After U.S. loss to Greece at World Basketball Championships, it's Ryder Cup or nothing

Once again proving that they are the best basketball players in the world - except for shooting, defense, playing as a team or actually winning anything - the U.S. men’s national basketball team lost to Greece, 101-95 at the FIBA World Championships, and will leave Japan with at best a bronze medal.

In losing to Greece, a team without a current NBA Player, the Americans showed that the league’s slogan “NBA Action: It’s Fan-tastic” should have an addendum of: “But it sure isn’t quality basketball.”

So while LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Carmelo Anthony and the rest under Coach Mike Krzyzewski will continue to get shoe deals and mega-contracts, on the world level they haven’t won a World Championship since 1994 and are without an Olympic gold medal since 2000.

And thus continues a miserable run for the U.S. in international sports in 2006:


FIBA World Championships: Bronze medal. Maybe.

World Baseball Classic: U.S. lost in quarterfinals

World Cup: U.S. earned one point, didn’t advance past group play

Winter Olympics: A decent medal count for the U.S., but pre-games stud Bode Miller goes 0-for-5 in his events, and the U.S. doesn’t medal in ice hockey.

Heck, even in boxing, something has happened that would have shattered the American psyche 25 years ago - the heavyweight titles (there’s something like 25 of them) are all held by fighters from the former Soviet Union.

So when the U.S. contingent shows up in Ireland for the 2006 Ryder Cup in Ireland at the K Club, they will be carrying some significant weight on their shoulders.

In yet another sport, the U.S. will go in with the top-rated players - Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk - but with a string of defeats, as the U.S. hasn’t won the event since 1999, and was summarily whipped in 2004 on its home soil.

Can the U.S. team reverse what has become an embarassing trend in international competition? Let’s hope so. C’mon guys, we need this one.

–WKW