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I’m sure we’ve all heard by now that Team USA failed to grab the gold medals at this year’s World Championships, despite the fact they were incredibly talented (albeit young) team. Team USA had their first and only defeat to Greece 101-95, finally having a taste of “real” competition in the tournament. Sure, Team USA had loads of talent with Lebron, Carmelo and D-Wade, but international teams like Greece (Silver), and Spain (Gold) played dazzling team basketball…and could shoot lights out.

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Team USA did bounce back with intensity in the Bronze medal game, with a 96-81 victory over Argentina. That will be their last game until next summer when they will try to earn an Olympic berth in the FIBA Americas tournament in Venezuela. A gold medal in the worlds would have punched their Olympic ticket.

Long gone are those days when the Dream Team of USA dominated international basketball. Once the best, U.S. now settles for getting better.

Team USA’s LeBron James sat down with FIBA to give his thoughts on the team’s bronze-medal performance at the World Championship and what the future holds for the American team…

James scored 22 points, grabbed nine rebounds and dished out seven assists - all personal bests in the tournament - in the United States’ 96-81 victory in beating Argentina for the bronze medal. He also took over the point guard duties and helped disrupt Argentina playmaker Pepe Sanchez into three turnovers - after commiting five in total over the previous four games.

FIBA: What needs to happen for the U.S. to win a tournament like this again?
James: We just have to keep improving and do what we’ve been doing. We’ve improved since the first training camp in early July. Man, that’s so long ago. It feels like it was last year. But we’ve gotten better and come together and become a family. We just need to keep driving and getting better, and loving FIBA basketball because it’s great. It’s been good to us.

Click here for the full interview

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Overcoming a chilly shooting night with relentless defensive pressure and domination of the offensive boards, the U.S. outscored Germany (5-2) 27-13 in the third quarter to break open a tight game and roll to an 85-65 victory in the quarterfinals of the World Championship. The win was the USA’s seventh consecutive.

Carmelo overcame a poor shooting night (7-19 FGs overall, 2-12 FGs in the first half) to account for a game high 19 points, while LeBron James added 13 points, five rebounds and four assists.

Game Recap | SlamOnline Commentary by Lang Whitaker | Box Score

It’s now down to the Final Four!  USA plays tomorrow (Sept. 1)

Then There Were Four 

Four international basketball powers, two from the Americas zone and two from the European zone, are all that remain in the hunt for the 2006 FIBA World Championship gold medal. Argentina, Greece, Spain and the USA enter the semifinals with spotless 7-0 records and will play Friday in a pair of semifinals games that on paper promise to be battle royals.

The day’s first contest pits the United States against Greece in 4:30 p.m. game (Japan time /3:30 a.m. EDT). Greece enters averaging 81.7 points a game and is led by Vasileios Spanoulis, 11.3 ppg., and Antonios Fotsis, 11.1 ppg. The U.S. leads everyone in scoring, averaging 105.9 points while hitting a hefty 50.6 percent of its shots. Carmelo Anthony paces the U.S. attack averaging 19.6 points per contest.

The night’s finale is another must see contest. Spain comes in as the World Championship’s best shooting team at 51.5 percent, while 2004 Olympic gold medalist Argentina leads the event in defensive field goal percentage having held opposing teams to 37.5 percent shooting. Manu Ginobili leads Argentina averaging 15.0 ppg., while Pau Gasol carries a large chunk of Spain’s point production averaging 21.6 ppg.

Everybody is breaking out the story of how Lebron is playing unselfishly for Team USA. Even though he averaged 30+ points in the NBA season, he’s now running Point Guard and deferring to his teammates. And he’s not worried about his scoring either…as long as Team USA keeps winning…

In the FIBA world championships, James has averaged 12.5 points per game. He’s third among the Americans in scoring, behind fellow captains Dwyane Wade (20.0 points) and Carmelo Anthony (19.7).

James isn’t lighting up the scoreboard. But he’s making his teammates better simply by being on the court. As the U.S. prepares to meet Germany in the quarterfinals Wednesday night, James is second on the team in assists, with 3.5 per game. That’s fifth among the tourney’s remaining players.

