NBA

We're talking about the tryout roster!

Come on Colangelo, at least give Iverson a shot at making U.S. team

Dusan Vranic / AP file

Allen Iverson was a co-captain of United States team that finished a disappointing third in the 2004 Olympics.

For all the talk about needing to play as a team or conform to the international game, let’s not discount the necessity of having great talent. The U.S. dominated when the talent it put on the floor was far and away better than anyone else’s. In 2004, Iverson (and Duncan) got stuck on a team of greenhorns, led by a fine coach who is not so fine when it comes to tolerating young players. If all the U.S. superstars showed up and were seriously ready to play, they would still outclass the talent any other country could muster, international rules be damned.

Still, talent can’t be all the reason that Iverson wasn’t even asked to join the tryout roster — we’re talking about the tryout roster, how silly is that? — when according to ESPN Ray Allen, Vince Carter, Jason Kidd, Jermaine O’Neal, Tracy McGrady, Richard Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince apparently were given the chance to decline.

Here’s Colangelo again at his introductory USA Basketball press conference: "Again, I think it's important that the perception of our athletes around the world is one that I'm very sensitive to. And, the kind of people that I want wearing a USA uniform are those that we can take some pride in. I want good people with high character. I think that's very, very important."

Colangelo is certainly never going to say he thinks Iverson isn’t the kind of athlete American can take pride in. For one thing, how many other 6-foot, 165-pounders have carved out such a successful NBA career standing up to such night-after-night punishment?

But you wonder, given fan antipathy to Iverson’s past misdeeds, if Colangelo didn’t want to risk some sort of backlash by putting him on the roster. You wonder if Colangelo worried that at some point over the next three years, Iverson would miss a practice, or complain about his role. You wonder if he worried about Iverson, who’ll be 33 by the time the Olympics start, being a less-than-stellar influence on the mostly young charges he picked.

Iverson’s infamous "practice?" news conference was six years ago. He proved in 2004 he was willing and able to represent and play hard for his country. He certainly deserves a chance to do so again. If for some reason Iverson’s game just isn’t working again under international rules, then, fine, cut him.

But to not even give him a chance on the tryout roster? When you’ve come to the arena, and you’ve seen him play, you've seen him play right, you've seen him give everything he’s got, but we're talking about leaving him off the tryout roster now?

Iverson used to complain that no one understood him. Now he’s straightened up, done what others have asked of him, and he still gets grief. He must be thinking: I can’t win.

You wonder, if Colangelo is willing to be so cavalier about Iverson, whether the U.S. can win, too.

Bob Cook is a contributor to NBCSports.com and a free-lance writer based in Chicago.

< Prev | 1 | 2