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Monday, August 16

Dream On Teamers could take a lesson from women’s team

ATHENS, Greece — A star American basketball player actually hit the floor in pursuit of a loose ball. Lisa Leslie, as big as they come, hurled her 32-year-old body straight into the Czech Republic’s vain upset bid while Shannon Johnson observed through eyes that were nearly gouged out in the previous game.

"They can learn something from watching us," Leslie said afterward.

Not the Czech women.

The American men.

"You almost feel like crying," Leslie said of her male teammates, just before her sympathy for the Dream On Team gave way to the anger she felt for all the Shaqs, Kobes, T-Macs and Garnetts who left America’s basketball dynasty in a pile of Greek ruins.

"I hope they’re at home feeling they could’ve done more to help," Leslie said. "Especially if we don’t win the gold. I think it’s more shame on them. The guys who are here, they’re fighting and still learning. The ones who are not here, I’m a little bit ... I’m not happy with them, let’s leave it at that."

One day after nearly the entire women’s team attended the absurd loss to Puerto Rico, and one day before the host Greeks would play the U.S. and threaten to deny it a place in the medal round, no male team member — player or coach — adjusted his practice or social schedule to watch the one American team here that plays basketball the way Red Holzman drew it up.

The men would’ve seen passing, pick-setting, moving without the ball. They would’ve witnessed an American actually make a 16-foot jumper. They would’ve learned how a team digs in on defense when some hot-shooting opponents are fixing to make a little Lake Placid magic for their own underdog land.

The Czechs took a nine-point lead in the first quarter, and the American women scored 10 straight points. The Czechs took a 30-26 lead on Zuzana Klimesova’s three-pointer with 6:08 left in the second quarter, again inspiring in the crowd some screaming, some stomping and some delirious waving of the Czech flag.

The American women ripped off the next 14 points while every last reserve stood and cheered.

"First of all," Leslie said, "(the men) need a little more camaraderie, just cheering each other, whether you’re in the game or not. You’ve got to cheer for everybody."

Yeah, the men would’ve learned that, too.

"I just don’t think we’re playing smart basketball right now," Leslie said.

She didn’t mean the American women — they can’t get much smarter. They beat the Czechs by 19, New Zealand by 52. The women were 16-0 in their pre-Olympic exhibition tours, never needing the proverbial wake-up call the men supposedly got when Italy dusted them on the road to Athens.

Another example that the basketball world is shrinking, Larry Brown said at the time.

But why has the world caught up to the NBA and not the WNBA?

"Because we don’t underestimate the international game," said Johnson, who had nine stitches running down the left side of her nose — courtesy of a face-rake from a New Zealander. At 5-7 and a hardscrabble 144 pounds, Johnson is precisely the kind of player Brown needed to slow down Carlos Arroyo. She is a pure point guard, a tough defender, and an athlete who knows what she wants.

"We’ve got one thing in mind — the gold medal," Johnson said. "It doesn’t matter who puts the ball in the hole."

Johnson is also smart enough to exploit the talents of the 6-5 Leslie — "Everything has to go through her," the point guard said — while Allen Iverson, Stephon Marbury and Dwyane Wade don’t go to their own Lisa Leslie nearly enough.

"They’ve got to get the ball to (Tim) Duncan a lot more," said Leslie, who led the U.S. with 15 points and 10 rebounds and then ran down a checklist of suggestions she’d love to fax to the 0-1 side of the Queen Mary 2, the side where max-out contracts aren’t translating into max-out effort.

Don’t leave your feet. Try to drive and kick. Tell Lamar Odom to stay out of foul trouble. The baseline is the worst place to go against a zone.

Easier said than done. The American men are a mess because they don’t have a single reliable shooter, and because they don’t have a single true playmaker. The American women are so stocked at the point with Dawn Staley and Johnson that Sue Bird, a huge star with visionary eyes, first entered the Czech game with the U.S. up 23 points, and immediately reported to shooting guard.

The women play two point guards in the backcourt. The men play two shooting guards in the backcourt. Guess which gender has the right idea.

"It’s frustrating for the men," said the women’s coach, Van Chancellor. "Sometimes they can’t get the ball where they want it to go."

Sometimes they’re too willing to let their opponent dictate where the ball ends up. Duncan has won a championship, and Iverson forever carries himself with a Napoleonic swagger, but as captains they’re leaving much to be desired.

So Brown is left to publicly rip his team’s effort only hours after Chancellor stopped a practice because his players were showing too much intrasquad fight.

"I called a ball out of bounds on red," Chancellor said, "and I thought I was going to have ‘Mutiny on the Bounty.’ "

Gone are the days when Bob Knight sent a message to one of his traumatized players by putting a feminine product in his locker. Gone are the days when Bill Parcells referred to tip-toeing wide receivers as "she."

The women are throwing elbows and scraping knees all across Athens. The young guns such as Bird, Diana Taurasi, Swin Cash, Tamika Catchings and Ruth Riley are learning from Leslie, Staley and Sheryl Swoopes, who learned from the likes of Teresa Edwards and Katrina McClain.

"We’re constantly communicating to the young players on the bench," Leslie said. "We’re actually coaching as the game’s going on."

The NBA’s elder statesmen rejected any such chance to teach, remaining back in their gated compounds in the States — a safe distance from security concerns, not to mention a group of crafty ballplayers from Puerto Rico.

"Obviously," Leslie said, "it was very embarrassing for us."

She meant "them." The Dream On Teamers who had better play Greece Tuesday night the way they were always told not to play.

Like girls.

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