Men's basketball team can learn plenty from women

By SCOTT PITONIAK

Gannett News Service

ATHENS, Greece -- A night after the United States men's basketball team turned in a performance unworthy of a tin medal, I went to watch their female counterparts.

You know, the real Dream Team.

They set picks. They pass the ball. They look for the high-percentage shot. They hustle all over the floor. They get in their opponents' faces on defense. They box out for rebounds. They play the game as five hearts beating as one. More importantly, they play it as if they want to be here.

"I think the guys could learn something from us,'' center Lisa Leslie said after a 15-point, 10-rebound performance in an 80-61 rout of the Czech Republic Monday afternoon at Helliniko Indoor Arena on the same court where the men had lost. "I think they could take a page from our book.''

Boy could they ever.

These girls got game.

And the right attitude.

So what if doughnuts are the only thing they can dunk. Their male counterparts can touch the top of the backboard, and look where it's gotten them -- a 19-point loss to Puerto Rico Sunday night that was the most lopsided defeat by a U.S. men's team in history and only the third defeat in 112 Olympic hoops games.

Leslie, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, wasn't trying to kick the men when they were down. She's friends with several of them and was there at Helliniko the other night rooting them on.

"You have people who haven't been together that long, and it's difficult to become a team in such a short period of time,'' she said.

"That's tough, and so is the adjustment to international rules. You have wider lanes and goaltending is allowed. I think the guys need to realize that in international play you should not complain to the referees. It's a sign of disrespect in international play, and if you do it, it's only going to get you in deep trouble.''

Leslie said she admires the way this men's team has battled. But she believes they are at a big disadvantage because they don't have a core of Olympic veterans, as the women's team does.

She said she's probably more upset with the players who opted not to come -- among them Tracy McGrady and Kevin Garnett.

"The guys who are here are fighting,'' she said. "The ones who did not even come, I'm not as happy with them.''

North Carolina coach Roy Williams, one of the Olympic assistants, has lobbied to stage trials to pick the U.S. team, the way it's done in other sports.

"Most NBA players would opt out, but you would be able to pick from a strong pool of guys who truly want to be here, and you would have a longer period of time to play together as a team. It's difficult under the current setup because you are going against teams where, in some cases, the core players have been together since they were teenagers.''

It's an idea that may be explored down the road. But these Olympics already have begun, meaning head coach Larry Brown must quickly discover a way to convince these individuals to play like a team.

"From the first day we met we talked about respect for your opponents, who are proud to represent their countries and have been together for a long time,'' Brown said following Sunday night's 92-73 debacle. "Puerto Rico showed us what it means to truly be a team, and I'm anxious to see if we can achieve that ourselves.''

Brown paused. He looked as if had just been slammed to the mat by Rulon Gardner.

"As a coach, I feel disappointed and humiliated . . . maybe I didn't do a good job to make my players understand how to play as a team,'' he said. "We still have an opportunity to turn this around, to change the mentality of our team, and it's my job now to find a way to do that.''

Perhaps he should require his players to watch a tape of the women's victory against the Czech Republic. They would see what it takes to win on the international level. They would see how the game was meant to be played.