Blaine Newnham / Times associate editor
Men's basketball team gets stunned

JOE ROSSI / KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS From left, Shawn Marion, Stephon Marbury and Amare Stoudemire of the U.S. basketball team react to a loss to Puerto Rico yesterday, the Americans' most lopsided loss.

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ATHENS — It wasn't good for the United States.

Maybe it will be good for basketball.

Before last night's numbing 92-73 loss to Puerto Rico — is it still too late to make PR a state? — the American players did a showtime dunking routine while they warmed up.

They had the intensity of a Greek afternoon.

Maybe the Americans — and all the kids who revere the NBA — will learn what much of the world already knows. You have to practice shooting before you shoot well, you have to pass the ball to get open shots, and you have to play defense because there might be nights like this.

There haven't been many in U.S. history. This was America's third loss since the Olympics began (and most lopsided ever) and first since 1988 when the amateur era ended and the Dream Team was called in like the Marines to save the game the U.S. calls its own.

Puerto Rico embarrassed the Americans, outhustling, outshooting and outcaring the NBA contingent that may yet not understand what it takes.

"They hit shots, and we didn't," said Lamar Odom lamely.

"We're professionals," added Richard Jefferson. "Anybody who knows the NBA knows Allen Iverson doesn't miss shots like that, that I don't miss shots like that.

"The first two I took hit the side of the backboard. It was one of those nights."

The more the Americans missed, the more they shot. They ended up making just 3 of 24 from beyond the three-point arc.

But there was so much more to it than just shooting. The Americans never could catch up with Puerto Rican point guard Carlos Arroyo, who plays for the Utah Jazz.

The Puerto Rican players moved when they didn't have the ball, making themselves available for passes to set up easy shots. The Americans took the first shot and ended up turning the ball over 22 times.

"They played so much harder than we did, so much better as a team that the result was not a surprise," said Larry Brown, the U.S. coach.

	KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS Members of Puerto Rico's basketball team celebrate a victory over the United States in the opener.

The Americans weren't about to gear up for a team they had beaten twice in the weeks leading up to the Games.

"Don't take any team lightly, that's my advice to them," said Jose Ortiz, the 40-year-old captain who played for Oregon State in his college days and is now center of the Puerto Rican team. "They are young and they don't know the international rules. It will take them time."

It will also take a complete culture change.

Brown's job is immense.

"I'm humiliated, not by winning or losing, but disappointed because I had the job to get us ready to play like a team," he said.

Brown talked the past week with Sheryl Swoopes, the star for the U.S. women's team. She talked about the players of the WNBA having to be willing to put aside their egos and sacrifice something they do well for the good of the team.

"We've talked about that," said Brown, "but judging by the body language I'm getting, it is not going to be easy to accomplish."

Brown, who played on a U.S. team that won the gold medal in 1964, was shaken.

"I'm angry," he admitted. "The mentality of our team was like this from Day One. Coaches should coach execution and never effort."

Instead of digging in on defense, instead of slowing down Arroyo, the Americans let the Puerto Ricans fire away and attempted to answer with three-point shots of their own.

At one stretch in the first half — with Brown going to his bench — Dwyane Wade threw up an air ball and Carmelo Anthony's shot from the corner wedged between the rim and backboard.

On the other end, Puerto Rico's Eddie Casiano made two tough, leaning three-pointers.

For an island of 4 million people, Puerto Rico has players. But then the rest of the world does, too.

Besides Arroyo, 7-foot Daniel Santiago plays for the Milwaukee Bucks. Ortiz was the Pac-10 player of the year in the late 1980s when Reggie Miller was in the league.

The Washington Wizards have drafted 19-year-old Peter John Ramos, a tree-like 7-3 center. The NBA has known about the other guard, Elias Ayuso. After last night, it knows about the whole team.

The Puerto Rican coach, Julio Toro, tried to put things in perspective.

"Let us not forget," he said, "that the U.S. is where basketball comes from. The U.S. is basketball. Things have not changed because of what happened tonight."

Admittedly, Brown expected to coach the team that won last year's Olympic qualifying tournament in Puerto Rico. It had on the roster Sonic Ray Allen, Mike Bibby, Elton Brand, Vince Carter, Jason Kidd, Kenyon Martin, Tracy McGrady, Sonic Nick Collison, and Jermaine O'Neal.

For various reasons, those guys stayed home. Tim Duncan and Iverson are the only holdovers.

"It is difficult to put a team together in four practices and with six games," Brown said.

The next game is tomorrow against Greece, the host nation having beaten Australia by 12 points last night. The airplane hangar at Helliniko Sports Center will be wild in anticipation. Clearly, blood is on the water.

America's hold on the game will be forever lost until the players remember how it used to be played.

Blaine Newnham: 206-464-2364 or bnewnham@seattletimes.com.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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