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From today’s b the paper…

It’s all or nothing for LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and the rest of the U.S. basketball team at the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing this August.

The ballers formerly known as the “Dream Team” haven’t won a major international competition since the 2000 Games, when a team featuring Tim Hardaway, Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Vin Baker — a who’s who of overpaid NBA underacheivers — took home the gold in Sydney. Since then, the most dominant team in the history of international basketball — in the 1992 Barcelona Games, the original Dream Team won by an average margin of 43.8 points — has been victimized by selfless opponents who put national pride above stat lines. The Americans have had their chances to walk away with gold medals, but instead of making jumpers and defensive stops, they made excuses and accepted medals of lesser value — if they made it that far.

In 2002, it was the me-first attitudes from second-tier players that undid the red, white and blue at the FIBA world championships. They finished sixth. In 2004, it was Larry Brown’s failure to mesh older superstars such as Allen Iverson and Tim Duncan with budding young phenoms like James, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony. The Americans picked up bronze medals. And after the team fell to Greece in the 2006 FIBA semifinals but salvaged another bronze, there weren’t many answers. The U.S. men, though missing elite talent such as Bryant, Duncan and Shaquille O’Neal, gave it their all. It simply wasn’t good enough.

Instead of trotting out another squad that treated the world’s greatest sports spectacle like a summer vacation, USA Basketball got serious, jettisoning the prima donnas who weren’t in for the long haul. NBA stars such as Jason Kidd and Dwight Howard now had to earn spots on the team by participating in training camps and an Olympic qualifying tournament.

USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo and coach Mike Krzyzewski knew that if the United States wanted to reclaim its throne atop the basketball world, they couldn’t just throw the biggest names in the NBA on the floor and hope for the best. They needed to build a team equipped with sharpshooters such as Michael Redd and defensive stoppers like Tayshaun Prince to compete with their savvy opponents from Spain, Greece and Argentina.

This is the United States’ most stacked roster since the days of MJ, Bird, Magic and Barkley — my apologies to the second Dream Team — and it’s built to excel in international play. It’s the Americans’ gold medal to lose in Beijing. The rejuvenated U.S. squad will bring home gold. Of course, that’s what I said in 2004.

–Bucky Lasek probably couldn’t have imagined a better scenario for the Panasonic Open. The superstar skateboarder was instrumental in making Baltimore a stop on the AST Dew Tour last year, bringing action sports to his hometown. His fellow Baltimoreans responded by coming out in droves to watch the event. At this year’s Open, Lasek took home first place in the skateboard vert competition with an impressive showing on the halfpipe.

Much of the Open’s success the past two years can be attributed to hometown heroes such as Lasek and Mathieu Therres, but will the diehard football and baseball fans of Baltimore continue to support this nontraditional sporting event down the road? I want to say “yes” but my gut is telling me “no.” Prove me wrong Baltimore.

Matt Vensel is a content creator for b. Contact him at matt@bthesite.com.

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