Team USA Members Still Golden

While the season is still young, the results from the members of team USA have been impressive. For the brief period when USA was not on top of the basketball world, the reasons were debated by everyone. They said that we needed to go back to college players. We needed to have the team practice harder. We needed to build a team, not an All-Star team.

But one of the real reasons that USA suffered was because the key players in the NBA did not want to give up their summer to play more basketball and risk injury. Many teams also did not want their athletes to play because of the risk of injury.

So when Phoenix GM Jerry Colangelo took over responsibility of rebuilding the team, he required all team members to make a 2 year commitment. Many people thought this would scare the NBA players away, but players like LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and Carmelo Anthony signed up to help the USA reclaim gold.

The results were impressive. Team USA cruised through group play, winning their games by an average of 32 points. They went on to claim the Gold medal, beating Spain in the championship game by 11 poins, 118-107. But the true test was still to come. Would the members of Team USA suffer in the upcoming NBA season, making them unlikely to resign up in 2012?

So far, the results have been impressive. Chris Bosh was on team USA, and is having a career year. This season, he is averaging 27 points, 11 rebounds and 1 block. Compare that to last season, and he has improved in every category. Tayshaun Prince has increased his scoring by 4 points and his rebounds by 5. Dwight Howard had his first career triple double, and other key members like Jason Kidd, Lebron James, Chris Paul and Carlos Boozer have maintained there level of play despite playing all summer.

But no one benefited more from the Olympics then Dwyane Wade. He was coming off a season that ended on the injured reserve, and was facing questions about his durability. Despite that, he suited up for Team USA anyway, and had a great summer. He was their best offensive player, and he had taken that momentum and brought it to the NBA. 

This season, he is averaging 27 points, 3 steals, 8 assists, and and 5 rebounds. That is an improvement in every single category from last year. But most importantly, after watching him this summer, people were saying that Wade was back. Playing in the Olympics allowed him to get back his confidence, and prove to himself he was healthy. Without it, who knows how his season would be going so far?

The results from the members of team USA have been almost as impressive as they were over the summer. Hopefully now players will notice that team members were able to still be sucessful despite their participation in the Olympics, and USA will be able to remain on top.