Reading the forum lately, people seem to be really down on the U.S. basketball, saying that it's finally shown that the world is catching up and that we are all in trouble. But looking at the roster, you realize that it's this team that is poorly constructed. Let not get even get into the lack of chemistry of the team, but just focus on the youth and players with lack of experienc in basketball period. Ask yourself this question, minus Duncan and AI, what's the difference between this team and the talented lottery teams of the Clippers? There's a lot of talent, but the youth of this team is really becoming a major problem. I don't even think this team can beat either of the all star teams in either conference in either of the last 10 years. This team have only 4 all star (2 of them Marbury and Marion starred in one each with Marbury being the alternate), with 8 players that aren't all stars, and several that likely wont be perenial all stars. Then ofcourse theres the youth, with the exceptions of the 4 all stars and Odom who is only 25, the rest of the team is made up of the members of the rookie and sophmore games from last year. This is not a good team by any stretch. I say all this stuff about international teams catching up and international play superior than the NBA is still a few years off (it will happen, just not there yet). As far as why so little international players get invited to the NBA when there teams do well, just think of the movie hoosiers and those players. As a team they can do well and go to state against the best, but individually they just can't fit into a team as well as another player can.