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Waking up the "Dream" Team

Published Sunday, August 29, 2004 by seanlmccarthy | E-mail this post

Sure, we all knew that a group of SportsCenter-highlights-obsessed pick-up players could never really compete with an actual basketball team. And sure, we all knew that you couldn't call the USA mens' squad a "dream team" if the lineup didn't include half of the ballers you dreamed it would. No wonder so many people are actually delighted to see the guys get bronzed in Athens.

Here is my solution: For world competitions, have the defending NBA champs represent the USA. Send the Detroit Pistons to Athens, and at least you'd have had a team that could work together and play defense. The USOC could institute a sub policy for any foreign-born players on the NBA championship team for world play. If Kobe, Shaq and others don't want to play in the Olympics or World Championships, then just tell them not to win the NBA title that year. Just like this year.