Open Court: Going for the gold

LAS VEGAS—Sin City is certainly familiar with grand spectacles.

The hottest ticket on Friday evening wasn’t to Cirque de Soliel or Wayne Newton.

Instead, thousands of fans lined up outside the Thomas and Mack Center in hopes of catching a glimpse of the new and (hopefully) improved Team USA basketball squad.

The affordable tickets vanished from the box office within a matter of minutes. Scalpers felt comfortable charging $70 a pop for the nose-bleeders. Even crazier, people paid it.

I attempted to finagle my way into the game through the media entrance, but since I didn’t make “advance preparations,” they briskly shot my request down.

I even showed up wearing my reporter’s costume — notepad, tape recorder, pen tucked behind my left ear, previous media badges from other events, the whole shebang — but it was to no avail.

It didn’t matter. The Americans steamrolled Team Canada 120-65. This played out like one of those vintage 1992 Dream Team exhibitions, where opponents would cower to the Americans’ mighty star power. This was about as badly as one team could beat another. Had the referees dusted off the mercy rule, nobody would’ve second-guessed them.

Does this mean Team USA will march through Beijing on an unobstructed path toward Olympic gold and its perch atop the world’s basketball stage? Not so fast.

Beating a Steve Nash-less Canadian team by 55 doesn’t prove anything. The lighthearted atmosphere did show that this squad should possess better team chemistry than the toxic stew that Larry Brown brewed in Athens in 2004.

Michael Redd’s addition provided a much-needed infusion of perimeter shooting, to which his 6-8 performance from beyond the arc will attest, but USA Basketball neglected to address a handful of other major concerns that might keep this team from winning gold.

First and foremost, I don’t believe Mike Krzyzewski is the right coach for this team. I don’t dispute the man’s accomplishments, nor do I think he’s a bad basketball coach. Quite the opposite. However, international basketball has very little in common with the college game.

At Duke, Coach K’s instructions are gospel. With Team USA, he’s dealing with a dozen multi-millionaires who will go back to their day jobs after this sojourn overseas wraps up.

Why not hand the car keys over to a laid-back coach who deals with NBA talents/egos on a daily basis? Ideally, that coach would have an extensive background with international basketball.

Clearly, the ideal candidate would be former Phoenix and current New York head man Mike D’Antoni. He’s currently on the staff, but as one of Coach K’s assistants.

Second, I don’t believe Jason Kidd is the right point guard for this team.

If this was 2002, it would be a different story. But Kidd, 35, has regressed.

Yes, he’s undefeated in international basketball and he’s the only holdover from the last American gold metal. That sounds fine and dandy, but the fact remains that Kidd is a terrible perimeter shooter, which is a deadly fault for a guard to have in this style of competition.

Besides, Chris Paul and Deron Williams are the two of the three best point guards in the world, so why would USA Basketball seek out a situation that keeps either of them off the floor? Why not grab another big man to do battle inside with some of the craftier international post players?

American bigs tend to get into foul trouble, due to the differences between NBA and FIBA officials. Don’t believe me? Just ask Tim Duncan about his Athens experience.

Yes, it was fun to watch Team USA look dominant again, but much like the shiny lights adorning the Las Vegas strip, all that glitters might not be gold. Or something like that.

nprevenas@gvnews.com | 547-9747