That Old College Gold: The US Wins FIBA

While nearly no one was looking, due to the fact that FOOTBALL FOOTBALL FOOTBALL started, baseball still exists, and no one in this country has ever paid any attention to the FIBA Championships, Kevin Durant upheld the nation's honor to take down the gold. I caught a little of the tournament, just because I love hoop, and Kevin Durant. Here's the quick points so that you can pretend that you watched...

> On some level, you have to wonder why any big-money American basketball star plays for the national team in non-Olympic years. You put yourself at an injury risk, you wear down at a time when your rivals are getting rest, and you don't make squat in terms of exta endorsement dollars or appearance fees. The U.S. is always expected to win, regardless of the talent that shows up, or how the rest of the world is catching up. It's a pretty thankless mission.

So why do they do it? Because they miss college. Or never went in the first place, and want to have that experience.

Your coach is a college guy, the assistants as well. You get sequestered in a road trip where everyone hates you. Camraderie develops; it's no wonder that the Miami Heat Conspiracy formed following international play. And it's also in the way they play.

> For the most part, the games had the look and feel of a big name 2 seed versus an up and coming 7 seed. The 2 seed doesn't have the 7 seed scouted, and they have acres more in athleticism. If the high seed's defense get them easy looks and transition hoops, it starts looking like a Globetrotter game. But when the low seed sticks around, starts getting the friendly whistles, and the high seed loses a lead and/or starts trying to play for highlights, rather than the scoreboard? And when the 7 seed has 15,000 screaming fans, the way Lithuania and Turkey did? Suddenly the 2 seed doesn't look like that much of a hot favorite after all. At least, until the Durantula takes over.

> A few words about Durant here. He's not the best player in the world, but you can be forgiven for thinking that he is. He's still impossibly young, but he takes your breath away so often, and with such intellect, that if you didn't know the calender, you'd probably think he was in his prime. His defense is much improved in the past 2 years, from liability to positive. His three-point range, never suspect but somewhat erratic, seems to get better by the day. He can finish in traffic with either hand, go to the boards when nothing's working, pass out of a double team and bail you out at the end of a shot clock. If you are starting a franchise, especially given the playoff weirdness that has been part of the LeBron James Experience, you pretty much have to think about going with him, even though he plays the wing, and you are normally better off with a point or power to start.

> Sixers fans have to be looking at Andre Iguodala's participation in this tournament with mixed eyes. On the one hand, he's got a gold medal, played well, and was the defensive hammer that we all know he can be. On the other, he frequently looked helpless on offense, like the new Bruce Bowen. For a guy whose numbers project as the best player on the team (still), with a big contract and tenure on the team that should translate to veteran leadership by now... well, it's a mixed bag. I'm just glad he got to play with good players for once in his life.

> Final point about Lamar Odom. Odom is, honestly, one of the better stories in the NBA. Here's a guy that bounced out of school early as a head case, and was such a pot head that it nearly took him out of the league. He winds up bouncing out of two franchises (the Clippers and Heat) to become a third banana in LA. He looks way too soft to ever win a ring, and winds up going to the bench for the continuing potential of Andrew Bynum.

And he sucks it up and wins rings. He becomes one of the most positive players, on a per minute basis, in the Association. He rebounds like a fiend, remains one of the best passing big men around (the real secret of the Laker offense is how many great looks Pau Gaol and Odom create), and seems to have made his peace with the fact that while he's got the talent to bean alpha dog, he's never going to be one.

For his country, Odom plays out of position at center, because no other American big of note could be bothered. He winds up being one of the best options they could have hoped for, with constant defensive pressure and poise. And now that it's all over, he'll go back to LA, back to being the fifth or sixth thing that people think about, and just be solid. On a roster filled with people I can't stand, I'm actually glad for him to have his rings, and his gold medal. Nicely done, sir. Nicely done.

I'd ask for your comment, but talking about hoop is rarely a win for this blog's traffic, let alone FIBA. So, moving on...