Volume 67, Issue 4  

A New World Order

by Avi Mermelstein

This past summer, when no one was really looking, an interesting thing happened in basketball.  A team of American professionals lost in international competition for the first time.  And the second time.  And the third.  In fact, the Americans went home having finished sixth in the World Basketball Championships and suddenly everyone associated with American basketball from George Karl on down had a lot of ‘splaining to do.

Many reasons were given for the failure.  The absence of Jason Kidd, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kobe Bryant from the team undoubtedly made a difference.  But the overall consensus was that American basketball is inherently flawed in its emphasis of the dunk and the three-pointer.  While American kids were practicing individual skills, such as crossover dribbles, Europeans practiced the fundamentals of team basketball: shooting, passing, screening, and defense.  And, unburdened with the pretence of getting an education from an institute of higher learning but lower pay they practiced it longer and more diligently than their American counterparts.

No team embodies this European style better than the Sacramento Kings.

When we last left the Kings, they were pulling the biggest chokejob in the NBA since Latrell Sprewell’s, losing a lead, a game, and a series in a few minutes’ time.  But their Game Seven collapse obscured the fact that they outplayed the Lakers over the course of the series, failing only in critical moments where the Lakers’ superior experience showed.  Having experienced the pressure of the conference finals, Peja Stojakovic probably won’t airball wide-open threes, Chris Webber probably won’t shoot 40% from the foul line, and Doug Christie…well, Doug Christie probably will give up the ball if he knows what’s good for him.  The point is that their flowing, passing style of offense demonstrated its superiority over the Lakers’ traditional two-man game.  Put in the same position again, the Kings will be less inclined to make the same mistakes.

When playing to their potential, the Kings are the most explosive offensive team in the league.  They have a lot of guys who can pass and shoot: Vlade Divac, Webber, Stojakovic, Hidayet Turkoglu, and the one King who didn’t choke, Mike Bibby.  But they also have the scrappy defensive players to complement the offensive fireworks: Christie, Bobby Jackson, and Scot Pollard.  I’m not going to sit here and tell you that Keon Clark is going to put the Kings over the top; I think were already good enough without him.

In fact, the Kings only have to maintain their level of last year, because the Lakers showed that they are on the decline.  Their unstoppable force in the middle, Shaq, finds himself chronically injured; come playoff time it is unlikely that he will be at full strength.  Many of their key role players are old; some are too old.  Their bench is too thin to be reliable.  They will certainly cede home-court advantage to the Kings once again—they lack the professional focus to counter their championship swagger and so will fall prey to injuries, distractions, feuds, and boredom.  They now live for the playoffs and treat the regular season as an extended pre-postseason.  And so, they will push their luck and find themselves on the road for a critical game against the Kings.  There they will find that Shaq is too beat-up, that Robert Horry is less lucky than usual, and that the Kings are too good to allow a repeat of last year’s great escape.

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