After failed cracks at FIBA championship gold in three consecutive attempts, Team USA struck a chord in this year’s tournament.

The team – consisting mainly of talented NBA youngsters – was able to accomplish a feat that even the game’s biggest stars, namely LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh, Chris Paul and Joe Johnson, were unable to achieve at the last tournament which was held in 2006.

What exactly were the differences that led to Team USA’s triumph?  Let’s examine a few of these:

Commitment to Playing Style

Perhaps the most important decision made by Coach K and his staff was to commit to a pressure-intensive style of play.  Based on the selection of the roster (which we’ll also examine in a minute), Team USA’s advantage laid distinctly with its influx of young, athletic legs.  The Americans were devoid of superstar-type players (only one, Kevin Durant), which fit perfectly into the scheme of having all players apply at least moderate pressure to the perimeter ball-handlers. 

Doing this would yield some important fast-breaking, easy opportunities for Team USA.  This was significant because the team was not stacked with guys who are are able to break down the defense.  Since they were athletically-deep, they could keep the defensive intensity up even when they went to their bench.

Roster Resembled a Real Team

So often in the past – when Team USA came up short – the consensus among the American faithful was that the teams were doomed from the start because they were a team full of superstars.  And on a team filled with superstars no one is well-versed at being a role player.  Coincidentally, this was a hypothesis that was never mentioned in 1992 when the original Dream Team – replete with some of the greatest stars to ever play the game – set an American precedent that no other U.S. teams have been able to match.

But after some high-profile players declined the invitation to play this summer, the committee embraced the suggestions of the public with the assembly of the 2010 team.  This year’s roster seemed to contain much more balance than the more recent editions of the U.S. World Championship teams.

The roster consisted of bonafide point guards (Derrick Rose, Chauncey Billups), super-athletic wingmen (Rudy Gay, Andre Iguodala), multi-faceted bigs (Lamar Odom, Kevin Love), game-changers (Russell Westbrook), long-range snipers (Eric Gordon, Stephen Curry), tough men (Tyson Chandler) and a dominant scorer (Kevin Durant).  Whether intentional or not, the outcome was a team that really resembled just that instead of a collection of the best scorers in the NBA.  There are only maybe a couple of household names in the bunch, thereby making it not as pressure-packed for the group by having to ascend to a lofty level of expectations.

Durant was the clear offensive leader of the team.

Fighting Through Adversity

There’s a saying regarding adversity – particularly that it has to potential to make or break a person.  In the case of the 2002 team, adversity struck them and they were not able to recover.

In the 2010 World Championships, the Americans cruised to a couple of blowout wins in the preliminary round before they met Brazil.  Brazil has some NBA players, and some players that have been scouted by NBA personnel – so this contest was expected to be a little tougher than the previous 28- and 22-point wins against Croatia and Slovenia.  And it was even tougher than that.

Coach K’s squad struggled to put a lid on a fourth-quarter Brazilian comeback, but they held it together at the end to eek out a victory.  Brazil tried a few desperation three’s (two of them were blocked by Durant) that missed the mark.

This match proved to be good for the Americans.  This game became a springboard for the team, as they began to refocus on the value of each possession.  FIBA play is also much more physical than the NBA, and Brazil – hoping to play the role of spoiler – used a lot of its physicality to try and disrupt the U.S.  It worked as planned, as Brazil gave the USA its most competitive game of the tournament.  But afterwards, Team USA never looked back.  The group didn’t have another contest that ended in a single-digit point difference.

What next?  We’ll have to wait and see who’s made a good enough impression to sneak on a potentially star-studded roster for 2012.  When all is said and done, hopefully they can be as golden as these guys were.

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