It's 12:37 PM on Monday, June 30, and I’m spending my lunch break packed in Rockefeller with hundreds of others waiting to see the touring Team USA and the jerseys they would be supporting in Beijing. Nike representatives boast the jerseys have 18% less material and are 11% lighter.
But, as I look around at the faces in the crowd, I’m positive that the only reassurance we attended the media day for is that Team USA will be THE DREAM TEAM, and not the All-NBA fourth Team that casually showed up in '02 and '04.
"Coach K didn't select enough big-men. What are they going to do if Dwight Howard's hockey-style sternum injury doesn't heal? Was Tayshaun really the best pick? Is Jason Kidd too old? How will their best performer of the Olympic trials produce with so many legal situations? Europeans are much more fundamentally sound. Kobe's torn ligament...They are in trouble."
They-they-they are in trouble.
It's no secret there are plenty of concerns surrounding the team, and I'll admit that many of them are valid.
I would really like to see Tyson Chandler AND Tayshaun Prince on the team. Their speed, length, and ability to produce without the ball would turn the crowded European lane into a deserted early morning Piggly Wiggly produce isle. I think that an injured Dwight Howard changes the game plan immensely considering his back-up Chris Bosh plays a drastically different style game. And yes, I would be a lot more comfortable if the starting point guard wasn't one of the main reasons the Mav’s tanked in the playoffs.
All of that was before I witnessed The Team walk out, one by one, and everything fell in place in front of my eyes. I've been to countless sporting events, NBA Playoff Games, Majors Conference Tournaments, and even a Final Four, but I have never witnessed an atmosphere like the one produced by the 16 players and coaches who stood in front of me.
Jerry Colangelo was motionless, arms locked across his chest like Tony Soprano as the players were introduced. He was nodding his head in assertion, and I swear I almost heard him quote one of his Suns' players rap lyrics, "Rest of the world, how does my a** taste?"
Beside Colangelo, Coach K, and Jim Boeheim shared an embrace that looked powerful enough to need its own postal code. I’m not easily shaken, but I was completely in awe of these two coaching legends standing hand in hand, in complete agreement of the future.
They wasted no time introducing the artillery, bringing out Carlos Boozer, Deron Williams, and then Lebron James...One, two, three. The only word that could describe the aura these guys displayed was "tenacious."
Lebron threw up the "Roc" sign and under his normal charisma I could feel it. The people around me could feel it. And smell it. It was raw determination.
It wasn't about Brooklyn Nets vs. New York Knicks in 2010, and it wasn't about getting support for his next playoff run. It was about respect. It was about the soul of the game. It was about standing up for James Naismith, and for the people of Springfield, MA.
It wasn't until Kobe Bryant and Chris Paul were introduced almost back to back that I came out of my Lebron induced coma to understand a drastic realization—our entire team is stacked.
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5 months ago
Wow. Great article, Chris. Well done.
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