By Michael Wilbon
Monday, September 3, 2007

It would be an enormous mistake to look at the lopsided results in the FIBA Americas Championship and presume the United States has returned to international basketball preeminence.

Yes, this appears to be a much better team than the ones that failed to win the Olympics in 2004 and world championships in 2002 and 2006. The U.S. team, led by Carmelo Anthony and Kobe Bryant, wasn't remotely challenged in Las Vegas and easily qualified for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, which accomplished the short-term goal. Long term, Jerry Colangelo, USA Basketball's senior managing director, promised he would move away from the tired U.S. formula of celebrity basketball and with Coach Mike Krzyzewski's assistance put together an actual team, even including role players.

That team certainly delivered in Las Vegas, beating the likes of Venezuela, Mexico, Puerto Rico and some semblance of Argentina by an average of nearly 50 points. More important, it showed USA Basketball and the entire American basketball movement that players who fulfill specific needs help team building more than just a compilation of future Hall of Famers.

As Milwaukee guard Michael Redd said last week in a conversation about the team: "This is better than an all-star team because everybody is sacrificing what he does for his NBA team for the good of this team. There's a huge difference between stars trying to fulfill roles and role players fulfilling roles. Tyson Chandler knows he's not in there to shoot."

Redd, on the other hand, is in there to shoot and did a fabulous job of that. And while the U.S. team was certainly not star-challenged, what with the presence of Bryant, Anthony, LeBron James, Jason Kidd, Amare Stoudemire and Chauncey Billups, it also had four players who have never been on an all-star team. The aforementioned Chandler was there to rebound and block shots, Tayshaun Prince was chosen to defend, Mike Miller to shoot and Deron Williams to distribute as a backup to Kidd.

Half that foursome might not be around next summer in Beijing, what with Dwyane Wade and Joe Johnson probably back in the mix, but the notion of having guys like Chandler who contribute happily as the 12th man needs to be carried over into next summer and beyond. Why ask stars to function like support players when there are plenty of willing support players who'd be happy to do that without complaint? It's one of the things that reminds everybody on hand they're playing for a team, not running a fantasy league.

There's no question coming off this performance that the United States will again be favored to win the Olympics.

And it would be foolish to be so presumptuous.

In Las Vegas, the U.S. team faced no serious competition. In Beijing, the U.S. team will be in a very competitive field that will include Spain, Lithuania, Croatia, Italy, Greece and China. Oh, and don't forget the real Argentina, which played the Americas tournament without starters Andres Nocioni, Manu Gin?bili and Fabricio Oberto, all of whom figure to be in the lineup next August when Argentina defends its Olympic championship.

Unlike the last two weeks, there will be plenty of teams in China whose players believe they can beat the United States. Not only has the intimidation factor been lost forever, international teams now can't wait to play Team USA, no matter who's in uniform. Colangelo is aware of this, which is part of the reason he wants to hold a team-building, chemistry-enhancing minicamp of sorts in July before the August Olympic Games.

Qualifying is a nice first step, but Colangelo and Coach K know exactly where international coaches are probing for weakness. While the 127-100 victory over Mexico looked like just another blowout to most folks at home following the results, the fact that Mexico scored 51 in a half is what got the attention of the rest of the world.

While this team is improved defensively from the 2004 Olympic team because of Billups, Kidd, Prince, Chandler and a rejuvenated Bryant, the international coaches believe there are places the United States is vulnerable on defense. Specifically, they believe Anthony and LeBron have no interest in playing defense, and that Stoudemire and Dwight Howard are interested in blocking shots but not playing the kind of position defense a team needs from its inside players in international competition.

The international teams believe a steady diet of screen-and-roll basketball will give the U.S. team fits on defense, and that they can force Team USA out of its up-tempo offense and put pressure on somebody other than Redd to make spot-up jumpers. These days, people scout the U.S. team and find the kinds of flaws, despite the reputation of the stars, that never existed to any real degree until the late 1980s.

The U.S. team that qualified in Las Vegas for the Olympics is skilled, mindful of recent history, and has a battle-scarred leader in Kidd -- but it's not the Dream Team of 1992. It's neither invulnerable nor invincible and one year from now could find itself in the kind of grinding, closely played games that will be a lot more tense and exciting than anything that took place in recent days.