Reminders.

(From Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Byline: Conrado de Quiros

I MISSED the Argentina-Italy basketball finals, but I didn't miss the USA-Lithuania battle for bronze. I hadn't been following Olympic basketball closely on TV, though I'd been reading the reports and knew that the press was no longer calling the US team the "Dream Team" but the "Dreaming Team." This was after Allen Iverson and company racked up three losses in the course of their stint in Athens, at the hands variously of Puerto Rico, Lithuania and Argentina, forcing them to settle for bronze after dominating the sport forever. I caught the US-Lithuania match on TV last Sunday afternoon and got some valuable reminders not just of what basketball was all about but of what life was all about.

Of course, it's true: The US Olympic team did not have the best players in the NBA, despite having Iverson and Tim Duncan there. And they will remain the team to beat four years from now, in the next Olympics, when they come roaring back seeking revenge after being humbled in this way. Shaquille O'Neal wasn't there, Kobe Bryant wasn't there, Kevin Garnett wasn't there, Jason Kidd wasn't there, the Detroit guys weren't there.

And it's true as well: The teams that beat the United States had one or two guys that were playing for the NBA, too. But it's no excuse. The rest of the world may now say with passion, "Ah, but we love this game, too!"

First, the reminders of what basketball is about: As the US-Lithuania game showed, basketball is a team sport. Iverson and company escaped with the win only by the skin of their teeth. They pulled away only in the fourth quarter after a scrappy dogfight for three quarters and a good deal of the fourth. Lithuania simply had the better teamwork, even if they were out-hustled in the boards. One announcer said the US players, being used to one-on-one, never quite found a way to deal with the zone. But it was more than that. It was that the US players, being used to advertising individual wares, the better to grab the attention of sponsors and land fatter contracts, tended to play more indulgently. The other teams were not out to wow the crowd, they were out to win the gold.

Second, basketball is not just a game of height, it is a game of shooting. The object of the game after all is to get the ball to fall inside the hoop. Of course, I will forever thank Dr. J for giving the game a touch of class and a dash of excitement by inventing all those moves, which have become staples in the NBA. But the flashiest of Vince Carter's dunks still count for two points while the most awkward of Reggie Miller's shots behind the arc still count for three points. I do recall that the most feared of the Filipino players during the Asian Games many years ago was not Samboy Lim, who dazzled local fans with his twisting shots underneath the hoop, but Allan Caidic, who dismayed opponents with his ...