People forget how dire things were for USA Basketball in 2004. The Athens games were awful. The team, with stars like Allen Iverson, Tim Duncan, Stephon Marbury, Carlos Boozer, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James, struggled to win bronze, losing to Puerto Rico, Lithuania and Argentina.
That group had no chemistry and no concept of how to deal with basic math because the other teams were hitting threes while the U.S. kept driving and trying to score at the rim.
Coach Larry Brown blamed the players and they blamed each other. When it was over, Tim Duncan said “FIBA sucks” and never played for Team USA again.
Things were just broken and everyone realized something had to change.
USA Basketball turned to Jerry Colangelo and when he assembled some advisors, including people like Michael Jordan, Chuck Daley, Larry Bird, Jerry West and Lenny Wilkens and UNC’s Dean Smith. And when Smith told everyone that no one could connect with and motivate the players like Coach K, that sort of sealed the deal.
Coach K and Colangelo completely overhauled the way business was conducted, asking for a commitment of several years even though no one had a guarantee they’d be on the team.
We knew, from watching him at Duke for so many years, that what he did would work: the U.S. had an edge in athleticism that no one else could touch.
With Boozer, Wade, Anthony and James back and four years older, Coach K and Colangelo added Kobe Bryant, Jason Kidd, Michael Redd, Tayshaun Prince, Chris Bosh, Deron Williams, Chris Paul and Dwight Howard and the basic template he had at Duke was in place.
This video is of Team USA’s 116-85 win over Australia. No one could deal with the aggressive defense the U.S. and no one could stop them in transition either.
The formula worked. It worked in 2008, and 2012 and then 2016. And by the time Coach K stepped down, the expectations were completely reversed. Now the U.S. was again expected to win with ease and close games were a surprise.
So his inclusion into the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee Hall of Fame’s class of 2025 is entirely appropriate
