Repairing Team USA's Reputation Will Require Gold Right Now

The gold medals were pretty. They flashed and stood out as every one of Team USA’s men’s basketball players draped their own medals around the neck of Coach Mike Krzyzewski following USA’s thrilling gold-medal Olympic win over Spain in Beijing two years ago.

Coach K had more bling than Mr. T.

It was a great sight, seeing as the “Redeem Team” had returned the USA back to basketball prominence, reclaiming what many believe is rightly ours—basketball supremacy.

Want to know what the world thinks of all that bling hanging from Coach K’s neck now?

It’s worth squat. Nothing. Zilch.

The world isn’t scared of USA basketball right now, which is why when Team USA steps on the court against Lithuania for the FIBA World Basketball Championships semifinals tomorrow night, they better win.

And then they better win the championship game, too.

Let’s be real here for a moment. Talent wise, the world is catching up.

Dirk Nowitzki, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobli, Pau Gasol, and Andrew Bogut are all examples of quality NBA players that hail from places outside the good old US of A.

Go on Wikipedia for a moment and look up foreign NBA players. The list of current and former NBA players from other nations is quite long. And they’re pretty darn good too.

That’s why the USA has failed to win the FIBA World Championships in 16 years. It’s why, before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the basketball team put up an embarrassing performance in 2004 in Athens.

The rest of the world has a lot of talent, and they’ve proven that if the Americans don’t bring their best game to the court every night, the USA is more than beatable.

In the Olympics Team USA trotted out a starting lineup that more or less looked like this: Chris Paul at point guard, Kobe Bryant and shooting guard, LeBron James at small forward, Chris Bosh at power forward, and Dwight Howard at center.

Dwyane Wade, Jason Kidd, and Deron Williams didn’t start.

I’ll let that sink in.

That team was so good, Wade, who is widely considered to be one of the top five players in the world couldn’t start every game.

For goodness sakes, Zeus could bring four of his Greek God buddies down from Mt. Olympus for a pickup game and that US team should still win by at least 10 points.

What was nice about that team is that, besides their otherworldly talent (let’s face it, there is not logical reason why some of these players should be this good—it defies logic), the 2008 Team USA worked hard, something not commonly found in past teams.

That’s why they won gold in Beijing.

However, that was a one trick pony. Russia beat the Americans back in the 1972 Munich Olympics and nobody thought that they were the new world basketball power.

After 1972, the US lost only once, in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.

Then 2002 rolled around. The USA finished sixth in the 2002 World Championships in Indianapolis (an embarrassment to this country and the sport), and just barely was able to secure the bronze in 2004 in Athens.

That Athens team has earned the nickname, The Nightmare Team.

In 2006, when Coach K came aboard as head coach, the team was eliminated in the semifinals against Greece, another disappointing finish.

And then 2008 happened.

We all know that story. Team USA absolutely dominated.

It was great. Team USA was back on top of the world where it belonged. Basketball was America’s sport once again.

But if you really stop and think about it, does one win in 2008 really erase almost a decade of embarrassment and failure running from just after the 2000 Olympics to the 2008 Olympics?

For those of you who sit there and say that it does, and that since this is our B-Team in Turkey right now that the USA doesn’t need to win this to prove anything, I’m calling bull.

I know that this is the USA’s second team (Outside of Kevin Durant, who can you honestly look at and say is a true superstar? Andre Iguodala? Don’t make me laugh.), but if the USA really, truly wants to be a convincing, unanimous, intimidating world No. 1 again, it has to prove that it’s not just our best players that work hard and can win.

No, Team USA has to prove that no matter whom the US throws out there on the court, they can win, and they can play hard.

You can make the argument that many of the best foreign players aren’t out there either.

OK, great. All that means is that the US should win in a more convincing fashion.

Bottom line: Team USA has to win these FIBA World Championships, and they need to do it convincingly.

So far, with the lone exception of Brazil in the group stages when Team USA barely squeezed out a win, this team has held up its end of the bargain.

But Saturday against Lithuania (a team that is 7-0 and just knocked off basketball power Argentina) will be a tough match, and if this team is not ready, good bye gold medal.

And if they win on Saturday, they will certainly have one heck of a matchup in the championship round.

But I have faith. These guys are young, but with Coach K at the helm and the talent of Durant, the leadership of Chauncey Billups, and the youthful energy of guys like Russell Westbrook, I think Team USA can win this thing.

It’s just like most other years in the basketball world; Team USA is expected to win gold and they should.

The only difference is, unlike 1992 and 2000, this gold medal isn’t just another ornament to adorn the Team USA basketball offices with.

This time, the 2010 FIBA World Championship gold medal comes with the USA’s reputation at stake. If they lose now, all the US can claim is that it was a one-trick pony in Beijing, and that, outside its top tier players, the USA isn’t capable of getting it done anymore.

So what’s it gonna be?

We’re about to find out.