Commentary: U.S. playing some sersious basketball

BEIJING — As catastrophic athletic events go, a team of selfish, passionless, self-absorbed American basketball schleps losing to Puerto Rico should not lead anybody to scream, "I feel shame," and slink north toward Manitoba.

It certainly didn't bother Chris Bosh all that much four years ago.

"I was amused," the former Georgia Tech star said. "I mean, it was a little funny. But I understand how tough it can be."

Bosh finding humor in the 2004 Just Dreaming Team

hardly makes him unpatriotic. If anything, it makes him normal. He realized the absurdity of it all. Amusement trumps indifference seven days a week.

Two words about U.S. basketball in these Olympics: not funny.

They're actually trying. They actually care. They actually dive on the court and crash the boards and stand during the National Anthem with a hand over their heart, as if some sense of national pride has crept into the equation.

Go figure.

The U.S. basketball team is 3-0. Possibly going on 8-0. It might be time for opponents to start asking for autographs again.

It's not just that the U.S. has beaten up on China by 31, Angola by 21 and Greece by 23 in Thursday's 92-69 win. China, Angola and Greece are infinitely beat-up-able. A loss to any of the three would have been, well, funny.

But did you watch Thursday? NBA stars played pressure defense. They had 15 steals. In points off of turnovers, they outscored Greece 28-4.

There was a play in which Dwayne Wade lunged in the backcourt to save the ball from going out of bounds, then threw it back over his head to Kobe Bryant for two.

There was a play in which LeBron James stole a pass, jetted in, did a reverse slam and then stared at the Greece cheering section. There was passion and effort and direction. This is what it's supposed to look like.

There was a play in which James missed a free throw that led to an offensive rebound and a three-point play by Wade.

Two years ago, even after Jerry Colangelo flushed the roster and made players actually convince him that they wanted to play for their flag, there still was reason to wonder. The U.S. played Greece in the semifinals of the World Championships, and lost. On Thursday, they actually looked like they were upset about it.

"They were like this from the warm-up," said the Greece guard, Nikolaos Zisis. "I think they had big motivation to win this game. For them it was a big disappointment to have the win by us, a small country from overseas."

Mock time appears to be over.

"Embarrassment," Carmelo Anthony said when asked what he remembers from the Greece game. "We had that game in the back of our minds."

Anthony is one of only three holdovers from the 2004 team (James and Wade are the others). "Four years ago we had a pretty good team, but we weren't connected like we're connected now. Now we have five guys on the floor communicating and playing defense."

That didn't happen in Athens?

"No," he said, and smiled.

Kobe and LeBron and Carmelo are not Magic and Bird and Michael. They don't have to be.

"We're not trying to compare ourselves to Barcelona's team," said Bosh, who tied for the U.S. lead with 18 points, five rebounds and two steals against Greece. "We can't compare to them. What we can be is be the best team we can be."

Since 1992, the U.S. team has gone from dominant to bored to disinterested. That couldn't continue. Colangelo has told and re-told the story about Michael Redd coming straight from a workout to his interview with the executive about playing in Beijing. Redd arrived at Colangelo's hotel carrying a suit, then asked if he could change in the bathroom.

"I wanted to look right," Redd said.

Colangelo suspected he had found the right players.

"But you can never really be sure until you start," he said. "We'll find out pretty quick."

They found out. Nobody's laughing.

Jeff Schultz writes for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.