HOLLANDER: I still think the 2005-06 Dallas Mavericks are the best basketball team in the world, but that’s another story.   The story this weekend in Japan is about redemption.  

After a sixth place finish in the  2002 FIBA World Championships (Indianapolis) and a humiliating bronze medal the 2004 Summer Olympics (Athens), another assembly of NBA all-stars will represent the USA at the 24-nation, 2006 FIBA World Championships held August 19—September 3. (By the way, don’t ask because I don’t know or care what FIBA, FIFA or any of the other acronyms for these “once every two or four years we have an international tourney so we can pay ourselves bloated salaries” organizations stands for.)

Since the 2004 Olympic ass-whooping of Team USA, sportswriters including this one (though I was doing it in the late ’90s thank you very much) bemoaned the painful erosion of fundamental basketball in America and particularly the NBA. Other nations were schooling us in “our” game and foreign players were becoming NBA all-stars. This summer, the first pick in the NBA draft was a kid from Italy, Andrea Bargnani.   We’ve come a long way from the days when players from foreign teams—in the midst of being routed by the Americans—giddily snapped photos of Charles Barkley to show the folks back home. 

So, for the past two years, former Phoenix Suns mastermind Jerry Colangelo has been in charge of putting the USA back on top.  First he hired Mike Krzyzewski to coach the team. Hard to argue with that choice. Next, he required a minimum two year commitment from players. Then, with Krzyzewski, he recruited NBA players who wanted to be there.  More importantly, they tried to choose players who would
play together.  

They’ve done a fine job. LeBron James and Dwyane Wade are not only marquee names, they’re guys that share the ball.  Selecting defensive specialist Bruce Bowen says as much about what this team will be about as it does Bowen’s superior abilities. Add Shane Battier, the NBA’s best role player, along with Chris Paul, maybe the best pure American point guard (there’s only one Steve Nash) and you’ve got yourself a fundamental basketball clinic. 

When Team USA combines fundamental basketball with its unmatchable raw talent, no nation on earth can compete. The emperor of world basketball is naked no more. Team USA will not lose one game in Japan.  

SULLIVAN: For once we are in agreement. I love Team USA put together by Duke’s Coach K.

My only worry is there could be a serious international incident. Bruce Bowen is one of the Original Badasses of the NBA. Bowen creates misery on the court for any player—never mind some of those soft international players used to getting free reign as they shoot. Bowen will pull, elbow, and drive them crazy. Bowen is capable of breaking a man down. Were he in prison he would rule the tier. His defense may be so tough the other teams may have to go to the United Nations and beg the General Assembly to get him to cease and desist.

This team also has a nice blend of flash, defense, and hustle. Carmelo Anthony, LeBron, and D-Wade will give off enough flash and guys like Bowen, Elton Brand, and Kirk Heinrich will chop wood and carry water.

I am ready for revenge on that 2004 disgrace. Those NBA losers should be made to watch these kids play American ball the way it was meant. Starbury can kiss Bruce Bowen’s ass as he brings glory back to our fruited plain.

And it is also nice to get back to writing about a real sport like basketball and not that game of lacrosse. Our readers have made actual death threats against Hollander over our goofing on that stupid sport. Mess with us, stick boys, and Bruce Bowen will move into your neighborhood.

HOLLANDER:  It’s incredible. Now some kid writes me, implying that I’ve put his lacrosse scholarship in jeopardy.  Instead of a scholarship, that boy needs a refund at the self-esteem store. Play for pride, young man!  Look at this new Team USA.  At long last we have a group of NBA players willing to play for a name on their jersey other than their own. 

The NBA’s Hegelian Dialectic has shifted back to fundamentals.  And thank God for it. In the mid- ’60s to mid- ’70s the NBA enjoyed its golden age where legendary players dove on the floor and played for each other.  From the mid- ’70s to mid- ’80s drugs, violence and selfishness put league on the verge of bankruptcy. Bird and Magic restored the league from the mid- ’80s to mid- ’90s by reminding everyone that the game is more enjoyable and more marketable when played correctly. Since the mid- ’90s corporate avarice exploited the marketing popularity of Michael Jordan but severely neglected the product on the floor. I believe that Team USA 2006 may serve as the first obvious marker that heralds a shift back to a healthy institutional respect for the game and the way it should
be played.

Yet, I strongly urge you to watch the other nations.  Manu Ginobli may be a little older but flanked by Andres Nocioni and Carlo Delfino he leads an Argentina that plays a gorgeous free-flowing style of basketball. Looking for the respect he fails to receive in the NBA, Carlos Arroyo plays with a chip on his shoulder during international competitions making Puerto Rico very dangerous. Don’t look for much from the Lebanese team this year. While many think they will draw emotional strength from their nation’s turmoil,   I think their best chance is to evoke the spirit of the man who remains as an enduring symbol of Lebanon’s national pride — Rony Seikaly.  

SULLIVAN: The FIBA World Basketball Tournament is must-see TV for New York viewers as it may be our only chance this year to see good, fundamental, and exciting basketball this year.

I am starved for good basketball in New York. Knicks fans have suffered. Not the long moaning done by Red Sox and Cub fans—this has been real suffering. Forty days in the desert type.

See, in New York we know b-ball. We taught the world how to do it. From the crisp team play of the old Clyde Frazier Knicks to the thug and run Knicks of John Starks, D-Harper and Anthony Mason. Now we wait and wait in this new millennium for the basketball gods to give us our game back.

So I am down with this world game. We need to wax Argentina the way the British did to them over the Falkland Islands. Shock and awe.

America is ready to reclaim it’s throne. We have to jettison our selfish babies like Starbury. No crying in basketball forever. American Basketball Uber Alles!