Olympic bid was done deal all along

It was a good day for Team USA basketball because it qualified for the 2008 Olympics and won by more than 40 points, which guaranteed any Tyson Chandler fan in attendance would see him play.

It was an even better day for Argentina because it officially earned the second ticket to Beijing awarded at the FIBA Americas Championship, which guaranteed at least one of two semifinal winners would react as some Division I-AA football team from North Carolina might on the implausible chance it ever walked into the Big House and beat Michigan.

(Oops.)

It was the best day for those swindlers known as FIBA officials because they began charging $1,200 for a lower-level ticket to today’s final at the Thomas & Mack Center, which guaranteed at least one buffoon will pay a criminal amount to watch a game less meaningful than that box of locks you saved over the years that have no keys.

This is what Final Fours must have been like when UCLA was winning seven straight national championships in the 1960s and ’70s. The Bruins would show up because rules demanded such, beat whomever happened to draw the bracket’s shortest straw and then await an opponent who treated their semifinal like the Super Bowl and World Cup and NBA Finals all in one.

“We’re ecstatic about qualifying for the Olympics,” Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “I know people always think it’s a done deal, but it’s not a done deal until you do it.”

It’s amazing how he says such things with a straight face. It was done long before Chandler checked in with 6:39 remaining against Puerto Rico and his team up 41 in a game it would win 135-91. It was done before the tournament began.

Team USA might be gold-less in its last three major international competitions, but it is now 35-0 in qualifiers and only once has an opponent come within 10 points. We own these things like we do a love for material objects and suing one another.

If the Americans don’t stand on the tallest podium at a medal ceremony next summer, it will be more because all those 3-pointers are tougher to make in tight games against legitimate opponents and even better zones than any lack of focus from their coach.

If it were possible, Krzyzewski likely would have long ago added red to the Duke colors of blue and white. He is a West Point graduate. He loves this stuff like he does American Express.

When the remaining voices of another dismal FIBA crowd in the 7,000 range began shouting “USA! USA! USA!” as the Americans closed out Puerto Rico, you know Krzyzewski allowed his mind to wander 12 months from now and envision a similar ending.

For now, it was about as noisy and stirring as you can expect from those whose only question the past 11 days about Team USA was if Jason Kidd really could be the Americans’ most valuable player by attempting fewer shots than games played. (If he hasn’t been, he has come close.)

But wouldn’t it be fun just for a day to display the unconstrained passion and incredible nationalistic affection for a team like those cheering Argentina did Saturday?

They sang and danced and stood on chairs pumping their arms to the heavens while posing for pictures and waving their nation’s flag for all to witness.

And that was just the team’s radio announcers.

It was like watching Eva Peron on the balcony of Casa Rosada, only it was some 6-foot-3-inch, shaggy-haired color analyst screaming not about regret and defiance, but how incredible it was his country’s team qualified for the Olympics when its best players were most likely chilling on some remote beach in the resort town of Pinamar.

What a comedown now, having to hold today’s final with nothing at stake. It was said Brazil players staged some sort of mutiny against their coaching staff before and during a semifinal loss. Maybe those from Team USA and Argentina can get together and present their own uprising and just not play.

Can you imagine the looks from NBA general managers and coaches should a certain superstar or two get injured?

“In the big scheme of things,” Krzyzewski said, “(today) doesn’t mean much. But we’re playing to represent our county and it’s important we go out and play as well as we have.”

It’s music to the ears of one group.

Shame on those FIBA swindlers.

Ed Graney’s column is published Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. He can be reached at 383-4618 or egraney@reviewjournal.com.