Winning Is The Only Thing For The U.S. Basketball Team

United States national team players, from left, the Memphis Grizzlies’ Mike Miller, the Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James and the Nets’ Jason Kidd during a practice game in Las Vegas last month.

The Dream Team, in its various incarnations, has never lacked talent or star quality, only humility, cohesion and, occasionally, experience. So it seemed appropriate when Jason Kidd, in a July team meeting, referenced his 28-0 record in international play, turned to his youthful compatriots LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony and said, “I don’t want to see you guys messing with that record, either.”

It was an amusing quip. Anthony did not laugh.

"Nobody laughed,” Anthony said, recalling the moment. “You can’t laugh at a fact.”

Humility, it seems, has at last crept back into the program — necessarily so after a recent string of pratfalls. The United States finished sixth at the 2002 world championships, stumbled to a bronze medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics, then took bronze again at the 2006 world championships.

It was last summer’s failure in Japan that forced the American team to gather again this summer to qualify for the 2008 Olympics. The quest begins Wednesday, when the United States opens pool play at the FIBA Americas tournament in Las Vegas. The championship game will be played Sept. 2, with the top two teams earning a trip to Beijing in 2008.

The American team, packed with N.B.A. stars like Kobe Bryant, Amare Stoudemire, Kidd, Anthony and James, is a heavy favorite to win the 10-team tournament. But then, recent history suggests that the label is illusory, if not downright foolish.


After read the above new. Did U.S Team really prepared for the tournament? Will U.S Team lost again. Too much star sometiems is not a good sign . Teamworks is the most important thing in BASKETBALL !!

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source : nytimes.com