Team USA in Good Hands

Jerry Colangelo got everything he could have wanted from USA Basketball except a badge reading “New sheriff in town.”

And the only reason he passed on one of those?

It would have been overkill.

“Problems?” Colangelo chuckled softly into the telephone Tuesday. “So far, absolutely none. Maybe because I get to make the rules.”

Two weeks have passed since Colangelo dropped the names of two dozen or so players who will compete for spots on a U.S. national team whose mission won’t be accomplished for another 2 1/2 years. Making good on his promise to shake things up, the list was almost as notable for who was left off -- superstars Allen Iverson, Kevin Garnett, Tracy McGrady, Jermaine O’Neal, Jason Kidd, Vince Carter and Ray Allen -- as some of those who were on it -- role players Bruce Bowen, Joe Johnson, Luke Ridnour and 7-foot high school star Greg Oden.

It reflects Colangelo’s philosophy that a team is made up of complementary parts instead of simply the best ones available; but even more than that, it reflects his gut instinct that motivation might be worth more over the long haul than talent. His own successes in basketball and baseball are a testament to those beliefs.

Not long after the U.S. federation appointed Colangelo to the newly created post of managing director last April, he went “eyeball to eyeball” with every one of the players he wound up choosing and a few who didn’t make the cut. Once USA Basketball freed Colangelo from having to submit his choices to a selection committee, he cut through the rest of the red tape himself.

In Phoenix, for example, Colangelo simply showed up when the visiting Lakers arrived for a game. Instead of contacting Kobe Bryant’s agent or his representatives to set up a meeting, he greeted Bryant as he clambered down the steps of the team bus, wrapped an arm around his shoulders and made his sales pitch as the two walked toward the locker room.

“What happened in Athens made my job a lot easier. I’d usually start conversations trying to convey how blessed we all are to represent our country, but I rarely got halfway through the preamble,” Colangelo recalled, “before they’d interrupt me and say, ‘I’m in.’

“Lots of guys felt lousy about the way we got kicked around. I won’t kid you,” he added. “I found that very refreshing.”

The sticking point, more often than not, was the three-year commitment that begins with training camp this July in advance of the world championships this summer and extends through the Beijing Games in 2008. That weeded out Garnett, McGrady, Kidd and a raft of other All-Stars. Even so, Colangelo refused to budge -- with the exception of an open-ended offer to Shaquille O’Neal, who he thinks would bring so much power and prestige to the squad that he was willing to wait.

The toughest decision was not inviting Iverson at all, considering the way he assumed the leadership role at the ill-fated Summer Games two years ago, plus Iverson’s very public commitment to reenlist for another tour of duty.

But Colangelo insisted when the selections were made public that he wanted a point guard to set up shots for Bryant and LeBron James, not take them himself, and the call on Iverson came down to that one factor. And he insisted again all the speculation about a clash between the new-school/old-school approach to the game as a waste of breath.

“There wasn’t one player I met with that wasn’t courteous, there was no ‘jive’ talk and not one came across like they were doing me a favor,” Colangelo said.

“But in the past, USA Basketball was laden with stars and we waited for opponents to fold up or faint. Well, the rest of the world has caught up.

“They have shooters, defenders, distributors -- role players of every kind. And continuity. You don’t beat teams like that anymore just by collecting All-Stars. That’s why I never looked at this as an NBA thing, but as a USA team,” he added. “We’re going to have component parts, too.”

That much was apparent even before Colangelo got around to picking a squad. The coaching staff is headed by Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski; and supplemented by Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim, an expert on the zone defenses favored in international play; Sun Coach Mike D’Antoni, who has a decade of experience with the European game; and another NBA coach in Portland’s Nate McMillan.