It would be natural for a world-class scorer to fret over his point production. But James said he’s not concerned with his numbers.

“If anybody knows my game, they know I don’t play like that,” James said after a Team USA workout this week. “I play just to help our team win. Whatever our team needs for us to try and win ballgames, that’s what I’m going to do.

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Look out, world.The United States routed Australia 113-73 Sunday, sending an unmistakable message to the FIBA world championships. This isn’t the team that proved an embarrassment in recent international competitions.

Read the recap here.  Box Score 

Here’s a great article by Steve Kerr on Lebron’s unselfish play…

The numbers were not spectacular. In fact, the box score looked more Jared Jefferies than LeBron James: five points, four rebounds and four assists.

But LeBron’s unselfish play set the offensive tone early for the United States in Sunday’s 113-73 rout of Australia at the FIBA world championships.

James frequently set up shop at the top of the key, using his tremendous size to see over the top of everyone on the floor and pick apart the Australian defense.

In many ways, James’ play in this tournament epitomizes what looks like a revitalization of American basketball. He is helping establish an egoless chemistry by creating ball movement and penetration and opening up shots for Team USA.

On offense, James has deferred to Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade. He knows that their instinct is to score, and he understands the Americans are better off with him in a playmaking role than a scoring one.

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The USA (5-0) put it on auto pilot and cruised to a 103-58 victory over winless Senegal (0-5) to close out World Championship preliminary play in impressive style. The U.S. effort was led by Chris Bosh’s 20 points, LeBron James added 17, Carmelo Anthony had 12 and Joe Johnson accounted for 11 more in the win.

The USA now advances to the World Championship round of 16 (Eighth-Finals) which is set for Aug. 26 and 27 in Saitama, Japan.

Recap | Box Score

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Team USA faced their toughest opponent yet in Italy.  USA trailed by 12 at one point, but rallied by Carmelo Anthony’s hot shooting (35 points, 13-18) and Dwayne Wade (26 points, 10-13) to carry Team USA to a 94-85 victory over Italy. 

The U.S., with the top seed guaranteed, closes out preliminary play facing winless Senegal (0-4) in a 7:30 p.m. contest Thursday night in Sapporo.

With the World Championship Final-Eight play set for Aug. 26 and 27 in Saitama, Japan, the USA will play Sunday, Aug. 27, in the round of 16, the fourth place finisher in Group C — either Australia, Brazil or Lithuania depending on the outcome of Thursday’s final preliminary round games.

Recap | Box Score 

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Utilizing a ball hawking defense that forced 25 turnovers and an explosive offense that scored points in bunches, the USA (3-0) paced by Dwyane Wade’s (Miami Heat) 20 points, LeBron James’ (Cleveland Cavaliers) 19 points and 16 more from Elton Brand (Los Angeles Clippers), kept rolling in World Championship preliminary play posting a strong 114-95 victory over Slovenia (1-2) Tuesday night in a game not as close as the final score might indicate.

Recap | Box Score

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Carmelo Anthony (Denver Nuggets), LeBron James (Cleveland Cavaliers) and Dwyane Wade (Miami Heat) have been named captains of the 2006 USA World Championship Team, USA head coach Mike Krzyzewski announced today.

“From the very start they have asserted themselves and showed leadership through how hard they worked, their cooperation and the fact that they wanted to be like everyone else. They didn’t come in as stars, they came in as members of the team. Everyone looks up to them and they look up to them even more now because they have set such a good example. It was a pretty easy decision to select those three guys.

“It was the coaches’ decision. We were thinking of having game captains but it became obvious to us that this was the way to go.”

Full story on USABasketball.com

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LeBron James led Team USA with 23 points as they dominated South Korea 116-63 in an exhibition game on Tuesday.

A 53-point win over South Korea wrapped up a perfect Asian exhibition tour for a star-studded U.S. team on its way to the world championships.

“We were a little sluggish at first and I was able to pick up my energy level and the guys followed,” James said. “We got better as the game went on and took care of business.”

Recap | Box Score