Basketball Without Boarders

From: LASportsblog.bravehost.com

Basketball Without Boarders

By: Jeff Girouard

E-Mail: LASportsblog@gmail.com

July is maybe the worst pro sports month of the year. Actually, there is no maybe about it, July is a disaster for most sports fans. If the youtube clips of underground dog fighting didn’t turn your brain to soup then all that Dan Lebatard airtime certainly did. Without a doubt the most troubling news to come out of the driest month in sports is NBA ref Tim Donaghy revealing that he bet on games, possibly altered outcomes of games and is in so deep with organized crime syndicates that he opted to turn himself in to the feds. Though this confession is a proverbial black-eye for the league, professional officiating and pro sports in general, the NBA is not doomed. There are too many billions tied directly to its Superstars, franchises and advertisements for it to collapse. Point in fact, the NBA will survive because it operates like a business and a damn good one. That said, Tim Donaghy, whose actions have earned him a level of infamy on par with Tonya Harding, is a living, breathing reminder that the guy with the whistle and his finger on the clock should not wield enough power to put that type of enterprise in jeopardy.

David Stern’s aggressive pursuit to make the NBA a truly global endeavor and the world's premier professional league leads me to believe that perhaps ten years down the line it may not be farfetched to see franchises in other nations. Access to the NBA product available to anyone with an internet connection and games are broadcasted in 200 nations. Yet as basketball continues to expand beyond our boarders, the NBA as a league wavers precariously at a fork.

The NBA game has become more up-tempo and rules such as traveling, aren't as strictly enforced as they are overseas. Ask any Dwayne Wade spin move. The international game actually forces players to convert perimeter jumpers and players just can’t barrel into the lane/defenders like a fullback and expect free throws. In this way the NBA has been undermining its own game for years. In today’s league its not unlikely to see a player go 7-22 from the floor and still wind up scoring 25 points all because he hit the line more times than Lindsey Lohan in a public restroom on a Wednesday night. Really what’s more damning the fact that the Grizzlies lost by 8 instead of 6 in a regular season game 3 years ago or the fact that Dwayne Wade was a lock to shoot 10 free throws a game in the finals?

Carmelo Anthony proved to be the most effective option at the 2006 World Championships because his polished skill set allowed him to fill it up in a variety of fashions. Whether he was cutting baseline to the basket, hustling for put-backs or draining treys from behind the abbreviated 3-point arc Melo was the lone bright spot of the tourney. His former collegiate coach and current USA assistant Jim Boeheim has made a career out of picking apart 2-3 zones at Syracuse, which makes his position with the team invaluable. Spreading the floor and allowing your best player to attack the basket 1 on 3 may get you to the NBA finals (Mike Brown), but those uninspired tactics wont fly with another teams center camped out in the trapezoid.

As the relatively nascent Wade-Anthony-James trio discovered in ‘04 the international game is structured and officiated much differently than the NBA game they were accustomed. Under the guise of this latest betting scandal Team USA is playing for more than to reassert their dominance over the rest of the world; the squad that travels to Bejing in 2008 will be competing to reestablish the integrity of the Association.

Enter Kobe Bryant and Jason Kidd.

My roster for the upcoming Tournament of the Americas looks like this...

Starting 5

Kobe
Kidd
Lebron
Melo/Bosh (depending on the opponent)
Dwight Howard.

Coming off the bench...

Amare
Melo/Bosh
Billups
Deron Williams
Mike Miller
Tyson Chandler
Kevin Durant

Kobe is fulfilling a life long dream, suiting up for Mike Krzyzewski and team USA. In Sunday’s Blue-White scrimmage he was quick to impress his would-a-been should-a-been college coach as he scored his team's last seven points to lead a double digit comeback. A Kobe-Jason Kidd backcourt is a lethal combination of size, experience and defensive intensity that continues to tease Laker fans and their broken pipe dream. Seriously, how epic would a Steve Nash-Jason Kidd first round match-up have been? American basketball fans have the luxury of experiencing what Laker fans have been feeling for the past 11 years, a confidence that comes with knowing that in a tight game the world’s premiere player wants the ball and will not let his team lose.

He converted all 2 of his free throws en route to 26 points, five dimes, five steals and a game sealing 20 footer from the top of the ‘zoid with six seconds to go.

So Tim Legler, with the US is down one with 7.3 seconds on the clock are you sure you don’t want Kobe to have the ball in his hands? I’ve never been the type to say, "I told you so,"... So I’ll let this 8 minute montage of Kobe Game Winners say it for me.

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