Post-Olympic Basketball Thoughts

I’m a couple days late in recapping the medal rounds of Team USA’s brilliant gold medal performance in London. Kim and I had a baby girl on Friday and I’ve been wrapped up with my family for a few days. But I did have a chance to watch the gold-medal game from the hospital room on Sunday.

I’m going to keep this blog simple and use a few of the quotes I liked when recapping Team USA’s performance. I will say that what Jerry Colangelo, Mike Krzyzewski, and USA Basketball have done to get our national team back to, and remaining at, the top has been significant. One could argue that it should have never gotten to the point where the Americans were winning bronze medals – and probably been correct – but it is a great story of dealing with challenge and adversity.

Personally, I came away with a few story lines from London:

1)      LeBron James is the best player in the world. And it’s not even close. His ability to do everything on the floor well, and his adaptability to those he plays with, is spectacular. And I wasn’t saying this a year ago.

2)      Mike Krzyzewski is in the conversation with John Wooden as the greatest coach of all time. His ability to lead and motivate people of all ages and abilities is astounding. It is a true gift and, we as Americans should be proud he used it in guiding Team USA.

3)      Kevin Love is an elite-level glue guy. I marvel at his ability to rebound the ball without the athletic ability that most other NBA-caliber players have. His effort should be used as a lesson to all players. His defense on Pau Gasol (who was tremendous in the gold medal game) late in the game enabled Team USA to finally get the stops they needed.

4)      These guys loved playing together. After reading The Dream Team, by Jack McCallum, and observing these guys, there is a common thread: The best players love playing with each other.

Here are my favorite quotes from Team USA on their accomplishments:

Jerry Colangelo
(On he and Coach K overcoming adversity)
We both come from ethnic backgrounds, Chicago; have a feel of coming from literally nothing and accomplishing and achieving a lot of things; and we are both appreciative, respect everything we’ve been able to do in our lifetimes.

Mike Krzyzewski
(On having to be excellent to defeat Spain for the gold medal)
I would think that basketball people in our country realize that this was a great win for us. I think we should expect excellence. And if you have excellence you have a greater chance of winning. But the other person can be excellent too…we are not going to win all of them. Just because people are too good…As long as in USA Basketball we respect the world and prepare that way, then we will have a greater chance to win.

(On Team USA’s chemistry)
We have as good a bond and camaraderie as any team that is in the tournament.

(On evaluating the USA Basketball program after the Olympics)
In the military we call it an after action report. And we have done that all the time. What we did, what we could have changed. How we could have gotten better and in moving forward what is the next step in moving forward.

Jim Boeheim
(On winning the gold medal)
The work they put in, the effort they put in, it means a lot. I think people should really be appreciative of what these players have done and how much pride that we all take in bringing our basketball program back up to where we think it should be. It’s not that easy.

Nate McMillan
(On winning the gold medal)
It’s just a great feeling because at the beginning I feel Mr. Colangelo and Coach K give this team a vision and, of course, a goal, which is to win the gold. But they do such a great job of presenting the vision and the roadmap to accomplishing what the team did tonight, which is win the gold medal.

Chris Paul
(On the importance of defense)
At halftime before we ran out, what we talked about amongst ourselves was the reason we had been so successful is because of our defense; it wasn’t because of the flurry of threes that we would make from game to game. It was because of our defense. As you saw late in the game, that’s where we really broke away, we got stops, we got in transition and when you’ve got guys like Melo, KD, and Kobe trailing the play, that’s the way we can find those open shots.

USA Basketball’s system that has been put in place will continue to be used and tweaked so our country can remain at the top of the basketball world. If the 23-year-old age limit is implemented it will be tweaked a lot. But so will everyone else’s systems. I think the developmental system of basketball in our country – or lack thereof – could use its own organization. But that will take collaboration from many, especially USA Basketball.  

In future blogs, I will continue to provide thoughts and recaps about leadership and basketball from books, articles, etc. I thought I would have a little fun with the Olympics this summer. Thanks for reading!