USA Basketball cuts down to 14 finalists for the Pan American Games. Carlos Arroyo already starting to pop collar on Puerto Rico Jersey.

While many captivated basketball fans are analyzing Greg Oden and Kevin Durant’s play in a league where Marcus Banks scores 42 points in a game and you’re allowed to foul 10 times before ejection (AKA “the Zaza Pachulia rule”), there is some more important basketball to be played very soon. 

The Pan American Games, featuring countries from North, South and Central America kicked off in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil (City of God- Great Movie) last week, and the men’s basketball games will start July 25th.  To understand what makes this tournament actually relevant, let’s break down the last 4 American Showings in the Pan Am Games:

2003- 4th Place (2-3) 
College Players: Ben Gordon, Emeka Okafur, Ike Diogu, Josh Childress
Two losses to Puerto Rico sandwiched around a twelve-point loss to Brazil.  Their 2 wins were by a combined three points.

1999- 2nd Place (4-1)
CBA Players: Mikki Moore, Byron Houston, Todd Lindeman
A 17-point loss to Brazil in the championship game ended a nice run by, in all honesty, a pretty weak roster.

1995- 2nd Place (4-3)                                                                                                
CBA Players: Rumeal Robinson, Scott Paddock, Brian Davis
This time, using CBA players was actually acceptable considering the games were in March, making NBA and NCAA players unavailable.  Rumeal Robinson made two clutch free throws to lose by four to Brazil in the championship game.

1991- 3rd Place (6-1)
College Players: Grant Hill, Jim Jackson, Christian Laettner, Eric Montross, Walt Williams, Adam Keefe, Tracy Murray, Clarence Weatherspoon
This team was rolling through the games until an upset loss to Puerto Rico in the semis derailed them.

They didn’t win in 1987 either (with David Robinson and Danny Manning).  In fact, the last time The United States, supposedly the juggernaut of the basketball world, won the Pan American Games was 1983 when North Carolina’s Michael Jordan and Sam Perkins led the way.  That’s over 20 years of losing to Brazil, Argentina and Puerto Rico. !!Que Lastima!!!

The last major international championship America has won in basketball is now 7 years old (2000 Olympics).  Despite this drought, we once again are sending marginal college basketball players to the Pan-American games to face seasoned professionals and bonafide NBA players.  I’m not saying we need to send Lebron and Wade, but are you telling me there aren’t any NBA players that want to play for Team USA?  Sending Drew Neitzel (Mich State), Wayne Ellington (UNC), Byrce Taylor (Oregon) and company will make us competitive, and I am sure we will have a decent chance to win.  But when other countries feature players like Carlos Arroyo, Anderson Varejao, Tiago Splitter and other guys who have played in professional men’s leagues for years, I can’t help but think are own arrogance is keeping us from another international championship.  But on the bright side, we’ll always have competitive eating….how’s that taste Japan?

Violent J

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