NBA Superstars Failing in International Competition by Matthew Paolini

A big area of concern in NBA professional basketball is the very noticeable lack of recent success against international competition. In the quadrennial World Championship tournament, a United States team has failed to win the top prize since 1994, and in the Olympics since 2000.

In the 2006 WC competition hosted in Saitama, Japan, the team only managed to come in third place, winning a bronze medal. The 2004 Olympics in Athens produced the same result. The 2002 WC tournament held in Indianapolis, IN, was disastrous, as a team split by internal conflict stumbled to a sixth-place finish, the worst showing in history by a U.S. squad in an international tournament.

This turn of events has engendered lots of hand wringing and harsh criticism as fans and commentators have taken turns ripping the "lazy" players for not destroying the foreign competition. Not surprisingly, there is no dearth of proposed "solutions" to "fix" the problem. The 2007 WC tournament to qualify for the 2008 Olympics is scheduled to be hosted by Las Vegas, NV, Aug. 22 through Sept. 2. Time will tell what will happen.

There is a consistent theme here -- the world has caught up. The days are finished when a group of U.S. professional players could just show up and easily pummel international opponents. That era ended after the first Dream Team, led by Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan, won the gold medal in the 1992 Olympics by many accounts the greatest collection of talent on one team in any sport in history. Now, the international teams, who feature a more pass-oriented, free-flowing version of the game, smell weakness and are ready and eager to heap more indignities on the heads of the American players.

This state of affairs causes many to speculate as to whether the finest basketball is actually played in the NBA. There are some prominent sports figures who have indicated their fondness for the European-style game. Given the fact that U.S. teams have been soundly beaten in international competition for the better part of a decade, one would have to be very foolish to dismiss this notion.

Making it all the more awkward is the fact that the team that wins the NBA championship is referred to as the "World Champion." How appropriate is that title? Shouldn't the championship team have to prove that it's the best at what it does in the world?

Why not hold a true World Championship series between the NBA and Euroleague champions? The entertainment value, along with worldwide interest in such a event would be enormous, and the games themselves would serve to settle for all time which side of the Atlantic the best brand of hoops is played on.

About The Author

Matthew Paolini is http://Citybook.com's compliance officer for the Austin, TX business Yellow Pages division.