; and Nene, who will be one of the frontcourt anchors for the Eastern Conference team that everyone is sleeping on – the Washington Wizards.
Brazil is coached by Ruben Magnano, an Argentine who led his country to the gold medal at the 2004 Olympics in Athens before having a falling-out with the national federation and taking the reins for Argentina’s biggest South American rival.
Brazil’s backcourt includes Leandro Barbosa, an accomplished NBA veteran, and Marcelinho Huertas, who would be starting in the NBA if his contract with Regal Barcelona did not include a buyout of 8 million Euros, which has to be a basketball record.
The last time Huertas played the Americans, he dropped 11 dimes on them in the nation’s capital with President Barack Obama, wife Michelle and daughters Natasha and Malia in attendance, along with Vice President Joe Biden. That was two years ago in a pre-Olympic friendly, and Brazil held the lead for much of the first half. I was there, and it was surreal on so many levels.
Brazil’s lineup also includes international veterans Marcelo Machado (39) and Alex Garcia (34), whose national team experience pre-dates the birth of Mason Plumlee (you can look it up). Like a lot of the better of national teams, Brazil’s players have been together since they were members of their junior national team. Anybody who thinks they cannot give the Americans a good game is deluding themselves.
Americans usually do not pay much attention to the World Championship (it has been rechristened the World Cup because David Stern thought that would be a good idea), mostly because it is not the Olympics. Folks around the United States have become accustomed to believing that the Olympics are the be-all and end-all of international competitions. But the World Cup is actually held in higher regard globally.
The field at the World Cup is twice as large (24) as the field at the Olympics, meaning that many of the very good teams that get squeezed out of the Olympic field come into this event with a chance to make some noise.
Fortunately for Team USA, Brazil will be the toughest team it will face until the semifinals of the World Cup on Sept. 11 in Barcelona, when the opponent is likely to be Lithuania – the only team that gave the Americans a decent battle two years ago in London.
The gold medal game will be played Sunday, Sept. 14 in Madrid, and the opponent is likely to be the loaded national team from Spain (profiled quite nicely here by A.J. Mitnick). But it will not be an easy road for the hosts to the title game, as their side of the bracket includes six of the top eight teams – Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Serbia, France and Greece.
Something to remember going into this Saturday’s game and the ensuing month: It does not matter how good you look at the beginning; it matters how much gas you have left in the tank at the end.
Please keep that previous paragraph in mind, because even if Team USA loses to Brazil at the United Center, it will not matter. Nor will it matter what happens in Bilbao, where the Americans have first-round layups against Finland, New Zealand, Turkey, the Dominican Republic and Ukraine.
The games that matter will be played in Barcelona (where the knockout round between Groups C and D will be contested) and Madrid (the site of the Group A-B knockout round, as well as the gold medal game).
You know what matters until then?
These five things:
1. Who Will Make The Final Team USA Roster?
This is a source of constant speculation (my picks here), and with good reason. Team USA has 16 fantastic players on the roster right now. When the Americans leave for an exhibition game against Slovenia in the Canary Islands in two weeks, the roster should be down to 12. However, it would not be a surprise if they went overseas with 13. That’s what they did four years ago, when Rajon Rondo got on the plane as the starter and lost his job to Derrick Rose in the first overseas friendly against Lithuania. He was back in the States before the World Championship even began. As this week begins, I reiterate that my four predicted cuts will come from these five players: Andre Drummond, Kyle Korver, Gordon Hayward, Klay Thompson and DeMar DeRozan.
2. Do the Americans have enough size?
Look, there will be times when Rudy Gay and Chandler Parsons play power forward. This may seem alarming on the surface, but it should not be. Krzyzewski has played LeBron James at center in previous tournaments, so be chill. When facing opponents with size (like Brazil), the Americans can use a starting front line of DeMarcus Cousins/Plumlee at center and Anthony Davis at power forward, with Kenneth Faried as a better backup than anyone else’s reserve 4 except maybe Spain’s. A lack of size has been negated in the past by Team USA’s speed and versatility, and this version of Team USA actually has a heck of a lot more size than the team that went to Turkey four years ago.
3. Who will be the featured scorer for Team USA?
This is where things start to get interesting, because the reigning NBA MVP just quit the team. And it bears repeating: “Quit” is a more fitting word than “withdrew” when it comes to Kevin Durant, who is now only two short years away from taking his talents to D.C. The time to “withdraw” from the team was prior to training camp in Las Vegas. That is what Kevin Love did. To do what Durant did after the first round of cuts had been made (they should have kept Paul Millsap, eh?) was selfish and shameless.
Durant reportedly has a pending $325 million deal as the primary pitchman for Under Armour. What will the company’s slogan be? “Wear our shoes. Quit your team.” Or “Kicks For Those Too Good To Keep Their Word.” Or “Shoe of the Shameless.”
The guess here is that in Durant’s absence, James Harden becomes the man. He has Olympic experience, he gets to the line, and he has impressed the USA Basketball staff with his commitment to defense. Yes, really.
4. Will ESPN send a broadcast crew to Spain?
True story: When I was working for the WWL four years ago, ESPN was broadcasting the games from a studio in Bristol, Conn., plausibly present. As we got to the knockout round, Jerry Colangelo placed a phone call to George Bodenheimer, one of ESPN’s top executives. “You guys are missing a great story,” Colangelo told Bodenheimer. And like magic, a full squad of network TV talent was summoned to catch the next available flight to Istanbul. This time around, Marc Stein will be on the ground in Spain, and writing for ESPN.com. Will he have any colleagues with him from the TV side?
5. Why should anyone care?
Because it is the World Cup, folks. And because Team USA should be the gold standard for the rest of the world to follow.
Chris Sheridan is publisher and editor-in-chief of SheridanHoops.com. He has covered every senior U.S. men’s national team since the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. Follow him on Twitter.