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Italy stuns US in Athens basketball warm-up
The US men's team got off to a nightmare start in their campaign to reclaim their title as the world's top basketball team in Athens, losing an Olympic warm-up 95-78 against Italy on Tuesday.
Italy's smooth team play overwhelmed the cold-shooting, error-prone NBA all-stars, shocking US coach Larry Brown and 14,800 spectators in Cologne.
The US team, who have gone 24-0 in Olympic matches and taken three gold medals since professional NBA players began competing in 1992, were beaten three times at the 2002 world championships in Indianapolis and finished a dismal sixth.
Brown has vowed to avenge that performance in the American team's heartland two years ago but the uninspiring showing against Italy seemed to confirm fears that the days of U.S. invincibility in the game they invented are all but over.
"We have a lot of young players who learned a lesson tonight," said Brown, whose team face Germany on Wednesday in another exhibition. "There are great players and great coaches around the world.
"The [US players] are going to be in for a lot of lessons the next few weeks.
"It's a different style of play than they're accustomed to. "It's a new team and a young team and we're going to have to grow up very quickly."
Brown was also full of admiration for Italy's style of play.
"They played great, like a real team," he said. "They got the ball to the right players and played as a team at both ends."
Wake-up call
Even though the US team has been weakened by the absence of many of the NBA's leading players -- who opted to stay at home due to injuries, fatigue or security fears -- Brown has still brought top talent from the world's premier professional league.
But the Americans were stymied by the brilliant play of the older, more experienced Italians. Over long stretches the U.S. team looked nervous, awkward and surprisingly clueless against Italy's zone defense.
Missed free throws, traveling violations and bad passes marred the Americans' game while the Italians, who have played together for years, always seemed to know where their team mates were on the court.
"This was a wake-up call for us," said Allen Iverson, who had 13 points. "We understand we have to get better.
"We can learn something from that team, the way they communicated. We needed something like this." The U.S. men, gold medalists in 12 of the 14 Olympics in which they have participated, have compiled a 109-2 win-loss record in Olympic play and are still considered the favorites for the August 13-29 Games. |
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