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The Weekly Fare . . . August 26, 2004

Why America Doesn't Play

Before he passed away in 1998, my Father-in Law and I enjoyed some rather good "rivalry bantering." As Wahoos (me) and Hokies (him) we rarely missed an opportunity to rib each other about our respective alma-matters. I suppose his ultimate forgiveness came as he handed his daughter over in marriage to a Wahoo in coat and tie who, as well dressed as I might have been that particular day, remained a "no-account ruffian from that archaic, err . . . academic village up the road . . ."

From his perspective, I was at least showing the good judgment of marrying into a Hokie clan, which must have meant that somewhere down deep in that pagan Wahoo heart of mine, was perhaps something that could be worked with. I'm sure he prayed about it.

Carl and many of his family members served in the military and his patriotism ran no less deep than the founding father's themselves. But at the height of the cold war, when my beloved Hoos lined up against the Russian National basketball team, he pulled for . . . you guessed it - the men in red.

Now that's a fan.

So last week as I tuned in the Olympics and found myself pulling for the Puerto Rican National basketball team as they played our American squad, I thought of Carl. I can't say for certain, but I suspect he would have been right there with me shaking his head in disgust as our guys committed error after selfish error, eventually falling by a score of 92 to 73.

For those of you who don't watch a lot of sports much less Olympic basketball, let me clarify. The United States is now allowed to assemble professional athletes for the summer games and accordingly can pick the crème de la crème of the NBA. That's right the NBA - with its long list of super-stars, who, from a talent perspective, should be able to drub any assembly the entire world might put forth.

But look at the results - in addition to being pummeled by the Puerto Ricans, the U.S. team has now lost to Lithuania and was barley able to hold off host nation Greece in a barnburner that went down to the final seconds. Greece! That bastion of basketball prowess that didn't field a team in the Olympics until 1996 in Atlanta! Against the American "Dream Team??" Who would've thunk-it?

Anyone who knows the game, that's who.

Basketball, perhaps more than any sport, requires an integrated team effort. Players must look to one another to provide angles, passes, picks and plays that when orchestrated correctly become a symphonic harmony of physical movements. Sure, it doesn't hurt to have individuals of extraordinary talent in the mix, but if a team can't weave that talent into the tapestry as a whole, "the music" is rarely heard.

Witness the NBA - a league consisting primarily of overpaid prima donnas with egos the size of their contracts and special "me-edition" high-tops . . . A league so completely consumed by individualism that in Los Angeles (which should have been the best team in the NBA this year) the top two players (Bryant and O'Neil) didn't speak to one another because both felt the other wasn't qualified to be the "team star."

"Boo Hoo. He might be more popular than me. Wah, wah."

Give me a break.
But perhaps the downfall of the 2004 US men's team began during the NBA Finals when the Detroit Pistons, a team of relative no-names, dismantled the star studded cast in L.A, four games to one - the one game going to L.A. by a long-shot last second basket.

Think anyone else was watching? You bet they were, and what they were thinking was what Pistons coach Larry Brown already knew - in life, as in, basketball, self-centered, give-it-all to me individuals never play well in the long run.

Now here's the truly ironic part. Having been served up this truth in the NBA finals, the powers that be on the U.S. Olympic Committee selected none other than Larry Brown to attempt to lead its mostly bigheaded bunch of players (save Tim Duncan) to Athens as a TEAM.

Coach Brown went immediately to work advising the likes of Alan Iverson, Labron James, Lamar Odom and Amare Stoudimire that only a team effort would get them to the medal round much less a moment in which the National Anthem was played in their honor.

Had he gotten through?

The game against Puerto Rico gave him his answer. At the press conference afterwards Brown made the following remarks:

"I'd like to congratulate Puerto Rico. They played so much better as a team . . . From our perspective the only thing we can do is try to find out what we're made of. This is a great opportunity for a group of guys to get together and figure out what it means to truly be a team. I'm anxious to see if we'll be able to do that . . ."

"The only thing we can do is try to find out what we're made of. This is a great opportunity . . ."

You've just got to love Coach Brown. For it is just that! A unique chance for these players and self-centered "heroes" everywhere to recognize what true success is all about! So I'm pulling for these guys now - hoping and praying that they'll come together as a team, and demonstrate not only their skill and ability but more importantly their heretofore undiscovered humility and grace.

It's there . . . I just know it is . . .

Taking a much broader view, perhaps such a shift in perspective on the court might provide a good example to a suspicious world that strength and a willingness to lead are not necessarily signs of end-all arrogance. But that rather, beneath the surface of American individualism, lays the ultimate awareness that all our efforts must be based in compassion and a desire for peace and opportunity for all people.

Is that a stretch? You bet ya. But one would hope our "ambassadors" at the games might further such an understanding. Of course, only time will tell if recent American efforts on the world stage will one day "play better." In such things may God use our best intentions to accomplish his perfect will.

In the mean time may the men's USA basketball squad find its feet and become the team Coach Brown and so many of us know it can be.

Go team - Go USA!!

(And Go Hoos!)