Khemistry for Team USA

Recent US Men's Basketball results.

World Championship 2002 - 6th Place. Coached by George Karl.

Olympics 2004 Athens - Bronze. Coached by Larry Brown.

World Championships 2006 - Bronze. Coached by Mike Krzyzewski.

FIBA Americas Championship 2007 - Gold. Coached by Mike Kryzewski.

Olympics 2008 Beijing - ??

The problem with US basketball has been debated extensively. It is clear that the US has the largest collection of talented basketball players in the world. So why has the US failed to dominate international play as of late?

Vary theories include the following explanations:

- Other teams play together on a regular basis and over a number of years.

- Other national teams are attracting better athletes as the sport of basketball has grown in popularity.

- The US teams are unfamiliar playing with international rules.

However, most people point to the fact that the USA team has not played team basketball. The US players attempt to defeat their opponents by exploiting the talent advantage. In the past, when the talent advantage was huge, that strategy worked. However, now that other teams have very capable and talented players as well, this formula is no longer working.

The solution? Coach K. When Mike Kryzewski took the helm of the US National team in October 2005, he architected a plan to correct the flaws in the US program.

1) As he assembled the current Dream Team, he set his sites on the Beijing Olympics. He sought out 24 players who would be willing to devote 3 years to the US team.

2) Coach K has reset the attitude of the US players. The 2002 and 2004 US teams not only underperformed, but they also were villified in the media and by fans. The 2002 and 2004 players were indulged, and the results were not pretty. In Beijing, Kobe and Lebron have shown up at numerous events cheering on his fellow countrymen in sports including swimming, gymnastics and women's beach volleyball. This time around, the US is looking to return their status as the best basketball team in the world. Additionally, they have their sites on showing the world that US basketball players are not all selfish, untouchable primadonnas.

3) On the court, the US is playing as a team. This means making the extra pass, hustling to get down the floor on defense, and executing both offensive and defensive schemes.

So far, the results have been impressive. The US team enters the medal rounds with a perfect 5-0 record, and the scores have not been close.

Coach K is an excellent choice to lead the US national team. He inherited a disfunctional program and has quickly developed a healthy, positive and successful culture. In college hoops, Coach K brings in new players to coach and develop every year. He has 4 years (at best) with these elite high school stars to integrate them into the Duke program. As the eligibility of college players is finite, he instills a sense of urgency in his players. He gets them to buy into the concept that team success is the ultimate goal. Coach K has gotten the top NBA stars to buy into this program for the US National team.

Although his program got off to a less than perfect start in the World Championships in 2006, he has the US team hitting on all cylinders on and off the court in Beijing. The team is playing with tenacity and sense of urgency lacking from the 2002 and 2004 US teams. If the US team is able to bring home the gold, we owe a debt of gratitude to Coach K for returning the US to Olympic glory. Regardless of the final outcome on the court, Coach K can be credited for returning honor and dignity to the US program.

Let's hope that the US not only wins the gold in Beijing, but that the manner in which the 2008 team has conducted their business serves as a role model for future US teams.

Go USA!

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As Tiburon Goes, So Goes California

Tiburon facts:

- population: 8666

- County: Marin

- area: 13.2 square miles

- name derivation: from Spanish word for shark

- # restaurants: 18

NPR was recently talking with the founder and CEO of BanTransFat.com, Stephen L. Joseph. His story begins simple enough. He served as an attorney and lobbyist in his early career. His step-father died from a heart attack in 2001 at the age of 73. Joseph came to find that the doctors believe that a diet high in trans fat contributed to his step-father's death. His journey to rid the world of trans-fat was ignited from this event.

The tactics and tenacity of Joseph and his team are profound. At the time of his tran fat free campaign, the public awareness of the health dangers of trans fat were close to zero. Joseph changed that by targeting America's most-beloved cookie - the Oreo. He filed a lawsuit against Kraft in 2003 to eliminated trans fat from the Oreo. This lawsuit instantly catapulted the trans fat issue into the public's consciousness. Joseph was mocked, threatened, and villified for his "frivilous" lawsuit. As doctors and scientists began to dive into the health consequences of trans fat, it became evident that trans fat did have a direct correlation to heart disease. Kraft must have realized the potential public relations disaster this lawsuit would create, and decided to take the high road. Kraft elected to take the initative and removed trans fat from the Oreo. By December 20, 2005 Kraft announced that it had eliminated trans fat from 650 of its products, leaving less than 2.5% of its products requiring an FDA label warning of the use of trans fat.

In 2004, Joseph led the initiative to ban the use of trans fat in restaurants in Tiburon. Why Tiburon? Perhaps because Stephen Joseph moved to Tiburon in 2003. So what can a ban of trans fat in a city with 18 restaurants do? Quite a bit is seems. After reading about the Tiburon city ban, Joseph received a call from a city official with a few more restaurants than Tiburon. New York City officials called Joseph to see if he might be able to institute a similar ban in their own little city - population 8,274,527.

The New York City trans fat ban took effect July 1, 2008. Not to be outdone, California decided to get into the discussion. Governor Arnold Swartzenegger signed the bill to ban trans fat in restaurants on July 26, 2008. The legislation takes effect July 1, 2009.

The importance of writing the legislation for the Tiburon ban by Joseph is important to understand. If he had tried to go directly to New York City of even the State of California first, the amount of time, effort, and cost he would have had to exert to get any movement would have been significant. Modeling the legislation in his home town, no matter how small, created a successful model which eventually scaled to America's most populous city and state. For those trying to change the world, a lesson can be learned. Find a receptive audience and target and work hard to develop a solution that produces a resounding success. The size of the market is less important than the impact on the target audience.