The dominant U.S. women's basketball team deserves attention and respect, not scrutiny
American basketball fans wanted U.S. domination at the Olympics. In fact, they expected it.
And why wouldn’t they? The United States sent the most talented teams to Rio.
So far, only one of those two American teams is following through on expectations.
The U.S. women have been so dominant for so long that we take their success for granted. Winners of the last five Olympic gold medals, the USWNBT is cruising to a sixth in Rio. But the way that they’re doing it this summer demands attention.
The U.S. women scored 519 points in their five group-stage games, outscoring their opponents by a total of 203 — a nice, clean 40-point average margin of victory. The U.S. is on pace to break its own record for points in the tournament, set in 1996. In all, the U.S. women have won 46 straight games in the Olympics — it would be one of the biggest shocks of Rio 2016 if they fail to win gold.
They’re not just dominating with talent, either. The U.S. women are playing beautiful, smart basketball — a style that is impossible to dislike. The offensive movement is crisp and the ball movement is steady — the team is making 57 percent of its shots and 75 percent of those field goals are assisted. The defense, led by Brittney Griner (eight blocks) and Breanna Stewart (19 steals) is stifling, holding opponents to 35 percent shooting. Against Canada, the U.S. allowed only six points in the third quarter.
Juxtaposed with the men’s team, which is counting on its talent to override lazy defense and selfish offensive play, and had three close calls in five days to close the group stage — the women’s team’s dominance is even more impressive.
There is adulation — not enough, but it exists. But the women are also facing scrutiny. Are the U.S. women too good? Is it bad for the sport?
Those are questions that were rarely asked about the dominant U.S. men’s teams in 1992, 1996 and 2000. Those teams were knocked for running up the score, sure, but their dominance was never questioned as detrimental to the sport itself.
Meanwhile, the rest of the world, tired of getting whooped, upped their game to match ... and eventually beat the U.S. men.
Perhaps that international surge is looming in women’s basketball, but in the meantime, U.S. women’s coach Geno Auriemma has to say things like this:
The U.S. women’s team is so good it's been incorrectly deemed a problem. If that isn’t American exceptionalism, I’m not sure what is.
And don't start with the "it's boring" nonsense. The Dream Team wasn't boring, and neither is this 2016 U.S. women's national team. If you're only watching basketball because of the dunks, here's a video of Slamball — you'll have more fun watching that.
We've rightly celebrated the prolific Michael Phelps and the spectacular and dominant Simone Biles for their performances so far in these Olympics. It’s time we start giving the U.S. women’s basketball team — the best basketball team in Rio — the same kind of treatment.
