The Dream Ends

Another big disappointment for USA basketball. After suffering failures in the last two major basketball tournaments, the 2002 World Basketball Championships and the 2004 Olympics, USA Basketball had high hopes as they assembled a new team and a new program for the 2006 World Basketball Championships. However, the end result was all too familiar. Another dream ends for the "Dream Team"

Greece used a sizzling stretch of shooting across the middle two quarters to turn a 12-point deficit into a 14-point lead, and beat the Americans 101-95 Friday in the semifinals of the world championships. "To lose any game is a shock to us," U.S. star Carmelo Anthony said. "We came in with the mentality to win the game and the gold medal." Done in again by their inept 3-point shooting and they weren't much better from the foul line the Americans will fall short of a championship in a major international tournament for the third straight time since winning gold at the 2000 Olympics.

Interestingly, the Greeks had no current NBA players on their roster. It just proves how much the rest of the world has caught up (and even surpassed) with the United States. Basketball is a team sport. And the better team always prevails. Sure, USA had NBA superstars like LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Carmelo Anthony. But as a team, they sure sucked. Basketball at this level is more than just athleticism and entertainment. It's about playing together. Before the game started, during the warm-ups, the US superstars were pleasing the crowd with high-flying warm-up dunks, while at the opposite side, the Greeks were doing their business, performing some drills and shooting some freethrows.

If only the US team knew. They should have practiced their outside shots more instead of do those acrobatic dunks. During the game, they weren't able to overcome their 32 percent shooting from 3-point range or 59 percent from the foul line. Dwyane Wade added 19 and LeBron James had 17, but the three U.S. captains were unable to make up for their disappointment from Athens. As the Greek coach said it best, "Basketball is not just about dribbling and shooting."

For the US team, it's back to the drawing board. They'll have to wait a couple more years to reclaim past glory. Changes have to be made.