Will this U.S. men's hoops team bring back the gold?

ShareThis

Three years of planning, and it all could have been ruined by Kobe Bryant's bum pinkie.It will require surgery. Naturally. Jerry Colangelo, the man who had been charged with reviving USA basketball -- and who had spent three years building a program -- braced for phone call from his star."Don't worry about me," Bryant said.Huh?"I'm playing," Bryant said. "I'll take that when the Olympics are over."What a difference four years makes.What a refreshing change from four years ago, when the best American players used any possible excuse to avoid playing for their country in the Athens Olympics.The players who did go over came home with a bronze medal. Colangelo was hired to build a national program instead of a glorified pick-up team."We needed a new culture," Colangelo said. "We needed a new infrastructure. We needed a commitments from players and coaches alike for a period of time."Thirty-three players were invited participate in the USA basketball program . Of those, 12 were selected to be on the U.S. men's Olympic team that begins play Aug. 10 against China."I think it's a program, right now, that is worthy of winning," said U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski, and you can read a lot into that quote.The last team was not worthy of winning, from the top right on down.Head coach Larry Brown whined about his young players and reportedly tried to get Stephon Marbury sent home before the Games began. After a tense opening-round game against Spain, he approached the Spanish coach and said, "Do you want a piece of me?"Small wonder Colangelo and Krzyzewski consider their mandate to be larger than winning a gold medal."We want to do it the right way," Colangelo said. "We want people to respect us, we want to show respect. It's called mutual respect."We have the unique opportunity right now to set a standard of how the game should be played right now here in our own country -- the team work, enthusiasm, the attention to detail, those type of things that will make basketball what it is. Where it's not just the sound bite and one highlight of a dunk, but a better appreciation for how to play the game. Our guys did that especially this last summer."Important editorial note: "Our guys" also lost to Greece in the 2006 World Championship semifinal game.Do something like that Beijing and Colangelo's program will be judged to have failed.Winning the right way is great and admirable -- but the U.S. team has to win.Krzyzweski said he'll open with a starting lineup of Bryant, LeBron James, Jason Kidd, Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard. That means Dwyane Wade and Chris Paul will be coming off the bench.If it's hard to believe those players could fail to win the gold medal, it was hard to believe their predecessors finished third in the 1998 World Championships, sixth at the 2002 World Championships, third in 2004 and third again --- after all Colangelo's changes -- in 2006.A Greek point guard named Theodoros Papaloukas was the star of that one, finishing with 12 assists and one memorable quote."I think that is the NBA," he said, "one against five."So there is still work to be done. On the scoreboard and in perceptions, too."We feel right now we our committed, our guys get it," Colangelo said. "They really do understand what's at stake."(Geoff Calkins writes for The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn.)