In the 2006 WC competition hosted in Saitama, Japan, the team came in third place, winning a bronze medal. The 2004 Athens Olympics produced the same result. The 2002 Indianapolis, IN WC tournament did not end well for the U.S., as a team riven by internal discord stumbled to a sixth-place finish, the worst showing in history by a U.S. squad in international competition.



This turn of events has engendered lots of hand wringing and harsh criticism as fans and other observers have taken turns ripping the "lazy" players for not dominating foreign competition. Suffice it to say that there is no dearth of proposed "solutions" to address the problem. The 2007 World Championship tournament to qualify for the 2008 Olympics is scheduled to be held in Las Vegas, NV, Aug. 22 through Sept. 2. We'll see what happens then.

There is a consistent theme here -- the world has caught up. The days are finished when a group of NBA players could just show up and easily pummel international opponents. That era passed after the first Dream Team, led by Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan, performed in the 1992 Olympics by many accounts the greatest collection of talent on one team in any sport in history. Of late, the international teams, who feature a more pass-oriented, free-flowing version of the game, smell weakness and are more than eager to heap more indignities on the heads of the American players.

All of this leads to a boatload of speculation as to whether the finest basketball is actually played in the NBA. There are some prominent sports figures who have indicated their fondness for the European-style game. Due to the fact that U.S. teams have been handily thrashed in international competition for the better part of a decade, one would have to be very foolish to dismiss this notion.

Making it all the more awkward is the fact that the winner of the NBA championship is referred to as the "World Champion." Is that title appropriate? Shouldn't the championship team have to prove that it's the best team in the world?

Would it not be worthwhile to put together a true World Championship series between the U.S. and Euroleague champions? The 'PR' value, along with worldwide interest in such a match would be tremendous, and the games themselves would serve to settle for once and for all which side of the Atlantic the best basketball is played on.