PARIS — You know how to tell when Team USA coach Steve Kerr is serious about getting the Americans in order — like, Real together — before it’s too late in their all-or-nothing pursuit of Olympic gold?
During two consecutive press conferences, he gave candid and pointed comments about his team, the likes of which are rarely seen during his time as the voice of the Golden State Warriors.
The first came on Wednesday, when Kerr detailed the many ways the Americans fell short in their four-point exhibition win over Germany on Monday. It didn’t matter that they entered Sunday’s pool play against Nikola Jokić’s Serbian team with a perfect 5-0 record in the “preseason.” It was the first time Kerr had been critical of this group of future Hall of Famers that is so often compared to the legendary Dream Team of 1992.
And then, with all those high expectations hanging over them all and demanding this kind of internal dissection, Kerr doubled down a day later. Only this time he made it clear that Team USA’s one-point win over South Sudan on Saturday was also cause for concern.
“I think that’s what today is all about — it’s the reminder (that), ‘It’s time,’ you know?” Kerr said during a group interview session with reporters at Thursday’s practice. “We’re not traveling around anymore (for exhibition games in Las Vegas, Abu Dhabi and London). We’re here. We’ve got six games. We’ve got to play in the pool, advance and then it’s (like the) NCAA tournament. So we need 40 minutes of toughness, focus and attention, and we can’t let teams outshine us with effort and energy like we did the other night against Germany (and) like we did against South Sudan.”
Taken literally, it’s the kind of statement that should set off alarm bells for anyone associated with this vaunted Team USA squad. And, frankly, that’s probably Kerr’s intention.
It’s well-documented how the rest of the world has caught up to the Americans in basketball, but this particular collection of talent — from LeBron James to Steph Curry and beyond — should be dominant in a way that would mitigate that decades-long global effect. And while Kevin Durant’s continued absence due to a calf injury is certainly a major factor in their (relative) mediocrity, there’s still more than enough firepower here for Team USA to have had an easier time of it in the run-up to victory. What’s more, this kind of news strikes a very different tone than the one set at the national team’s training camp in Vegas earlier this month.
When all these stars first met in the desert, there was a sense of awe even among the participating players. Bam Adebayo captured that spirit perfectly during a visit with a small group of reporters on July 8, when the Miami Heat great marveled at the capabilities of this all-time staff.
“You see this team?!” Adebayo said when asked about the much-improved international competition that awaited them. “I have no respect for any other country at all. So don’t let that be the headline. But when you (put together) a team like this and you’re compared to the Dream Team, it puts it into perspective of how great this team can be if we play the right way and do the things we’re supposed to do.
“The rest of the world is trying to catch up. (But) when you put a team together like that and we play the right way, it’s going to be hard to beat us. … I think that’s what you have to have — respect people without giving them any respect. That’s a phrase we use in Heat Culture, man, because we respect every other country. But when we get between (those) lines, we’re trying to beat you by 40. We’re trying to make an example (of you).”
Clearly, that last part proves to be much more difficult than they had hoped.
Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant on Thursday. “We’re playing 65, or 64 NBA players now,” Durant said of the difference from the 1992 Dream Team. (Mike Lawrie/Getty Images)
To be fair, no one could have expected the world to witness such a dismantling in ’92. Led by Charles Barkley, Michael Jordan and Karl Malone, and with the likes of Chris Mullin, Clyde Drexler, Magic Johnson, Scottie Pippen, David Robinson and so many other greats lining up behind them, that once-in-a-lifetime group won all eight games by an average of 44 points. But times have undeniably changed. As Curry and Durant emphasized in an illuminating exchange during their press conference on Thursday, the landscape that surrounds them is far more impressive now than it was then.
“Look at that thing (online) where they said the Dream Team played nine NBA players, and…,” Curry began as if the two were talking to each other.
Durant, sitting next to him and facing hundreds of journalists, finished his sentence.
“We’re playing 65, or 64 NBA players now,” he said, referring to the total of current or former NBA players on other Olympic rosters. “They’re all the best of the best in the world now.”
At the very least, this team needs to make sure they don’t suffer the same fate as the 2004 bronze medal-winning team that earned its bad name in the program’s history books. Kerr, who has detailed the changes that need to be made, knows this all too well.
“We’ve got another level,” Kerr said. “I think we’ve got two more levels we can go to. But it’s always a collaboration. So we can show the strategic stuff on the tape, on the walkthrough, and show them, ‘Hey, let’s do this. Let’s do that. Let’s get to know (opponents’) personnel. We’ve got to know the shooters, we’ve got to know the non-shooters and all that stuff.’ So that’s where we can help them.”
But they must – absolutely – also help themselves.
“(It’s) just effort and energy, play after play after play,” Kerr said. “This is different. This is not an 82-game season (like the NBA). They’re not going to play 125 games total with preseason and playoffs and all that. It’s literally six games. And if you watch the tape, we’re jogging through some possessions, we’re not hitting bodies in boxouts. And so it’s time. It’s time to focus on that. And like I said, that’s for all of us — coaches and players — to get to that point.”
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(Top photo of Steve Kerr: Henry Browne/Getty Images)
