Then, they play a Greek team that always play together. Is this not a bit of a myth-slash-excuse? I mean, it's not like we're talking about the Soviet Red Army sports teams of yesteryear that literally did nothing but train and play together. The Greeks, Spaniards, Argentinians, etc. all have their own professional and club teams that they play on during the year, and they are put together in the summer before the championships just like in the States. The Argentinians have loads of guys who just played the same gruelling NBA schedule as the Americans, yet they managed. Do they have more history together? Perhaps a little, but many of the Americans have played together on AAU, World Juniors, Under-21, Student Games teams, etc. over the years, so its not like they are total strangers to one another. Speaking of the World Juniors, if you go back and look at the records U.S. teams have posted in the Championships since their inauguration in 1979, you see the following placings: 1st, 1st, 2nd, 1st, 7th, 2nd, 5th. I won't call this a trend just yet, but American basketball players -- even before they are tainted by the variant of basketball called the NBA -- don't appear to be able to just walk all over everyone anymore, do they?
The Greeks have been playing together for three years. They know how to play together, they have team chemistry, they know what works. Team USA changes their roster constantly. They play as a team for all of a month. I think that makes a huge difference in a team game. Perhaps it used to be such a huge talent differential that things like team chemistry didn't matter, but times have changed. I guess we will find out if this team sticks together until Beijing. The Argentinians have loads of guys who just played the same gruelling NBA schedule as the Americans, yet they managed. They lost, too, so maybe it does matter.
