Redeem Team getting along on, off court
BEIJING -- What keeps throwing me is the way the U.S. basketball team celebrates on the bench. Superstars standing, watching others win, pumping fists and hugging teammates.
I'm not used to watching superstars care about others, unless it's the playoffs. Or a contract year.
(AP)
They promised they would care. But it seems so unnatural now that my first instinct was to think they were all making this up to come across as good guys and maybe land some nice endorsement deals when they get home.
''We've been around the guys the last three weeks, four weeks,'' Dwyane Wade said. ''We've been together. Big love. Once you get to know each other. . .This is the best team I've been on off he court, where there really has been togetherness.''
Sure, we always hear that. But here's the thing: I believe him.
I believe these big stars with some of the biggest egos on the planet are getting along and becoming friends, not just for show. The U.S. beat Australia 116-85 today, and the news was that Australia was within one at the end of the first quarter.
The U.S. hasn't lost a quarter yet in the Olympics, and is all the way into the semifinals. The U.S. will play Andres Nocioni and Argentina on Friday.
The U.S. defense works into passing lanes, and blocks shots. And if an opponent isn't demoralized from the start, it happens soon enough. That's what happened today.
You already know that Team USA is winning again. But Team USA is a team again, too, talking hokey things about winning for the three letters on the front of the jersey. And it's believable.
Maybe teamwork make a difference. (That, and having all the best players in the world.)
These guys have been a pleasure to watch. ''Superstar'' has become a dirty word, so bad that it's hard to believe when they do any of the wholesome things we've all been told that sports are about.
These guys might be redefining the word, at least temporarily.
When the game was over today, some players finished talking with the media while others were still going. And the scene was this: Chris Paul sitting on the floor watching Argentina play Greece on TV. Lebron James, Deron Williams and Carmelo Anthony standing next to him. And they were all talking.
To each other.
What's the big deal? Usually, stars would have been on the bus listening to music, shut off from everyone else. These guys were waiting for their teammates.
Chris Bosh, meanwhile, wore a credential on a cord around his neck. The cord had all different pins attached, one from England, one from Latvia, others. He has been trading pins?
He seems to be into these Olympics.
A night earlier, a bunch of players went together to watch the women's U.S. basketball team. And according to the Miami Herald, Wade, Paul and Williams went to hike on the Great Wall of China. Wade wasn't going to go, but changed his mind:
''I wear this band on my hand every day that says, 'From Robbins, Illinois.' When I sat back and thought about it, all the kids back in Robbins and kids that never had the opportunity to really experience something like this in life, I had to experience it so I can go back and tell them about it. It's the Great Wall.''
Look, four years ago in Athens, the team stayed on a cruise ship and didn't go anywhere together. The players hated coach Larry Brown, the coach hated the players, the players hated each other. And those were the respectable players.
The A-Team cared so little about playing for country that they didn't bother to show up.
This year's guys really mean it, really are a team, really are trying.
My standards are low.
Wade has been the catalyst. His career has gone through a resurrection here. He was on the team in Athens four years ago, and was embarrassed by it. When Jerry Colangelo, who revamped the program for Beijing, went to look at Wade in Chicago, to see if his bum knee had healed, he told Wade that people thought he would never be the same. He had lost his fire.
Wade then hit the weight room, something he had never done, to build the muscles around the knee. And here he is, bigger, stronger and faster than ever.
''Everyone is playing together and they've made me feel very, very wanted from day one,'' he said. ''The thing I love is that there are no individual things going on around this team.''
He said he was proud ''just to see the commitment of this team. And it's staying that way.''
Curious. No individual things. It's staying that way. It's as if that's a surprise to him.
As the Olympics have gone on, things have dripped out more and more about what that team in Athens was like. Anthony, who was on that team, said that '' '04 was miserable. We weren't prepared for anybody.''
Well, two years ago, they lost to Greece in the world championships, and they weren't together then yet. Coach Mike Krzyzewski didn't know the Greeks' names, or how to stop the pick and roll.
I don't want to go overboard. Whenever Kobe Bryant shows up, at a soccer game most recently, you don't see teammates with him. They don't all love each other, but many are friends now, and the ones who aren't are willing to play together.
''You guys can see that we're having fun, laughing,'' Carlos Boozer said. ''But when it's time to get serious, we get serious.''
And it's not even a contract year.