Insider Special: Ford on International Comp

NBA players struggle in international game

By Chad Ford
ESPN Insider

Can the U.S. get anything right internationally these days?

Who would've thought, even a year ago, that Team USA would be rolling around on the floor, celebrating like they just won the gold medal in Athens, after avoiding another disastrous exhibition loss on an Allen Iverson buzzer beater?

Mission Accomplished? Hardly ...

For the second straight game, Team USA was outplayed by an opponent that has no shot at a gold medal. (Germany didn't even qualify for the Olympics.)

What gives? The theories are all fine. Team USA needs better shooters to break down the zone. They need a real point guard, not Stephon Marbury. They need more practice time. They're too young. They're too small. They're not focused. They're waiting for the games to count before they turn it on.

All true. But what if Team USA just isn't that good?

With the exception of Tim Duncan, who will always be the best player on the court this summer, who on Team USA has impressed you so far? Carmelo Anthony has been our second-best player. Iverson has shown he can be clutch. Shawn Marion and Amare Stoudemire have had their moments. Who else? Marbury has been awful. So has LeBron James (he played just 7 minutes against Germany). Dwyane Wade has played out of control. Richard Jefferson can't shoot. Carlos Boozer can't catch a pass in transition.

If Shaq, Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady and Jason Kidd were to replace Emeka Okafor, Boozer, James, Jefferson and Marbury, it would be a different story.

"If they sent Kevin Garnett and Kobe and everyone else, no one in the world would have a chance. But I don't know like this," Dirk Nowitzki said after the Germans almost beat the U.S. "I'll be very curious to see how they'll do in Athens."

But since when was the NBA talent pool so shallow that our national team looks awful without the best five players in the world on the floor?

Nowitzki looked better than anyone Team USA put on the court Wednesday. Italians Giacomo Galanda and Gianluca Basile, who've never gotten so much as a hint of interest from NBA scouts, thoroughly outplayed our best young players Tuesday.

Why? Here's the biggest reason Team USA is struggling: The international game and the NBA game are further apart than most Americans realize.


It might take more Allen Iverson miracle shots for Team USA to win the gold medal in Athens.
The international game emphasizes ball movement, perimeter shooting and zone defense. The NBA emphasizes power, athleticism and one-on-one play, both offensively and defensively. Americans have been frustrated by the international referees and how they call the games. But the rules of the international game are meant to support the international style, just as the NBA's rules support the style of game the league wants to present its fans. That's why NBA officials still let players travel on virtually every possession -- it makes for better one-on-one play. In Europe, anything beyond one step is a travel. Why? Trying to beat your man off the dribble takes away from the team game.

I've spent the last three years combing Europe and the world looking for future NBA stars. Players like Galanda and Basile are great European players, but they would never be stars in the NBA. But I don't believe many good NBA players -- guys like Boozer or Marbury -- would be stars in Europe, either.

If we're going to start to dominate internationally, we have to put players on the floor who will thrive in the international game. We need big guys who can shoot and guard players on the perimeter. We need players who think pass first and don't hog the ball. We need team defenders who understand the zone.

No offense to Larry Brown, but the team also needs a coach who has spent significant time coaching overseas. It's ridiculous that a guy like Suns head coach Mike D'Antoni, who coached at the top level in Europe just two years ago -- and has two of his Suns' players on the Team USA roster -- isn't on the staff. You think he could provide some insight?

We also need to employ some NBA international scouts to do advance scouting. Team USA looked stunned that the Italian big men were stepping out and hitting 3s. Anyone who's ever watched an Italian game knows they do it with regularity.

The play of these international teams also underscores the massive effort by NBA and international scouts to bring players from overseas to America. The league wants to get away from the low-scoring isolation game that dominated in the '90s. That's partly why rules were changed to allow zone defense.

Right now, most international players would be second- or third-tier players in the NBA. But as the league continues to modify its rules and the NBA game continues to evolve, so will those roles. It's unlikely international players ever will play with the power or athleticism that American players do -- they're not coached that way as kids or exposed to that style as they develop. But as more of them continue to join the NBA, more and more NBA teams will begin valuing the qualities they do bring and start changing the way the NBA game is played.

It only takes a few tournaments watching teams like Italy thump the U.S. for American coaches to start to think ... if our NBA team played like the Italians, would we be able to beat most NBA opponents on a given night? If zone defenses continue to take hold, the answer might be yes.