After starting out with a 58-0 record while playing with NBA players at the international level, the "Dream Team" turned in a pair of nightmarish performances, falling to Argentina and Yugoslavia at the World Basketball Championships. What's worse, this tourney isn't in Japan or somewhere in Europe, it's on our home turf in Indiana where team members Reggie Miller and Jermaine O'Neal play their home games. There is no reason to lose focus like that, or to excuse it by saying the US didn't have its best NBA players. Of course they didn't, and Yugoslavia had a pair of Sacramento Kings in Peja & Vlade, but the US is clearly the deepest team in the field.

So it will go down as the team that lost without Shaq, Kobe, Duncan, Garnett, Iverson, Carter, or McGrady. Of the top 5 statistically in points, rebounds and assists only Paul Pierce (#3 in scoring) Ben Wallace (#1 in rebounding) Elton Brand (#5 in rebounding) Andre Miller (#1 in assists) and Baron Davis (#4 in assists) decided to play. Michael Finley (#18) and Shawn Marion (#27) were the only other top 30 scorers on the team. Rebounding was in good hands with Jermaine O'Neal (#7) and Marion (#9) giving them 4 of the top 10, but clearly scoring was the issue.

In the past Team USA has dropped 100 effortlessly, but they scored just 80 and 78 during their losses. You have to think that if even Iverson and Duncan graced Indiana (yep, we're not talking about a trip to Tibet here) with their presence another World title would have been added. I somewhat pity the rest of the world because it seems only logical that every star out there will want to rectify the situation at the next big event, which just happens to be the Olympics.