MSU Red Cedar Message Board

I never said Kobe was right. In fact, I've said that the original Dream Team is better, even if the injuries to three of the best six players in the current USA pool are erased. It was just Kobe's comments that really got the discussion going.

I also never said mental toughness is unimportant. I said the perceived advantage that the '92 team has in that area is completely overblown (just like everything else). The nostalgia for '80s and early '90s basketball clouds everyone's judgment. It's ridiculous when someone says (with complete sincerity) that the best players of the current era wouldn't be mentally tough enough to compete in previous eras.

I suppose the conversation is moving away from match-ups to the even less subjective realm of psychology. I will just toss out two things.

First, in terms of match-ups, I heard about speed and athleticism in 2004. The result was a bronze medal. It was true that the 2004 team was loaded with speed and athleticism with a roster that included Iverson, Wade, James, Anthony, Marbury, Marion, Stoudemire.

Second, there might be something about drive and determination. In 1992, the Dream Team prioritized the concept of Team USA and played like they had something to prove every game. A lot of posters want to talk like Wade is on the team. Fine, put him on the team. Considering he was recently complaining about how members of the team should be compensated, it hardly seems like winning gold for Team USA is his primary concern. He seems like he would want to make the Olympic experience about his own reward rather than making a gold medal for Team USA his number one priority. If that is indicative of today's players, they seem susceptible to coasting. That attitude - that we can coast and do not have to play hard because we are so talented- is what sabotaged the 2004 team.

I don't see it as any kind of affront that people disagree on this, but I think it's the opposite: Sports media gets in a hurry to call somebody or something the greatest, as though game only counted if ESPN was around to comment endlessly on it. I see the '92 team as a better basketball team. I don't think that Magic, Bird, Barkley, Ewing were the world's greatest athletes, but they weren't running track. I also think that a 1960s team with Russell, West, Chamberlain, Robinson, etc. could have been the greatest, and they were nowhere near as fast as these guys.

Accuscore projection said that the dream team would win about 53% of the time with an average margin of 1 point.

After watching a couple games, I am now thinking that if the team were put together slightly differently, they would be much closer to the Dream Team. My problems:

1) The only player that is really good at creating shots for others is Chris Paul. Westbrook is a tremendous athlete but he doesn't get others involved as much. Williams likes to dribble...a lot. Both can be a little out of control at times.

2) You essentially have a bunch of guys who play the same style at similar positions. Iguodola, Harden, Kobe, Carmelo, Durant, and Westbrook. Couple this with....

3) They aren't physical enough on the roster. So you make a roster with a ton of guards and wings, then, you get a PF who is a step out type guy (Love) on offense. Chandler is really the only banger on the team (although, LeBron can put on different hats, but I don't really want him banging the entire game).

Personally, if they switched out Rondo for Williams and then took off James Harden and added another physical big, I think they would be a lot better.

A side note, does anyone else think that Anthony Davis has looked really good? He just seems like he understands the game very well for a 19 year old.

Last night's performance against ARG was impressive.

Griffin was going to be on the team (instead of Davis) but he got hurt also. There just weren't a lot of healthy inside options for the US team, with Howard, Bosh, and Griffin all injured.

The knocks on Rondo (at least for the international style of play) are his outside shooting and perimeter defense, and there were rumblings that he didn't have good chemistry with a number of the current US team players during the tryouts.